All species › Caryophyllales › Sundew family › Drosera afra
Drosera afra
A Cape rosetted sundew whose status as a species is disputed. Drosera afra was described by Paul Debbert as a larger, pink-flowered relative of D. trinervia. Kew and most recent lists, however, place the name among the synonyms of D. trinervia; some specialists keep the plant as a separate species.
No photograph of this species under a Creative Commons licence or in the public domain is in the guide yet.
Identification
A rosette larger than that of D. trinervia, with wedge-shaped to spatulate glandular leaves without conspicuous stipules, and pink rather than white flowers. Further reliable measurements from the original description were not available for this text; most measurement fields are therefore left empty.
Similar species
Drosera trinervia is smaller and usually white-flowered; the difference is gradual, which is exactly why D. afra is often not recognised. Drosera aliciae has distinct stipules and a hairy leaf underside.
The trap and how it works
An active flypaper trap as in D. trinervia: stalked glands with sticky droplets, tentacles that bend towards the prey, and digestion by enzymes secreted by the glands.
Habitat and ecology
By analogy with D. trinervia: seasonally wet places in fynbos, seeps and moist fields on nutrient-poor soil (W7, R1, B5). Specific habitat data for plants identified as D. afra were not available.
Distribution and elevation
Cape Provinces of South Africa. A more precise range cannot be given while its delimitation from D. trinervia remains unclear. Altitudinal limits were not found.
Forms and variation
This is first of all a taxonomic problem case. In the 1990s Debbert described a series of new Cape sundews; some were later confirmed, others sunk into synonymy. According to Kew and Wikipedia D. afra belongs to the second group, though not according to every specialist. This guide gives the name its own page because it appears in the working list, but suggests reading it as a large-flowered, pink form within D. trinervia in the broad sense.
Where and when to see it
Anyone who finds a larger, pink-flowered 'trinervia' in the Cape can record it with photographs of rosette, leaf base and flower; such records help to settle the status of this name.
Conservation status
Not assessed for the global IUCN Red List and not listed in CITES. As long as the species is not generally recognised there is no separate national assessment either. Its status and range are therefore uncertain.
Scientific name
Drosera afra | Debbert, 2002
A nomenclaturally unclear case: Drosera afra Debbert was published in Linzer Biologische Beiträge, volume 34, no. 1, p. 794 (2002), but some sources treat it as a valid species while others treat it as a synonym of Drosera trinervia Sprengel (1820, in "Neue Entdeckungen im ganzen Umfang der Pflanzenkunde", volume 1, p. 298). This guide does not adopt either position without qualification and states the uncertainty explicitly. The precise type locality for D. afra Debbert could not be established. The possible older synonym D. trinervia occurs from Namaqualand (Northern Cape) to Agulhas (Western Cape), and also in KwaZulu-Natal and Lesotho, at 15-2200 m elevation. "Afra" is Latin for "African, of Africa" — a plausible but not source-confirmed explanation. Should this name refer to the older D. trinervia: that name comes from the Latin tri- ("three") and nervus ("vein, nerve") and refers to the three veins visible on the underside of the leaf, especially when dried.
World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP), via Plants of the World Online (POWO), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.