Back at work and confined to the four walls of my office again I needed to get out this weekend and decided to do another 'rekkie' for some more local Cp's.
I spent the day at a mountain side close to where I live and found quite a few areas with a good population.
It was a great time to hunt for plants as most of them are flowering at the moment.
Again I am not good at identifying drosera and there are some pics of Utrics which I am not even sure if they are the "real deal" so please feel free to widen my horizon by helping with ID's.
The quality of the pics is still not great but I think it will do.








I could not get a closeup of this plant but I think it could be an Utricularia


Could this be an Utric?


These were growing in abundance at the foot of the mountain.




Utric or not?


Sorry for not being able to identify the plants in the pics I post - most people that do know what they are looking at -
I am still learning about taxonomy and hopefully I will get better with it soon

Some lovely Drosera there, I'll leave it to others to ID. The first Utricularia, yellow one, does seem to be one. The next two not. Very pretty though...

Interesting pictures, thanks for sharing them.
I am no big expert, but i have my guesses: First sundew reminds me D. burmanii the most (but only that bigger one in the center of the photo).
When i saw second sundew for the first time, i told myself "D. rotundifolia", but then i thought - Swaziland? D. rotundifolia? I don`t think, that it grows there. It is probably just very nice specimen of sundews from the third photo. And my guess is D. burkeana (and i must admit, that this tip i searched on CP Photofinder).
That fuzzy flower of Utricularia on the 6th picture could be U. subulata. I think i see even a few of subulata-looking leaves on the ground.
The rest of the photos doesn`t contain CPs in my opinion. Nice plants, but not utrics i think.
I hope, some real expert will look on your pictures and tells if my guesses are right or not.

Hi Nadja,
If they have leaves along the flower scape that rises from the ground, they are very unlikely to be Utrics. Utrics can have what are called bracts (highly reduced, scale-like leaves, virtually invisible) on the scape, but not leaves (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

Thanks for your replies.

Gardenofeden: I thought it might not be. The leaves looked similar to some Utricularia species but as you say still nice to look at.

Zlatokrt: When I first saw the Drosera in pic 3 I also thought it looked a bit like a D.burmannii but hopefully the experts out there will help with a correct ID.

MFS: thanks for explaining on what to look out for when trying to identify Utricularia.
I have been looking on the internet for some information on taxonomy of carnivorous plants but could not find much - maybe I have not been searching for the right thing.
Can anyone recommend any books or material on the subject?

Lastly here are some pics of what I think could possibly be Sphagnum truncatum:

Well, for Utricularia, the best is definitelly Taylors monograph on genus Utricularia. For sundews it is worse, last monograph (so far i know) is over 100 years old (from Diels) and much information have been changed since then.

For identifying species (all genera) is quite good CP Photofinder (http://www.cpphotofinder.com/), but you probably know the site. There are photos of species and sometimes even some useful notes. Basic useful informations are in almost every book about growing CPs, like Savage garden (even on Google books: http://books.google.cz/books?id=u4w7gntx2l...q=&f=false), or Growing Carnivorous plants (http://books.google.cz/books?id=OpSbAQAACA...plants&cd=1) and many, many others.

You can probably check for flora of Swaziland, if there is any. Or flora of South Africa could be very useful for you, they would be available at least in universities and museums.

Or are you searching for books about CPs worldwide? In Australia, it is definitly "Carnivorous plants of Australia" Vol. I-III, for New Zealand "Carnivorous plants of New Zealand", for North America and Canada (suprisingly) "Carnivorous plants of the United States and Canada". There is also a book "Bladderworts of India". I have noticed somewhere an excellent article about Nepenthes, it seems that it was a monograph on them too, but i am not concerned in growing Nepenthes and i do not watch a literature about them much. Can`t remember, where it was.
Books from Stewart McPherson are also good, but there are not all CPs, only some interesting species (but it is quite enough too ). And if you are looking for some particular species, just try search on CPUK, many information can be found here too.

BTW: i do not think, this is moss is Sphagnum. It is nice species, but Sphagnum looks different. This reminds me other mosses, but i know only mosses from Europe (and this is more similar to Aulacomnium or Leucobryum than to Sphagnum).

I hope, something from this will help you (and i am sorry for that long post, i do not know on what level do you want to learn about taxonomy of CPs...)
Adam

there is a Flora of Southern Africa (incl Swaziland) from 1970 of which I have an extract. Going by that, your smaller Drosera could be dielsiana.

As the species currently in cultivation grown as D. dielsiana is reputedly merely a form of D. natalensis, it would be very interesting to know if this species is the true D. dielsiana.

Really? This is interesting, they have never looked similar to me But if that small plant is D. dielsiana, then usual "D. dielsiana" plants are different from it. But even my D. natalensis (alias spec. Chimanimani Mts. and "D. coccicaulis") is really different from plants, which i call D. dielsiana. That would mean greater mess in this group, then i thought, that there is...

Your moss looks too small to be Sphagnum. The Sphagnum species I have seen from Europe and Australia are amongst the biggest mosses you find, with each individual growth having a diameter of 1-2 cm, at least.
M

Thanks for all of your replies!

Zlatkro: Thanks for the extensive info on reading material! I am interested in Cp's worldwide. Obviously I won't be able to
learn about all of them but I would like to know more on how to identify them and if possible to be able to tell them apart.

Gardenofeden: Thanks for that. Your book must be an interesting read. Sometimes there is a second hand book sale in our main mall (yes there are only 2 in Mbabane) as a fundraiser and I have picked up and old book about South African orchids that way amongst other gems. I am sure I'll come across a book about CP's eventually

MFS: I have found about 4 different mosses of which I thought they might be Sphagnum I have ordered some live moss so at least I will know for sure what it looks like when it arrives. Thanks for pointing this out!

I went back to the site yesterday to take some closeups of the yellow Utricularia and I have actually found a second one climbing up the grass stalks. I will post some pics later.

Nadja

Here are some photos of the 2 Utricularia I found growing in a small stream along side bare rock face as shown in the first pic below.
They seem to like to be submerged as I could not find any on drier ground.
Fuzzy again but good enough to ID them.

It looks much steeper than it really is

Hello,

I am sorry that I missed this interesting topic so far (thanks to Alexander Fisch for pointing it out to me! ;)).

Nadja, once again thank you for sharing your beautiful photos with us!

The first Drosera to me is the most spectacular one, because it is a small species that is not described so far! It is widely grown amongst CP enthusiasts at least here in Europe, under various names (eg. D. sp. "4 South Africa"). It is a tiny species of close affinity to the D. natalensis-complex, but differs in enough characters to deserve being considered a new distinct species. A friend of mine is currently working on that taxon, which grows in northern South Africa (N of Johannesburg) and apparently even in Swaziland.

The other photos show Drosera burkeana.

The yellow Utricularia indeed is U. subulata.

And the white-flowered Utricularia in your last photo (3rd post) is a very rare find: U. appendiculata. Did you noticed the twining scapes of this plant in the field? ;)

The blue flowered plant is not a CP, but one of the many species of Lobelia (Campanulaceae, the bell-flower family, formerly considered to be member of a distinct family). There are many species of annual Lobelia, which are often found growing on outcrops and wet inselbergs, and I found them in almost every tropical African CP habitat. The non-flowering plant you thought to be a Utricularia is a Lobelia, too.

I can only second that the moss is not a Sphagnum sp. at all, but most likely a species of Leucobryum.

@Sean: Drosera dielsiana is indeed apparently not in cultivation. All plants that are currently grown under that name to my knowledge turn out to be D. natalensis.

All the best,

Andreas

Hi Nadja,

good report with news species, I never saw the first drosera
and this last utricularia.

Thanks for sharing.

Carlos.

Andreas: Thanks for sharing this exciting bit of news! I feel quite honored to have found a 'new species'.
There are so many more places with perfect conditions for Cp's in Swaziland that are worthwhile exploring.
It's a very fascinating hobby and hopefully I will find a few more - new or not.

Carlos: thanks for your comment! I also have not seen those 2 species before but in my case there would be a far lesser likelihood to have come across them.

R-Few of These 'Interesting'-Things Turned-UP HERE in-South-Australia in The Early-1990s One-was Called: "D-sp CAPE-of-GOOD-HOPE" Which-was R-Massive Rossette-species Which-"I" Photographed in-1992 at Brian-DENTONs and-Another-One Similar to-The First-Image of This-Report at The-LATE-Fred-Howell's Residence Which Was Odd-Looking and 'Still' Looks 'Odd' Everytime I-View The-Slide-of-It ... Mainly for The Fact-that The Tentacles Near The Centre-of-The Rosette Stick-UP and Point Directly Towards The-Centre of The Rosette in-R-Characteristic-way.

If-You're 'Interested' I'll I'll Dig-'em-out Project-Them onto The Lounge-Room Wall and Re-SNAP-Them with My Current-Digital, for-You, if-You-Like!!!??? The CAPE-of-Good-Hope species Really 'Caught'-My-Eye Back-Then ... and If-You Haven't 'Seen'-it Before, Perhaps it-Will-You Too???

Thanks, it would be great to see those pics!
Maybe you could digitize them and post them on the forum. I am sure there would be a few other people interested in seeing
photos of those Drosera.

Nadja

I've 'Had'-R-Go-at Making My-Own Slide-Copies ... Just-by Putting The Slides UP-Against The-Camera:

The-Results R-Probably 'Good'-enough for-R Fast-Response Such-as This-Situation.

The-Above-Image is-'Supposedly'-of Drosera-species Affinis: "Cape-of-GOOD-HOPE" Taken Circa APRIL-1992. Plant-Grown-by Brian-DENTON.

I'm 'Still'-Yet to-Hunt-out The Other-Mentioned-Image Taken-at The-LATE Fred-Howell's ... but Other-Images I-'Practised'-with this-Morning and Some-Story that Goes-along With-Them May-Be 'Found' HERE: http://s282.photobucket.com/albums/kk241/R...IVERSE/?start=0

R-Parting-Image for The-Ceph-Lovers Among-You: