All species › Caryophyllales › Sundew family › Drosera hirsuta
Drosera hirsuta
One of the youngest names in the south-west Australian sundew flora. Drosera hirsuta was described by Allen Lowrie and John Conran in Lowrie's three-volume Carnivorous Plants of Australia Magnum Opus, the standard work in which dozens of new Australian species were first named. For this species that original description is practically the only source, and we were unable to consult it; this text is therefore short.
Identification
The epithet means 'shaggy-haired' and refers to a conspicuous hairiness said to separate the plant from its closest relatives. As far as can be established it is a tuberous sundew: a perennial that comes up each year from an underground tuber. We found no measurements of rosette, leaf, stem or flower, nor the flower colour, in any accessible source; those fields are left empty.
Similar species
Because the species was split off only recently, older floras and field guides will include it under another, more broadly defined name. Which one we could not establish. Anyone finding a hairy tuberous sundew in the northern part of south-west Australia needs the key in Lowrie (2013) for a secure identification.
The trap and how it works
An active flypaper trap, as in all sundews: stalked glands on the leaf carry sticky droplets, catch small insects and bend towards the prey after contact, after which digestive enzymes are secreted and nutrients absorbed.
Habitat and ecology
We found no specific habitat data. The range runs through the sandplains, heath and open woodland of the northern part of south-west Australia, and the codes are based on that general picture, not on a published habitat description (B5, D1, W7). Like all tuberous sundews the plant grows in the wet winter and survives the dry summer as a tuber.
Distribution and elevation
Endemic to south-west Australia. FloraBase lists the Avon Wheatbelt, Geraldton Sandplains, Jarrah Forest, Swan Coastal Plain and Yalgoo bioregions, with the Edel, Geraldton Hills, Katanning, Lesueur Sandplain, Merredin, Northern Jarrah Forest and Perth subregions: a wide area from the coast near Shark Bay and Geraldton to the northern Darling Range and the western Wheatbelt.
- Recorded (quarter-degree cells)
Forms and variation
No subspecies or varieties have been described. The species is one of many that Lowrie and Conran split off in the Magnum Opus; whether that treatment will be widely followed remains to be seen.
Where and when to see it
Search in winter and early spring, when tuberous sundews are above ground. Without flowers and without the original description at hand a secure identification cannot be expected; a good photograph of stem, leaves and hairs with a scale is then the most useful thing to take home.
Conservation status
On the global IUCN Red List the species is listed as Least Concern (LC); in Western Australia it is also regarded as not threatened. It is not listed in CITES. Uncertainty: apart from distribution and status we could verify nothing in a source; morphology, flower colour and habitat remain open until the original description has been consulted.
Scientific name
Drosera hirsuta | Lowrie & Conran, 2013
Described by Lowrie & Conran, in "Carnivorous Plants of Australia Magnum Opus", volume 3, p. 1271 (2013/2014). On Brand Highway, north of Eneabba, Western Australia. Holotype at PERTH, isotype at MEL; collected by Allen Lowrie (no. 2790) on 12 August 2003. From the Latin hirsutus ("bristly, shaggy-haired") — an obvious descriptive name, though the exact explanation from the describers themselves was not found.
World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP), via Plants of the World Online (POWO), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.