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Drosera
Also called Sundew, Catch Fly, Dew Threads, Wahu
Drosera is a large genus of carnivorous plants, with at least 194 species, that trap insects on sticky glandular leaf hairs to supplement poor soil nutrients. Most grown members need bright light, constantly moist soil, and mineral-free water.
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.
Charles Darwin performed much of the early research into Drosera, engaging in a long series of experiments with Drosera rotundifolia, which were the first to confirm carnivory in plants. In an 1860 letter, Darwin wrote, "...at the present moment, I care more about Drosera than the origin of all the species in the world".
The range of the sundew genus stretches from Alaska in the north to New Zealand in the south. The centres of diversity are Australia, with roughly 50% of all known species, and South America and southern Africa, each with more than 20 species. A few species are also found in large parts of Eurasia and North America. These areas, however, can be considered to form the outskirts of the generic range, as the ranges of sundews do not typically approach temperate or Arctic areas. Contrary to previous supposition, the evolutionary speciation of this genus is no longer thought to have occurred with the breakup of Gondwana through continental drift. Rather, speciation is now thought to have occurred as a result of a subsequent wide dispersal of its range. The origins of the genus are thought to have been in Africa or Australia.
The corms of the tuberous sundews native to Australia are considered a delicacy by Indigenous Australians. Some of these corms were also used to dye textiles, while another purple or yellow dye was traditionally prepared in the Scottish Highlands using D. rotundifolia. A sundew liqueur is made using fresh leaves from mainly D. capensis, D. spatulata, and D. rotundifolia.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Drosera by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
