Drosera rotundifolia (Round-leaved Sundew)
|Also known as:|
|Habitat:||sun; bogs, wet sand|
|Bloom season:||July - August|
|Plant height:||2 to 10 inches|
|MN county distribution (click map to enlarge):|
|National distribution (click map to enlarge):|
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A one-sided raceme of 3 to 25 stalked flowers at the top of a slender naked stem. Flowers are ¼ to 1/3 inch across, with 5 round white (to pinkish) petals, 5 white stamens, single pistil with 3 styles. The 5 green sepals are about as long as the petals. The flowering stem is formed tightly curled and unrolls as flower buds mature, the flowers blossoming in ascending order.
Leaves and stems:
Leaf blades are green to red, round or nearly so, wider than long, 1/8 to 4/10 inch long and ¼ to ¾ inch wide, the upper surface covered with red, sticky tipped glandular hairs that trap insects, the underside smooth. Leaf stalks are flat with fine glandular hairs, green or red, ½ to 2 inches long, attached in a rosette or spaced out alternately on the lower part of the stem when growing in moss. The flowering stem is smooth and slender, typically red.
There are 5 species of Drosera in Minnesota, including 1 hybrid, all of which have more or less the same flower and grow in the same kind of habitat. The shape of the leaf blade is primarily what distinguishes one species from another: Spoon-leaved Sundew (D. intermedia) has spatula shaped blades, English Sundew (D. anglica) and Linear-leaved Sundew (D. linearis) are longer and more narrow. Round-leaved Sundew is circumboreal throughout the northern hemisphere and on the Island of New Guinea in the South Pacific. It is the most common and widespread species in Minnesota but its boggy habitat and size (even in sandier locations) makes it often over looked. A carnivorous plant many people are familiar with it from childhood science classes, but for too many people the fascination with plants ended there.
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Photos by K. Chayka taken at Cedar Creek Natural History Center. Photos courtesy Peter M. Dziuk taken in Aitkin and Isanti counties.
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