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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 (an autonym), D. peltata subsp. auriculata, D. foliosa (also as D. peltata var. foliosa) and D. gracilis (also as D. peltata var. gracilis).
Drosera peltata is one of the easiest tuberous Drosera to cultivate, a characteristic that is attributed to its forgiving nature when it comes to water and temperature. The tuberous Drosera typically require wet, cool winters, which is their active growing season, and warmer, nearly bone-dry summers or the dormant tubers will rot. Drosera peltata can withstand wetter summers.
Drosera peltata is commonly found growing on frost free open flats with light scrub, in areas of regenerating forest, on grassy verges and roadside cuttings. The soil type these plants are found in is mainly soft fine clay or peaty, sand soils, which, while wet in winter, dry out over summer. This species has a large range and various forms occur naturally in southern, eastern and south-west Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand (in Northland) as well as south-east Asia and India.
Scented Sundew · Drosera acaulis · Drosera adelae · Peninsula Sundew · Slender Leaved Sundew · White Sundew · Drosera albonotata · Australian sundew · Pygmy Sundew · Drosera amazonica · Drosera andersoniana · Drosera androsacea
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Drosera peltata by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
