Sundews
Drosera, usually famous as the sundews, encompasses one of the biggest varieties of carnivorous plants, having over 194 species. The members of the Droseraceae family attract, arrest, and absorb insects through stalked mucilaginous glands spread over the surface of their leaves. The insects go to enrich the meager mineral nutrition of the soil wherein they grow. You can see a variety of these species, having a large variety of form and size growing natively on all continents but in Antarctica.
Sundew Quick Facts
| Common name | Sundew |
| Scientific name | Drosera |
| Kingdom | Plantae |
| Phylum | Tracheophyta |
| Class | Magnoliopsida |
| Order | Caryophyllales |
| Family | Droseraceae |
| Type | Carnivorous plant with sticky, tentacle-like leaf hairs |
| Diet | Carnivore: insects caught in sticky mucilage |
| Habitat | Sunny, acidic bogs, marshes and fens |
| Native range | Every continent except Antarctica |
| Size | Rosettes from 0.4 to 39 inches tall |
| Special feature | Over 190 species; half are in Australia |
| Kingdom | Plantae (Plants) |
| (Unranked) | Angiosperms |
| (Unranked) | Eudicots |
| (Unranked) | Core Eudicots |
| Order | Caryophyllales |
| Family | Droseraceae |
| Genus | Drosera |
Distribution
The variety of the sundew genus extends from Alaska in the north to New Zealand in the south. It is in Australia that you find the dense concentration of these species, accounting for nearly fifty percent of all known varieties, with South America and southern Africa, each having over 20 species. Large parts of Eurasia and North America also account for a few varieties
Anatomy
Most sundews are perennial, though rare varieties are annual. These herbaceous plants form prostrate or straight rosettes with heights varying from 0.4 to 39 inches, depending on the variety. The climbing variety appears in the form of mixed-up stems that can reach a height of ten feet as happens with D. Erythrogyne.
Habit
You can specify the species under among many forms of growth, including Temperate Sundews, Pygmy Sundews, Subtropical Sundews, and the Petiolaris complex.
Reproduction
Many types of sundews are self-productive as their flowers often self-pollinate upon closing. In some species, vegetative reproduction crops up naturally producing stolons, and in some other species, the reproduction happens when roots reach closer to the soil surface.
Habitat
Sundew plant Drosera normally grows in seasonally moist habitats or places that are not continually wet, where the soil has acidic content and the levels of sunlight are high. Accordingly, you can find them in the swamps, marshes, fens, bogs and moist steam banks in the wallums of coastal Australia (an ecosystem of coastal south-east Queensland, extending into north-eastern New South Wales), the tepuis of Venezuela (table-top mountain) and the fynbos of South Africa(in the Western Cape of South Africa)
Trap Mechanism
Glandular tentacles with sticky secretions covering their laminae, characterize the sundews.
The trapping mechanism uses the stalked glands secreting the sweet mucilage that serves the triple function of attracting the insect, ensnaring them and providing the enzymes to aid the digestion process. The sessile glands help to absorb the broken down nutrients.
The sweet secretions of the peduncular glands attract small prey that includes insects. Immediately on contact, the sticky mucilage entraps the prey and prevents its progress or escape. Finally, either exhaustion or asphyxiation causes the death of the prey in about 15 minutes as their spiracles clog on the mucilage.
Digestion
The enzymes protease, phosphatase, peroxidase and esterase, secreted by the plant dissolve the insect and liberate the nutrient soup that the leaf surfaces then absorb to help promote the plant growth.
As a medicinal plant
Sundew tea has traditionally been used by herbalists for coughs and bronchial complaints.
As ornamental plants
The sheer beauty of their shining traps and the attractiveness of its carnivorous nature have endeared this species to many as ornamental plants. However, growers must bear in mind that cultivating these plants domestically takes some care and attention, and obtaining some of these carnivorous plants commercially is a difficult proposition.
Tips for Domestic Cultivation
With sufficient knowledge and effort, you can grow sundew at home. Please check on the following requirements:
Pots
Using pots of glazed tiles or plastic is best for the plants that need to grow to a root depth of four to six inches
Substrate
Long-fibered sphagnum or peat moss mixed with silica sand is the best substrate for this plant, because the higher nitrogen content in potting soil is deadly to them.
Lighting
Provide fluorescent lights for the healthy growth of your sundews
Food
Proper food is a vital cog in the fast development of your sundew plants. Feed them with fish food pellets or live insects like flightless fruit flies. You can also feed them bloodworms (freeze-dried).
Sundew FAQs
How do sundews catch insects?
Sundew leaves are covered in sticky, sweet-tasting drops. An insect sticks to them, and in about 15 minutes it is dead from exhaustion or from its breathing holes clogging up. The plant then dissolves it and absorbs the nutrients.
Where do sundews grow?
Sundews grow on every continent except Antarctica, from Alaska to New Zealand. They like sunny, wet, acidic places such as bogs, marshes and fens. Australia has nearly half of all kinds.
How many kinds of sundew are there?
There are more than 190 species of sundew in the genus Drosera. They come in many shapes and sizes.
What do you feed a sundew at home?
You can feed a sundew fish food pellets, live flightless fruit flies, or freeze-dried bloodworms. It also needs a nitrogen-poor soil mix, such as sphagnum or peat moss with silica sand.
Can sundews reproduce on their own?
Yes. Many sundews pollinate their own flowers as they close. Some also spread by growing runners or new shoots from their roots.
Randi Jones is the owner and founder of the Nature Gift Store, an online retailer specializing in nature-themed gifts, educational science projects, live animal nature kits and real butterfly artwork. A biology graduate who fell in love with insects, she founded the company in 2001 to make active learning about nature fun, accessible and engaging for children and adults. Her store offers real butterfly frames, home and garden decor and educational live animal kits, including ant farms, worm farms, tadpoles, ladybugs and hermit crabs, and she runs a bug museum in Washington featuring live animals like Eddie the Iguana alongside other reptiles and insects.
