Drosera walyunga — Vorstman's Guide to the Carnivorous Plants

Drosera walyunga — the habitat — **The habitat** · Photo: yatesy — CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Drosera walyunga — the flower — **The flower** · Photo: Jeremy Jones — CC BY 4.0 · 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. Flower colour, flowering time and leaf and flower measurements are not given in the sources consulted; all measurement fields are left empty.

Similar species

Without published characters, no reliable distinction from related pygmy sundews can be given here. Use an up-to-date key, such as that in Lowrie (2013), and look at the stipule bud, hairiness and stigmas.

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 were not found in the sources consulted. The codes assigned — laterite and open woodland (D3, B6) — are a provisional estimate based on the landscape of the Darling Range and the Avon Valley, to which the name seems to refer, not a published observation.

Distribution and elevation

Endemic to south-west Australia; presumably around the Avon Valley north-east of Perth. No closer delimitation was found in accessible sources. Altitudinal limits are not published.

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 square is the only one-degree cell — 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. It shows where the species has been seen, not where it occurs: an empty square means nothing.

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.

Where and when to see it

Before a visit, consult FloraBase or a local plant society. Walyunga National Park is easily reached from Perth and rich in flowering plants in late winter and spring; look for pygmy sundews in open spots along the paths, and stay on those paths.

Conservation status

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

Scientific name

Drosera walyunga | Marchant & Lowrie, 1992

Drosera walyunga was described in 1992 by Neville Gordon Marchant and Allen Lowrie, published in Kew Bulletin, volume 47(2), page 328. The holotype was collected on 8 November 1984 by A. Lowrie, "on O'Brien Road, ca. 12 km N of Toodyay Road" in southwestern Australia — the area of present-day Walyunga National Park, where the species grows in and around winter-moist springs and seepages. The name walyunga is a toponym: it refers directly to Walyunga National Park in Western Australia, the only known locality where this species occurs.

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