Drosera indumenta — Vorstman's Guide to the Carnivorous Plants

Identification

The epithet derives from the Latin indumentum, the botanical term for a plant's hair covering, and indicates that a particular hairiness is the distinguishing feature. Overviews of Australian sundews place the species among the tuberous sundews: perennials that come up each year from an underground tuber. We found no measurements, flower colour or flowering time in any accessible source.

Similar species

Because the species was recently split from a group of related tuberous sundews, older records were probably filed under another name. Which species most resembles D. indumenta we could not establish. A field record cannot be named reliably without the key in Lowrie (2013).

The trap and how it works

An active flypaper trap: the leaves carry stalked glands with a sticky droplet to which small insects stick. After contact the tentacles bend towards the prey, digestive enzymes are secreted and the released nutrients absorbed.

Habitat and ecology

We found no published habitat description. The codes follow the general picture of south-west Australian tuberous sundews, which grow in heath and on sandy soils and survive the dry summer as a tuber (B5, D1). They should be regarded as provisional.

Distribution and elevation

Endemic to south-west Australia. We could not verify a more precise description of the range.

Recorded (quarter-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 16 quarter-degree squares in which the species has actually been recorded, from GBIF and only from records accurate to within five kilometres. They show where it has been seen, not where it occurs: an empty square means nothing. For threatened species this layer never goes finer than a whole degree, deliberately.

Forms and variation

No subspecies or varieties have been described.

Where and when to see it

Tuberous sundews are above ground in the south-west Australian winter and early spring; outside those months there is nothing to see. For this species above all: photograph stem, leaves and hairs close up with a scale, so that a specialist can confirm the identification later.

Conservation status

On the global IUCN Red List the species is listed as Least Concern (LC). It is not listed in CITES. Uncertainty: apart from name, authors and status we could verify nothing in a source. Morphology, habitat and exact distribution remain open until the original description has been consulted.

Scientific name

Drosera indumenta | Lowrie & Conran, 2013

Described by Lowrie & Conran, in "Carnivorous Plants of Australia Magnum Opus", volume 3, p. 1272 (2013/2014). Collected by Allen Lowrie (no. 2856) on 28 September 2003, at Nicholson Road, Yarloop, Western Australia (32°57'40"S, 115°49'49"E); holotype at PERTH, isotype at MEL. Nicholson Road, Yarloop, Western Australia (32°57'40"S, 115°49'49"E). From the Latin indumentum ("covering, clothing") — probably referring to a hairy or glandular-hairy covering on the plant, though this is not literally confirmed in a source.

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