Sarracenia flava var. rubricorpora Liberty Co, FL — various un-lettered clones + selective-breeding pheno hunt

Mike's mass-cultivation tray of un-lettered Liberty Co rubricorpora selections + the documentation of Mike's multi-year pheno-hunt for atropurpurea-tendency individuals within rubricorpora seed batches. Functions as the experimental-cultivation parent doc for the Liberty Co rubricorpora program.

Selective-breeding pheno-hunt framework

Mike's documented method (posts #25, #27, #29, 2023-2025):

Cross best rubricorpora × best rubricorpora parents
Start massive seed batches (1000+ seedlings)
Heavy early cull: ~40% of batch are rugelii/'watered-down rubricorpora'/ornata segregants
Keep only red-bodied individuals
Multi-year wait for atropurpurea-tendency expression
Require undisturbed cultivation for full color
Result: several hundred surviving individuals from 1000+ start

The 'red-body' variant is genetically unstable without selective pressure. Mike's framework demonstrates that pre-existing wild rubricorpora populations contain latent atropurpurea-tendency genetics that can be selected for in cultivation.

Standout traits

**3 separate Liberty Co rubricorpora populations in Mike's collection** (post #16, 2019) — different bloom/leaf-out timing across the populations; environment vs genetics influence not yet disentangled

**Lid color reliably ages from yellow to red** (Mike, post #19+20, 2019): 'I don't know of a single clone of rubricorpora from Liberty Co, FL that doesn't have the lid color up as the trap ages' — that pristine yellow lid you see is freshly opened only

**Selection pressure for ease-of-coloring**: Mike (post #19, 2019) only divides plants that color up easily; distribution stock is biased toward easy-coloring variants

**Pheno hunt for atropurpureas in progress** — Mike (post #25, 2023) documented heavy culling of seedlings; goal is to find naturally-occurring atropurpurea-tendency individuals within rubricorpora seed batches. Post #29 (2025-05) reports >1000 seedlings started, several hundred kept. Confirms variant 'isn't stable' without selective pressure

Some clones can produce winter-late traps unusually — Mike's post #21 (2019-10) found a still-trapping plant after the rest had crisped and gone dormant

Cultivation

Outdoor Northern California; mass-cultivation in trays.
Pheno-hunt cultivation framework (Mike, post #25, 2023; post #29, 2025): start huge seedling batches (1000+); heavy cull early on for rugelii/'watered-down rubricorpora'/ornata segregants (often 40%+ of batch); keep only red-bodied individuals; multi-year wait for atropurpurea-tendency to express; require undisturbed cultivation for full color
calen's polycarbonate-light-diffusion hypothesis (post #18, 2015) applies broadly to color reproducibility variance
Phyllodia retention + cement mixing tub root space are the standard Mike rubricorpora cultivation interventions

Photos (27)