Drosera coomallo — Vorstman's Guide to the Carnivorous Plants

Identification

A description of growth form, leaves, flowers and flowering time could not be found in the sources accessible for this guide. The species' position within the genus could not be verified either. All measurement fields are therefore left empty. For recognition the original description in Lowrie's work (2014) is indispensable.

Similar species

The Lesueur sandplain and the adjoining coastal plain hold a large number of sundews, both pygmy and tuberous species. Without a description of D. coomallo no reliable comparison can be made; confusion with other species from this area is likely.

The trap and how it works

Like all sundews the plant catches with an active flypaper trap: stalked glands on the leaf secrete sticky droplets in which small insects become stuck. The tentacles then bend towards the prey and digestive enzymes are secreted. Specific data for this species are lacking.

Habitat and ecology

FloraBase places the species in the Geraldton Sandplains and Swan Coastal Plain bioregions, in the Lesueur Sandplain and Perth subregions. That area is dominated by kwongan: low, open heath and shrubland on poor sand and laterite (B5, D1). A more precise habitat description was not available; the codes are provisional.

Distribution and elevation

Endemic to the south-west of Western Australia, as far as known on the northern sandplains and the adjoining part of the coastal plain north of Perth.

Recorded (one-degree cells)

Distribution based solely on records at GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility), not on TDWG regions — those are often far larger than the actual range. The light halo is the area around a record, the dark core the record itself. The darker cells are 2 one-degree squares — roughly a hundred and ten kilometres — in which the species has been recorded, from all GBIF records. This is coarser than for most species because hardly any record of this plant carries an accurate coordinate: the locality of poached species is obscured at source. At this scale that obscuring disappears into the noise. The cells show where it has been seen, not where it occurs: an empty square means nothing.

Forms and variation

No subspecies or varieties have been described. Because the species was described only in 2014 and has been little studied by others, its boundaries with related species have not yet been tested.

Where and when to see it

In spring, from August to October, the Lesueur area is one of the best places in the south-west to see sundews. Photograph in detail any sundew you cannot place straight away and compare it later with the original description. Lesueur National Park has roads and paths; keep to them, as the heath is vulnerable to trampling and to the spread of plant disease on shoes and tyres.

Conservation status

The IUCN code in this guide is Least Concern (LC); FloraBase lists the species as not threatened. Not in CITES. Much of the Lesueur plateau is protected, but the surrounding kwongan has been affected by clearing and by the root-rot pathogen Phytophthora cinnamomi. The source base for this text is very thin: Lowrie's original description (2014) is the only good source and could not be consulted for this guide.

Scientific name

Drosera coomallo | Lowrie & Conran, 2013

Described by Lowrie & Conran, in "Carnivorous Plants of Australia Magnum Opus", volume 3, p. 1269 (title page December 2013, published 2014). Holotype (Allen Lowrie no. 2478, 27 September 2000) at PERTH. Coomallo telephone exchange, Marchagee Track, Western Australia. Named after the place Coomallo, the type locality — consistent with Lowrie & Conran's usual toponymic naming pattern, though an explicit etymological statement was not found in a source.

World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP), via Plants of the World Online (POWO), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.