Carnivorous plants prefer nutrient poor soils due to their advantage to absorb nutrients through foliar absorption. The endangered species Mountain Sweet Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia rubra ssp. jonesii) inhabits increasingly scarce Southern Appalachian wetlands, and characterizing current soil conditions will allow for detection of nutrient shifts and provide a better understanding of the traits a site would possess in order for Sarracenia to thrive. Soil organic carbon was determined by loss-on-ignition method, and percentage of sand, silt, and clay and soil pH were determined by standard methods. Base cations were quantified via Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. At McClure’s fen, organic carbon and CEC appeared to have increased since the data collected in a similar study in 2000, although the values were found to be not statistically different when a Student’s t-test was applied. The average pH at the 0-16 cm depth was lower in 2016 than in 2000, with values of 4.37 and 4.52, respectively. Texture analysis demonstrated that pitcher plants prefer sandy, loamy soils rather than clay.
