All species › Caryophyllales › Sundew family › Drosera cendeensis
Drosera cendeensis
The only sundew of the Venezuelan Andes, and one of the most threatened on the continent. Drosera cendeensis was described in the mid-twentieth century by Francisco Tamayo and Léon Croizat from the páramo of Cendé, and grows only in a small area of north-western Venezuela. In the 2016 revision of the Andean sundews the authors proposed treating it as critically endangered, partly because the plant is collected on a large scale for use in folk medicine.
No photograph of this species under a Creative Commons licence or in the public domain is in the guide yet.
Identification
A perennial rosette plant with two kinds of leaves: in the dry season a ring of short basal leaves, in the growing season erect, narrowly spatulate leaves 30 to 140 mm long. Young leaves are coiled at the tip, a character the species shares with its closest Andean relatives. The stipules are 4 to 7, sometimes 8 mm long and 2 to 3 mm wide. The scape reaches 150 to 250 mm and carries pink flowers. The inflorescence and calyx bear sessile glands and non-glandular hairs.
Similar species
The closest relatives are Drosera peruensis and Drosera condor, both from the Andes of Peru and Ecuador; all three have coiled young leaves, narrowly spatulate leaves and the same combination of sessile glands and ordinary hairs on the inflorescence. No other Andean sundew occurs in Venezuela itself, so confusion within the range is scarcely possible. The somewhat similar Drosera roraimae grows far away on the tepuis of the Guiana Highlands.
The trap and how it works
An active flypaper trap. The long, erect leaves mainly catch flying insects, such as the gnats and small flies moving through the cool, misty climate of the montane forest and subpáramo. The tentacles bend towards the prey and the narrow leaf can partly curl around it.
Habitat and ecology
Peat-rich soils, often covered by carpets of bog moss, in the transition zone between montane forest and páramo, the so-called subpáramo, and in clearings in cloud forest (W1, B4, W4), at 2,300 to 3,200 m. The climate has a pronounced dry period, during which the plant withdraws to its short basal leaves.
Distribution and elevation
Endemic to north-western Venezuela, in the states of Trujillo and Lara, in a small number of páramo areas. Precise localities are not given in this guide because the species is considered critically endangered.
- Recorded (one-degree cells)
Forms and variation
No varieties are recognised. The leaf dimorphism, with short basal leaves in the dry season and long upright leaves in the growing season, is an adaptation to the seasonal climate of the northern Andes. With D. peruensis and D. condor the species forms a small, distinctive group of Andean sundews.
Where and when to see it
A species to search for with restraint. The populations are small and sensitive to trampling and collecting. Anyone hiking in the Venezuelan Andes who comes across the plant should photograph it without stepping on the bog-moss cushions and share the location only with conservationists or researchers.
Conservation status
Not assessed for the global IUCN Red List and not listed in CITES. The authors of the 2016 revision proposed the category critically endangered, on the basis of a very small range and a steep decline through collecting for folk-medicinal use and habitat degradation. Until there is an official assessment the IUCN field stays at not evaluated; the real situation is alarming.
Scientific name
Drosera cendeensis | Tamayo & Croizat, 1949
Described by Tamayo & Croizat in 1949, in Lilloa, volume 17, p. 175. The precise type locality could not be established. The species is endemic to north-western Venezuela. The suffix -ensis indicates a place name; the name possibly refers to the Cerro/Páramo El Cendé in Venezuela, but this could not be confirmed with a source.
World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP), via Plants of the World Online (POWO), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.