Drosera panamensis

No photograph of this species under a Creative Commons licence or in the public domain is in the guide yet.

Identification

A small rosette plant with spatulate leaves densely set with red tentacles, and one or more thin scapes with a few flowers. In shape and size it closely resembles the species of the group around Drosera capillaris. Because reliable measurements and a confirmed flower colour could not be checked, the size fields are left empty.

Similar species

In Central America Drosera capillaris is the most obvious source of confusion; it ranges from the south-eastern United States through Mexico and Central America to northern South America. Drosera cayennensis and Drosera colombiana are also closely related. The distinction rests on details of leaf, stipules, seed and hairs; without comparative material or a recent key a field identification is uncertain.

The trap and how it works

An active flypaper trap. The tentacles catch small insects flying low or walking over the ground, which are then enclosed and digested by the surrounding tentacles. In the damp grasslands the catch consists mainly of gnats, small flies and ants.

Habitat and ecology

Open, wet, nutrient-poor places: boggy acid grasslands and savannas, wet slopes and seepage zones, and also wet ground disturbed by people such as roadsides (B6, W4, H2). Precise data on soil and elevation could not be checked.

Distribution and elevation

Panama; the area column of this guide also speaks of Central America more broadly. Records from other countries, such as Costa Rica or Colombia, could not be confirmed and are uncertain because of the difficult boundary with related species. The endemic field is therefore set to false for now, for want of certainty.

Forms and variation

No varieties are recognised. The position of the species within the group around D. capillaris has not been clarified; a modern revision of the Central and South American members of that group is lacking, and it is conceivable that D. panamensis will merge with a related species on closer study.

Where and when to see it

In the rainy season, roughly May to November, search open wet places in grasslands and along roads in the hills and mountains of Panama. Photograph the whole plant, the scape and the flower, and note elevation and soil; such data are largely missing from the literature.

Conservation status

Not assessed for the global IUCN Red List and not listed in CITES. Almost nothing is known about numbers and trends. Wet grasslands in Panama are under pressure from clearance, cattle ranching and road and building construction. Given the uncertain taxonomy and lack of data, a meaningful assessment is not possible at present.

Scientific name

Drosera panamensis | Correa & Taylor, 1976

Drosera panamensis was described in 1976 by Mireya D. Correa A. and A. Stanley Taylor, published in the Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden. The exact volume and page number could not be confirmed with certainty: the database consulted lists "volume 36, page 390," but that volume number does not appear to match the 1976 publication year, so this is likely an error in the source data. The type was collected by Mireya D. Correa A. on 4 August 1976, in Veraguas Province, Panama, in the area "Región de La Yeguada, Altos de Baltazar y El Veladero." This matches the species' known range, which is recorded only from Panama. The epithet panamensis is a toponym meaning "from Panama." It refers to the country where the type material was collected and where the species has so far been recorded exclusively.

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