Drosera cistiflora individuals bearing more than one red
flower along their flowering stem.
sondouw) is a robust, evergreen,
herbaceous sundew with somewhat
well-developed roots. The woody,
rhizomatous stem of this species is
very short, scarcely appearing above
the ground. Long (to 15cm) congested, stalked leaves rise from the
base of the stem. A long (to 25 cm)
flowering stalk or inflorescence arises from the stem bearing as many
as thirty pink to reddish-purple or
mauve flowers (20-30 mm in diameter) from December to January.
The flowers are borne close together and the inflorescence characteristically nods above the base of the
single open flower. Drosera capensis is very common in the southwestern Cape in marshes or along
permanent seepages in mountain
fynbos areas.
Drosera
cistiflora (rose-flowered
sundew, sondouw, snotrosie) is a
larg er, but soft, weakly erect sundew growing to about 20 cm in
height. The stem is unbranched
and bears long (to 4 cm) stalkless
leaves, which occur alternately on
the flowering stem. From August
to September, large (30-40 mm in
diameter) white, creamy yellow,
pale rose-pink, mauve, purple or
red flowers are borne at the tip of
the stem. Flowers are solitary, or
several may occur laterally along
the flowering stem; when there are
A D. cistiflora individual bearing a solitary pale, rosepink flower.
several, the flowers typically open
one at a time. The flowers of D.
cistiflora have a characteristic darkgreen centre. The species is commonly found growing on dry flats
and on sandy, often well drained
hillsides or temporary seepages in
fynbos areas.
Drosera trinervia (small sundew,
klein sondouw) is a common yet
inconspicuous sundew because of
its diminutive size. Similar to D.
aliciae, the species produces a rosette of short (to 10 mm) stalkless
leaves that are wedge to spoonshaped. During their flowering period from August to November, a
leafless stem up to 10 cm arises
from the middle of the leaf rosette
bearing as many as ten small (10-16
mm in diameter) white (mostly),
pink, mauve to red flowers. The
species is especially common in
damp, peaty, exposed habitats on
flats and mountain slopes among
fynbos vegetation, and occasionally
on damp rock ledges. Drosera trinervia and D. cistiflora are both tuberous, dying down and becoming
dormant in summer and then
sprouting and growing again with
the advent of the winter rains.
A strange feature of sundews,
which does not occur in too many
plants, is that the flowers open only
one at a time, usually in bright sun-
light, and then only for a few
hours. In mountainous areas the
flowering time is often until just
after midday when the angle of the
sun casts a shadow over them. Pollination therefore occurs mostly
under bright light conditions, and
then only for as many days as there
are flowers on the inflorescence.
The flowers of Drosera species are
all bisexual, bearing both male and
female parts and self-pollination is
common and often the only form
of pollination. Ironically, pollination by insects, their very prey, also
occurs. Vegetative propagation is
also common in Drosera species.
Drosera capensis, for example,
sprouts new plants from its woody
rhizomatous stem; sexual reproduction is thus not essential. Vegetative propagation is so well established in this species that often long
chains or clumps of plants can be
found.
There has been much debate about
the ecological and evolutionary status of these plants. An early theory
was that sundews are essentially
primitive plants because it was argued that an insectivorous habit
evolved early in the history of flowering plants. Their mostly poor root
development meant that they were
unable to effectively absorb essential elements from the soil and that