Drosera spilos — Vorstman's Guide to the Carnivorous Plants

Drosera spilos — the flower — **The flower** · Photo: Kevin Thiele from Perth, Australia — CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Identification

A pygmy sundew with the build typical of the group: a small rosette of stalked round blades with tentacles around a bud of stipules, from which a slender inflorescence rises. The epithet is the Greek spilos, 'spot'; which spotted character it refers to is not stated in the sources consulted. Flower colour, flowering time and measurements were not found either; all measurement fields are left empty.

Similar species

Without published characters, no reliable distinction from related pygmy sundews can be given here. Use the key in Lowrie (2013) and look at the stipule bud, hairiness, stigmas and any spots on flower or leaf, to which the name seems to point.

The trap and how it works

An active flypaper trap in miniature. Each leaf blade, often no larger than a pinhead to a few millimetres, carries stalked glands on its margin and upper surface, each holding a glistening sticky droplet; the marginal tentacles are usually the longest. A small animal that touches the droplets sticks fast, after which the tentacles bend towards the centre of the blade and press the prey against the digestive glands. The glands secrete enzymes and absorb nitrogen, phosphorus and minerals from whatever dissolves. Given the scale, the catch consists of the very smallest: springtails, mites, aphids, thrips and minute midges moving over or just above the sandy ground.

Habitat and ecology

Habitat details are not given in the sources consulted. The codes assigned — sand and open heath (D1, B5) — reflect the most common setting of south-west Australian pygmy sundews and are a provisional estimate, not a published observation.

Distribution and elevation

Endemic to south-west Australia. No closer delimitation was found in accessible sources. Altitudinal limits are not published.

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 52 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

Described by N.G. Marchant and Allen Lowrie in 1992 and placed in section Lamprolepis, the pygmy sundews. No subspecies or varieties are recognised. Gemma formation is not specifically recorded for this species in the sources consulted, although it is almost universal in the group.

Where and when to see it

Before a visit, consult FloraBase or a local plant society for flowering time and distribution. For all pygmy sundews: search on sunny mornings in open sand, look closely, and do not step on the open patches where they grow.

Conservation status

Assessed as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List; not listed in CITES. Further data on populations or threats were not found in the sources consulted.

Scientific name

Drosera spilos | Marchant & Lowrie, 1992

Drosera spilos was described in 1992 by Neville G. Marchant and Allen Lowrie, published in Kew Bulletin, volume 47: 327. The holotype (PERTH 2344815) was collected by Allen Lowrie on 20 October 1985, along the Bindoon–Moora Highway, 0.6 km south of Gillingarra, in Western Australia. The name is derived from Greek "spilos" (spot, stain), referring to the dark markings at the base of the petals.

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