Jump to content

A new Drosera species from South Africa


Andreas Fleischmann

Recommended Posts

Hello all,

A new Drosera species has been described from the Cape area of South Africa (the article was printed today, thus that’s a brand-new species! ;))

Drosera ericgreenii A. Fleischm., R.P Gibson et Rivadavia

See: Fleischmann, A., Gibson, R. & Rivadavia, F.: “Drosera ericgreenii (Droseraceae), a new species from the fynbos of South Africa”. Bothalia 38(2): 141-144. (2008).

The article contains a detailed description of the new species, including notes on habitat, ecology and taxonomic affinities. A comparison with its closest relative - D. hilaris - is provided, as well as a b/w-drawing to illustrate D. ercigreenii, a distribution map of D. ericgreenii and D. hilaris. The article includes an identification key for all known stem-forming Drosera species of the Western Cape area.

This new species was named in honour of the South African CP expert Eric Green, who discovered countless localities of carnivorous plants in South Africa, and who originally discovered several new species of Drosera (including D. slackii, D. rubrifolia, D. coccipetala, D. cistiflora ‘Eitz’, D. afra, and others. All of which have been described without even acknowledging Eric’s invaluable help or that fact that he originally discovered those plants!). Moreover, Eric is the seed source of almost all South African Drosera which entered cultivation worldwide since several decades!

Eric, thank you again for your kind hospitality when Fernando, Robert, Kirk, Stew and I visited South Africa in 2006; for all of the inspiring discussion on CPs, but especially for botanising and exploring the Cape area, for sharing your experiences and discoveries with the CP community, and for helping to introduce so many of those South African beauties in cultivation! Without your efforts, the CP world would not be that rich in so many beautiful South African sundews!

DSCN0403.jpg

Robert, Eric and Fernando in Capetown, September 2006.

And finally a few photos to illustrate the new sundew:

Dericgreenii_habitat.jpg

Habitat of Drosera ericgreenii: fynbos vegetation near the town of Franschhoek, Stellenbosh, Western Cape Province, South Africa. “Fynbos” is a typical vegetation type of the Cape floral area, it is draught and fire adapted ericoid scrubland (“fynbos” is derived from Afrikaans language and means “fine bush”, referring to the usually small, needle like leaves of many species growing there. Its general appearance is similar to what is called “garrigue” or “phrygana” in the Mediterranean, “campos rupestre” in Brazil, “chaparral” in the American West or the “open heathlands” in Western Australia).

Dericgreenii_02.jpg

Drosera ericgreenii prefers to grow in slight shade of shrubs or rocks, on rather dry, sandy soil.

Dericgreenii_01.jpg

Dericgreenii_03.jpg

Note the very hairy scape of Drosera ericgreenii, which is ascending from the base. In D. hilaris, the scape is growing upright from the centre of the plant.

Dericgreenii_05.jpg

Close-up of the enlarged unifacial glands at the margins of the leaf tip. Drosera hilaris, for comparison, does only have sticky glands with knob-like heads all over the leaf surface.

Dhilaris_left_ericgreenii_right.jpg

Comparison of the two related species Drosera hilaris and D. ericgreenii (photo of D. ericgreenii by Fernando Rivadavia). Note the conspicuous reddish stipules of D. ericgreenii. In D. hilaris, the stipules are barely visible, as they are reduced to tiny setae.

Dericgreenii_flower.jpg

Flower of D. ericgreenii.

Dericgreenii_cult.jpg

Drosera ericgreenii in cultivation. I grow this plant under identical conditions to D. hilaris or D. ramentacea (i.e. deep pots up to 30 cm, 50:50-sand:peat mix, substrate only moist, not soaking wet year round, in full sun in my cool greenhouse, a lot of air movement for cooling and to prevent rot). It’s a South African montane species, and therefore somewhat demanding in cultivation (for sure not a beginner’s plant!). Like several other mountain sundews from the Cape (D. glabripes, D. hilaris, D. ramentacea, D. regia) it prefers cool temperatures, especially of the soil. If the roots get exposed to warmer temperatures for too long, the root system is likely to be damaged and will rot easily. However, under good growing conditions this species can be grown from seed to flowering plants within 3 years!

I don’t have any spares of D. ercigreenii at the moment, but have sent all of the seed I could harvest from my cultivated plants (it is self-fertile, but not selfing, like most South African Drosera) to some experienced friend growers fro propagation and further distribution. Hopefully this nice plant will enter some more Drosera collections worldwide soon!

All the best,

Andreas

Edited by Andreas Fleischmann
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi, Andreas

Thanks for sharing, this information.

It looks like another stunning new species, and probably like alot of other people, I cant wait to see it become available in collections soon.

Do you think (or know) if it hybridizes with other S. African Drosera?

Regards

Langy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Andreas,

very nice species and also nice habitat pictures. :wink:

The difference between D. hilaris and the new species seems not to be very big, exept the flower scape. :P

Are you really sure that´s a good species?

On the first view it seems to have elements from a few other species like D. esterhuyseniae, D. hilaris, D. ramentacea and even some D. capensis forms.

Thanks for sharing these pictures.

Best regards,

Dani

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Daniel,

The difference between D. hilaris and the new species seems not to be very big, exept the flower scape.

Well, the differences between a BMW and a Mercedes are not very big, too - both of them are cars ;). But that's it! ;)

D. hilaris forms a tall distinct stem of up to 80 cm or more in legth. - The stems of D. ericgreenii are stunted, not taller than about 10 cm.

Like already mentioned above, D. ericgreenii has clearly developed stipules, whereas those of D. hilaris are reduced to tiny setae.

The apex of the lamina is acute in D. hilaris, but rounded in D. ercigreenii, with unifacial marginal tentacles (which are absent in D. hilaris).

Flowers of D. hilaris are twice the size of those of D. ericgreenii, and stigmatic tips are distinc in both species, too.

Of corse you can descide to call this just natural variation of D. hilaris. However you would have to include D. ramentacea and D. esterhuyseniae into D. hilaris then, too! ;)

All the best,

Andreas

PS: of corse I think that D. ericgreenii is a good species, which is well distinct from realted species. Otherwise I would not have described it as a distinct species, hahaha! ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another beautiful South African species! I can't wait to read the full article but until then can you provide a brief description of the range of D. ericgreenii compared to D. hilaris? Do the two overlap?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another beautiful South African species! I can't wait to read the full article but until then can you provide a brief description of the range of D. ericgreenii compared to D. hilaris? Do the two overlap?

Dear Sean,

I have drawn the estimated range of D. hilaris in green, the known distribution of D. ewricgreenii in red (map by google earth, 2007). Actually, there's one single record of a D. hilaris collected even further north of the range of D. ericgreenii. This is a herbarium specimen collected by Mrs. Esterhuysen on Du Toits Kloof Pass in 1956. No further records of D. hilaris from that area. Mrs. Esterhuysen was a very experienced trustful plant collector in South Africa, thus no doubt she collected that D. hilaris on exactly that place. Further studies will be necessary, and I would love to visit that mountain inland population of D. hilaris on day.

Bild1.jpg

All the best,

Andreas

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...