Drosera murfetii — Vorstman's Guide to the Carnivorous Plants

Identification

A perennial rosette from the D. arcturi group, with elongate, strap-shaped leaves. According to the description, the species differs from D. arcturi in that a plant usually carries only one or two true trap leaves with tentacles while the remaining leaves lack tentacles; the plants are also larger, and the scape carries more flowers. Reliable measurements from the original publication could not be consulted for this guide; the size fields have therefore been left empty.

Similar species

The only real confusion is with Drosera arcturi, which is widespread in the Tasmanian highlands. It carries tentacles on almost all leaves, is smaller and usually has one flower per scape. Other Tasmanian sundews, such as D. spatulata, D. pygmaea or the tuberous species, have a quite different leaf shape and cannot be confused.

The trap and how it works

An active flypaper trap, but with a peculiarity: because only some of the leaves carry tentacles, the catching capacity per plant is more limited than in most sundews. The trap leaves work as usual: sticky droplets hold small insects, the tentacles bend towards the prey, and enzymes from the glands digest it. Why the species 'exempts' part of its leaves from catching has not been studied; in related species such a shift has been linked to a cool, wet climate in which photosynthesis matters more than catching scarce prey.

Habitat and ecology

Wet, acid, nutrient-poor sites in western Tasmania: peaty, open vegetation and marshy places, probably comparable to the wet highland bogs where D. arcturi grows (W1, W4). A detailed habitat description from the original publication could not be consulted for this guide; the codes were chosen on the basis of the relationship and the general character of the region and should be read as provisional.

Distribution and elevation

Endemic to Tasmania, and there restricted to the west of the island. It does not occur outside Tasmania. No published altitudinal range was found; the elevation field is left empty.

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 31 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 varieties are recognised. The species is itself the result of splitting the former, broader concept of D. arcturi; in older literature and herbarium collections plants of D. murfetii may therefore be filed under that name.

Where and when to see it

Western Tasmania is rugged, wet and largely uninhabited; much of it falls within the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. Search in summer on open, wet spots along walking routes and look closely at the leaves: only a plant with just one or two sticky leaves among the others is a candidate. Keep to the paths; bog recovers very slowly.

Conservation status

On the global IUCN Red List the species is listed as Least Concern (LC); it is not in CITES. A large part of western Tasmania is protected and little affected by people. Local threats are track erosion, fire in peatlands and, in the longer term, climate change, which may dry out cool, wet highland bogs.

Scientific name

Drosera murfetii | Lowrie & Conran, 2014

Drosera murfetii was described in 2014 by Allen Lowrie and John G. Conran, in the paper "Drosera murfetii (Droseraceae): a new species from Tasmania, Australia", published in the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, volume 27, pp. 7–21. The type material originates from western Tasmania, Australia. The precise locality, collector and collection date of the holotype could not be established with certainty. The epithet is almost certainly an eponym, formed with the suffix "-ii" from the surname Murfet. It likely honours David Murfet, a Tasmanian plant collector closely associated with research on Tasmanian Drosera (the same surname appears among the collectors of the type material of the related Drosera nana). However, the exact person being honoured could not be confirmed with certainty.

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