Drosera esperensis — Vorstman's Guide to the Carnivorous Plants

Identification

No description of the plant could be found in the sources accessible for this guide. Growth form, leaves, flowers, measurements and flowering time have not been established, and the species' position within the genus could not be verified either. All measurement fields are therefore left empty. Recognition requires Lowrie's original description (2014).

Similar species

The Esperance Plains are home to many sundews, both pygmy and tuberous species. Without a description of D. esperensis no reliable comparison can be given; confusion with other species from the 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, small insects become entangled, and the tentacles then bend towards the prey and secrete digestive enzymes. Specific data for this species are lacking.

Habitat and ecology

Nothing about the habitat is recorded in the accessible sources. The Esperance Plains are largely covered by low, nutrient-poor heath on sand and quartzite; code B5 is a provisional assignment based on that landscape and should be checked against the original description.

Distribution and elevation

Endemic to the south-west of Western Australia, presumably around Esperance on the south coast, as the name suggests. The species has been in the Western Australian plant census since 2018. A distribution could not be established for this guide; no reachable FloraBase profile was found.

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. Since its description the species has hardly been discussed in other literature, so its boundaries with related species have not yet been tested by others.

Where and when to see it

The heath around Esperance, including Cape Le Grand National Park, is a rich area for sundews in spring. Photograph in detail any sundew you cannot place straight away and compare it later with the original description. The heath is sensitive to the root rot Phytophthora cinnamomi; follow the hygiene rules at park entrances.

Conservation status

The IUCN code in this guide is Least Concern (LC). Not in CITES. 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. This text is therefore deliberately short and contains no measurements.

Scientific name

Drosera esperensis | Lowrie, 2013

Described by Allen Lowrie, in "Carnivorous Plants of Australia Magnum Opus", volume 3, p. 1270 (2013/2014). Collected on 31 August 2000; holotype at PERTH, isotype at MEL. Cape Le Grand, east of Esperance, Western Australia. Named after the town/region of Esperance, Western Australia, near the type locality — a strong inference from the type locality, though not literally confirmed in a source.

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