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Drosera ultramafica


Andreas Fleischmann

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Hello Drosera-lovers,

Many of you will probably already know the new species of Drosera from South East Asian high mountains, which previously has been identified as "D. spatulata". Very nice plants of this new taxon have been discovered on the Philippine island of Palawan by Stewart McPherson, Alastair Robinson and Volker Heinrich (they are pictured on Stewart's homepage as Drosera sp. 'A': http://www.redfernnaturalhistory.com/new_species/drosera_sp). But the plant also occurs on Sulawesi, Borneo and Sumatra.

Our article describing this new plant finally got published, and it has free online access for everyone:

http://caliban.ingentaselect.co.uk/fstemp/...e03f2bf23da.pdf

The plant is actually more widespread in Nepenthes territory than typical Drosera spatulata. Drosera ultramafica got its species' name from the kind of soil it exclusively grows is in: it is confined to heavy mineral soils known as ultramafic soils (often called "serpentine soils", but that is just one type of ultramafic rock), just like many Nepenthes species of that area, too. But like Drosera neocaledonica (which also grows in ultramafic soils naturally), D. ultramafica can easily be grown in cultivation in a normal peat-based substrate, without any addition of toxic nickel or magnesium ;). For me, this new species has proven to be quite easy under highland conditions. But of corse, this is a sundew, and thus will need far more light and less continuous spray than highland Nepenthes ;).

All the best,

Andreas

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Congrats Andreas and Alastair and all those involved in this paper.

Drosera ultramafica is a fairly easy species in cultviation as far as I am concerned.

The following shot has been taken last September; the plant is now bigger.

p1190410.jpg

I recently succeeded to get cuttings in water ;-)

François.

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It will be interesting to see where it fits in to the "Drosera tree" once its genetics are analyzed; I susspect that it map out closer to D. neocaledonica than D. spathulata.

Dear Rich,

Well, I'm pretty sure all three are very close...

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Hey Francois, Dave, and Fernando,

D. ultramafica seedlings develop tentacles also on the cotyledons which is rare in Drosera, but I found that sometimes also with D. spatulata. Also the large trichomes (hairs) which develop from the beginning are typical also for D. spatulata. Unfortunately I never examined seedlings of D. neocaledonica, therefore I cannot say whether these features are also present in that species too. Here are some pictures. The adult plant was shot today when I realized that now the first flowerstalks start to grow.

Drosera_ultramafica_Keim01web.jpg

Drosera_ultramafica_Keim04web.jpg

Drosera_ultramafica_Keim03web.jpg

Drosera_ultramafica_Keim02web.jpg

Drosera_ultramafica_290311_3web.jpg

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