Drosera stipularis — Vorstman's Guide to the Carnivorous Plants

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

Identification

A small rosette about 2.5 cm across that over the years comes to stand on a slender stem of dead old leaves, up to some 2 cm tall. The plant is usually bright red, or red with olive-green undertones. The petioles are flat and slightly tapering, sparsely hairy above and densely covered with white branched hairs beneath; the round blade is folded downwards relative to the stalk. Prominent white stipules stand up at the leaf bases. The inflorescence reaches 13 cm, has glabrous peduncles and carries up to 35 white flowers about 1 cm across with obovate petals.

Similar species

According to its authors the species is allied to Drosera petiolaris and D. lanata. It differs in its slender stem, downward-folded blade, glabrous peduncles and above all its conspicuously erect white stipules. D. paradoxa also forms a stem, but it reaches 30 cm and that species grows far away, in the Kimberley and the Northern Territory. D. burmannii, which may occur in the same region, forms a flat rosette of wedge-shaped leaves without long stalks.

The trap and how it works

An active flypaper trap. The small, downward-folded blades carry glandular tentacles with sticky mucilage; small insects crawling on the sand or flying low get caught, after which the tentacles bend towards the prey. The dense white hairs on the stalks and the stipules play no part in trapping but probably protect the plant against desiccation and heat.

Habitat and ecology

Small, sparse patches of fine quartz sand (D1) in shrubby heathland (B5), in places that become damp in the rainy season (W7). According to its authors the species is known only from white-sand habitats.

Distribution and elevation

Endemic to Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, in the Cooktown area. Precise sites are deliberately not given here, because this is a recently described species with a small known range. The range description 'Queensland' is correct but broad. Altitudinal limits are not published in the sources consulted; the elevation field is left empty.

Recorded (one-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 2 one-degree squares — roughly a hundred and ten kilometres — in which the species has been recorded, from all GBIF records. This is coarser than for most species because hardly any record of this plant carries an accurate coordinate: the locality of poached species is obscured at source. At this scale that obscuring disappears into the noise. The cells show where it has been seen, not where it occurs: an empty square means nothing.

Forms and variation

No varieties are recognised. According to its authors fourteen species of the D. petiolaris complex are recognised in tropical northern Australia, all in section Lasiocephala, characterised by white hairs on the petioles. Older records of D. petiolaris or D. lanata from around Cooktown may refer to this species.

Where and when to see it

Search in the wet season and early dry season for patches of bare white sand between the heath shrubs. The bright red, small rosettes with their white stipules stand out sharply against the white sand. The sites are small and fragile: do not walk over them, take nothing away, and do not enter Aboriginal land or protected areas without permission.

Conservation status

The species has not been assessed for the global IUCN Red List and is not listed in CITES. Its known range is small, and the patches of white sand on which it grows are sensitive to trampling, vehicles, changes in fire regime and sand extraction. Because the species was described only recently, a formal assessment of its conservation status is still lacking.

Scientific name

Drosera stipularis | Baleeiro, Jobson & Barrett, 2020

Drosera stipularis is a recently described species, published in 2020 by Baleeiro, Jobson & R.L.Barrett in the journal Telopea, volume 23, p. 36. The holotype was collected on 13 April 2016 by R.W. Jobson and P.C. Baleeiro in Australia, in Queensland (Cape York Peninsula, Cook district), at the locality "Starcke, on track to Cape Melville". The name stipularis derives from Latin stipula ("stipule") and refers to the conspicuous stipules that are a distinguishing feature of this species. It is thus a descriptive name, not an eponym or a toponym.

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