Prey items, such as flies, ants, spiders, and even moths or hornets, are then digested by an invertebrate community, made up mostly by the mosquito Wyeomyia smithii and the midge Metriocnemus knabi.

[4] Protists, rotifers (including Habrotrocha rosa), and bacteria form the base of inquiline food web that shreds and mineralizes available prey, making nutrients available to the plant.

[10] Its range includes the Eastern seaboard, the Great Lakes region, all of Canada (except Nunavut and Yukon), Washington state, and Alaska.

[11] That makes it the most common and broadly distributed pitcher plant, as well as the only member of the genus that inhabits cold temperate climates.

[15] The plant has also been recorded in Washington state, Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

[14][16] In Britain and Ireland purple pitcher plant have been introduced into some heather-rich peatbogs and with the mild climate have integrated into the local flora of some specific areas.

[22] It was used as a medicinal plant by Native American and First Nation tribes in its northeastern and Great Lakes distribution ranges, including the Algonquin, Cree, Iroquois, and Mi'kmaq (Micmac) peoples,[23] primarily for use in treating smallpox by means of a root infusion.

The hybrids used in the study, S. x "Juthatip Soper" and S. x "Evendine", were deemed too unselective, but the researchers proposed that trying other pitcher plant species may be more effective.