Sarracenia purpurea var. montana, the mountain variety purple pitcher plant, inhabits mountain bogs and hybridizes with the endangered mountain sweet pitcher plant, S. jonesii. As carnivorous plants, these species rely on trapped prey for nutrients, but do so in different ways, and hybrids are assumed to be less effective at capturing prey. As a result, hybridization between these species may be detrimental to offspring. We examined the effects of hybridization of microorganisms living in pitcher fluid. Communities included but were not limited to rotifers, paramecia and copepods. In addition, we compared patterns in micro and macro communities. Fluid samples containing communities were collected from hybrids and S. purpurea in western NC. Communities were quantified from samples taken from the pitcher plants through physical counting of the samples. It is expected that there will be a larger and more diverse micro-community in S. purpurea than the hybrids due to the differences in morphology. Ongoing work includes the mechanisms by which organisms are more likely to colonize S. purpurea than hybrids, and the behavior of pollinators that leads to cross-pollination.
