Drosera, which is commonly known as the sundews, is one of the largest genera of carnivorous plants, with at least 194 species. These members of the family Droseraceae lure, capture, and digest insects using stalked mucilaginous glands covering their leaf surfaces. The insects are used to supplement the poor mineral nutrition of the soil in which the plants grow. Various species, which vary greatly in size and form, are native to every continent except Antarctica.
Drosera aliciae, the Alice sundew, is a carnivorous plant in the family Droseraceae. It is native to the Cape Provinces of South Africa, like Drosera capensis, the cape sundew, and is one of the most common sundews in cultivation. The plant forms small, tight rosettes of wedge-shaped leaves, up to 5 cm in diameter. Under conditions of good lighting, the insect-snagging tentacles will become deeply coloured with anthocyanin pigments, which probably aid in its attraction of insect prey. The plant is relatively easy to grow, and produces attractive scapes of pink flowers, which are held about 30 cm away from the carnivorous leaves, so as to prevent pollinators from becoming ensnared. D. aliciae is very similar in form to a number of other closely related species such as D. slackii, and D. natalensis: the former is rather larger with a slightly different growth habit(8 cm diameter); the latter has hairier stipules and a larger distance between leaf base and the “sticky” trichomes.
Drosera capensis, commonly known as the Cape sundew, is a small rosette-forming carnivorous species of perennial sundew native to the Cape in South Africa. Because of its size, easy-to-grow nature, and the copious amounts of seed it produces, it has become one of the most common sundews in cultivation, and thus, one of the most frequently introduced and naturalised invasive Drosera species.
Drosera rotundifolia, the round-leaved sundew, roundleaf sundew, or common sundew, is a carnivorous species of flowering plant that grows in bogs, marshes and fens. One of the most widespread sundew species, it has a circumboreal distribution, being found in all of northern Europe, much of Siberia, large parts of northern North America, Korea and Japan but is also found as far south as California, Mississippi and Alabama in the United States of America and in New Guinea.
Drosera spatulata, the spoon-leaved sundew, is a variable, rosette-forming sundew with spoon-shaped leaves. The specific epithet is Latin for "spatula shaped," a reference to the form of the leaves. This sundew has a large range and occurs naturally throughout Southeast Asia, southern China and Japan, Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, eastern Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand. Variants are often known by the localities in which they are found. The plant does not form hibernacula in winter, and is easily grown using the same methods as Drosera capensis.
Drosera regia, commonly known as the king sundew, is a carnivorous plant in the sundew genus Drosera that is endemic to a single valley in South Africa. The genus name Drosera comes from the Greek word droseros, meaning "dew-covered". The specific epithet regia is derived from the Latin for "royal", a reference to the "striking appearance" of the species. Individual leaves can reach 70 cm (28 in) in length. It has many unusual relict characteristics not found in most other Drosera species, including woody rhizomes, operculate pollen, and the lack of circinate vernation in scape growth. All of these factors, combined with molecular data from phylogenetic analysis, contribute to the evidence that D. regia possesses some of the most ancient characteristics within the genus. Some of these are shared with the related Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula), which suggests a close evolutionary relationship.
Drosera peltata, commonly called the shield sundew or pale sundew, is a climbing or scrambling perennial tuberous species in the carnivorous plant genus Drosera. Among the tuberous sundews, D. peltata has the largest distribution, which includes eastern and western Australia, New Zealand, India, and most of Southeast Asia including the Philippines. The specific epithet is Latin for "shield shaped", a reference to the shape of the cauline leaves. It is either a single extremely variable species, or a complex of several closely related species of uncertain taxonomic boundaries. In Australia at least four forms have had or still have specific taxonomic recognition: Drosera peltata subsp. peltata, D. peltata subsp. auriculata, D. foliosa and D. gracilis.
Drosera pedicellaris is a pygmy species of the sundew genus (Drosera). It was discovered in 1997 and described in 2002 by Allen Lowrie. It is endemic to Western Australia.
Drosera anglica, commonly known as the English sundew or great sundew, is a carnivorous flowering plant species belonging to the sundew family Droseraceae. It is a temperate species with a circumboreal range, although it does occur as far south as Japan, southern Europe, and the island of Kauai in Hawaii, where it grows as a tropical sundew. It is thought to originate from an amphidiploid hybrid of D. rotundifolia and D. linearis, meaning that a sterile hybrid between these two species doubled its chromosomes to produce fertile progeny which stabilized into the current D. anglica.
Drosera binata, commonly known as the forked sundew or fork-leaved sundew. It is a large, perennial sundew native to Australia and New Zealand. The specific epithet is Latin for "having pairs" - a reference to the leaves, which are dichotomously divided or forked.
Drosera intermedia, commonly known as the oblong-leaved sundew, spoonleaf sundew, or spatulate leaved sundew, is an insectivorous plant species belonging to the sundew genus. It is a temperate or tropical species native to Europe, southeastern Canada, the eastern half of the United States, Cuba, Hispaniola, and northern South America.
Drosera filiformis, commonly known as the thread-leaved sundew, is a small, insectivorous, rosette-forming species of perennial herb. A species of sundew, it is unusual within its genus in that the long, erect, filiform (thread-like) leaves of this plant unroll in spirals – an arrangement similar to the circinate vernation seen in ferns.
Drosera dielsiana is a compact rosetted sundew native to South Africa, Eswatini (Swaziland), Mozambique, Malawi, and Zimbabwe. It was described as a new species by Arthur Wallis Exell and Jack Rodney Laundon in 1956. The diploid chromosome number is 2n=40. It was named in honor of Ludwig Diels, the author of the 1906 monograph on the Droseraceae.
Drosera slackii is a subtropical sundew native to the Cape Provinces of South Africa. It forms rosettes that range from to two to four inches in diameter, and produces pink flowers. It is named after the British plantsman and author Adrian Slack (1933-2018).
Drosera glanduligera, commonly known as the pimpernel sundew or scarlet sundew, is a species of carnivorous plant endemic to southern Australia. It is an ephemeral annual plant that grows in the winter and flowers from August to November.
Drosera meristocaulis is a perennial species in the carnivorous plant genus Drosera, the only member of the subgenus Meristocaulis. It is a small, rosette- and branched stem-forming sundew that has many morphological affinities to the Australian pygmy sundews. D. meristocaulis is wholly endemic to Pico da Neblina, an isolated mountain on the Brazil-Venezuela border.
Drosera zeyheri is a species in the carnivorous plant genus Drosera that is endemic to the Cape Provinces of South Africa. Some botanists treat this species to be a form of D. cistiflora. It differs from typical D. cistiflora specimens by being smaller, sometimes having cauline leaves on the short stems with white, pink, or red flowers. Botanist Fernando Rivadavia has said that he believes of all the forms and varieties in the D. cistiflora complex, D. zeyheri could possibly merit distinction at the species rank. He found it easy to distinguish it from D. cistiflora by its mostly stemless habit, though it often does present one to three leaves on the flower scape. Drosera zeyheri was first described by Terence Macleane Salter in a 1940 volume of the Journal of South African Botany.
Drosera peruensis is a carnivorous plant of the genus Drosera, commonly known as the Peruvian sundew. This Drosera species was first identified in Peru in 2002 by Tânia Regina dos Santos Silva and Mireya D. Correa following work to update the genus Drosera for the reference text, Flora Neotropica..
Drosera magnifica is a species of sundew endemic to Pico do Padre Ângelo in eastern Minas Gerais in southeastern Brazil, where it grows among sandstone outcrops in herbaceous and shrubby vegetation. It is one of the three largest species of Drosera – the other two being D. regia from South Africa and D. gigantea from Australia – and was discovered in 2015 through images which appeared on the social network Facebook. It is the largest New World sundew, and it is closely related to Drosera graminifolia and Drosera spiralis. According to the IUCN Red List categories and criteria, it is considered Critically Endangered. Brazil is home to some 30 species of Drosera.
Drosera pauciflora is a species of sundew, a carnivorous plant from the genus Drosera. It is native to the Western Cape of South Africa. Drosera pauciflora is closely related to Drosera cistiflora. D.pauciflora produces flowers during the spring on a stem coming out of the centre of the rosette, the flowers are pink.
