CLIMBING SUNDEW

(Drosera macrantha)

(Photos: E. Cousins, Cape Jervis; growth habit, single flower)

Macrantha comes from the Greek ‘macros’ for large and ‘anthos’ for flower, but the ‘large flowers’ here have 5 petals each only 10mm long! However, among the varieties of sundews growing at Cape Jervis, these are pretty large! There are normally only a couple of flowers per plant, clustered on the top of the long, twining stems. In the first picture, they aren’t flowers you can see along the stem, but the leaves! These leaves are cup-shaped, and placed opposite each other. They are covered in fine, soft hairs, with a fringe of longer hairs around the rim of the cup. Sundews are insectivorous; they attract and devour insects using a gooey substance that is exuded by the hairs. This goo glistens, hence ‘drosera’, for dewy!