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Drosera condor
A sundew of the Cordillera del Cóndor, a remote mountain range on the border of Ecuador and Peru that botanically recalls the tepuis of the Guiana Highlands: flat sandstone plateaus with their own, partly endemic flora. Drosera condor was described in 2016 by Paulo Gonella, Andreas Fleischmann and Fernando Rivadavia in a revision of the sundews of the central and northern Andes. The authors proposed treating it as endangered.
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 narrowly spatulate leaves 40 to 70 mm long, the young leaves coiled at the tip. The stipules are triangular, 6.5 to 10 mm long and 2 to 4 mm wide, with characteristic ridges on the lower side. The scape is 90 to 220 mm long and carries light pink to violet-pink flowers. One visitor described the plants in the field as rather scraggly: often only one or two wine-red, dewy leaves surrounded by a ring of black dead leaves.
Similar species
The closest relatives are Drosera peruensis, which grows about 80 km further south, and Drosera cendeensis of the Venezuelan Andes. All three share coiled young leaves and the combination of sessile glands and ordinary hairs on the inflorescence. D. peruensis has shorter leaves of 7 to 14, at most 28 mm, and white to pale pink flowers, and forms upright columns of dead leaves; D. condor has longer leaves and ridged stipules.
The trap and how it works
An active flypaper trap. The long narrow leaves catch small flying and crawling insects in the cool, misty climate of the plateaus. As in all sundews the tentacles bend towards the prey, and the narrow leaf can partly curl around it.
Habitat and ecology
Sandstone plateaus in the form of table mountains, with a mosaic of sclerophyllous scrub and open herbaceous vegetation, at 2,090 to 2,500 m (R5, B5, W4). The plant grows on wet sandy and rocky places, seepage zones and peaty soils, in a landscape of low vegetation on wet sand surrounded by mossy cloud forest and dwarf forest.
Distribution and elevation
Endemic to the Cordillera del Cóndor on the border of Peru (Amazonas region) and Ecuador (Morona-Santiago and Zamora-Chinchipe provinces). Precise localities are not given in this guide because the species is considered endangered.
- Recorded (one-degree cells)
Forms and variation
No varieties are recognised. The species had been collected before but was recognised as new only in the 2016 revision. With D. peruensis and D. cendeensis it forms a small group of Andean sundews that stands apart from all other Neotropical species.
Where and when to see it
The Cordillera del Cóndor is hard to reach and was the scene of a border war between Ecuador and Peru in 1995; landmines remain in parts of the area. Visits should take place only with local guides and permits. Photograph plants without trampling the wet ground, and do not share localities publicly.
Conservation status
Not assessed for the global IUCN Red List and not listed in CITES. The authors of the description proposed the category endangered, on the basis of the small range and habitat degradation. The greatest threat is gold mining, which has increased sharply in the Cordillera del Cóndor, with roads and mining installations close to the plateaus.
Scientific name
Drosera condor | Gonella, Fleischmann & Rivadavia, 2016
Described by Gonella, A. Fleischmann & Rivadavia in 2016, in Plant Systematics and Evolution, volume 302, no. 10, p. 1421 (published online 30 August 2016). Ecuador, Morona-Santiago province, Gualaquiza canton, Campamento Achupalla, Cordillera del Cóndor, about 15 km east of Gualaquiza, at 2090 m elevation. Holotype at QCNE (no. 92866), isotypes at MO (x2), PMA and SPF. Named after the Cordillera del Cóndor, the mountain range where the species grows — itself named after the condor, the great vulture.
World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP), via Plants of the World Online (POWO), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.