Range: Muundhi and Juunju Dhaarrba Nhirrpan National Parks, North Queensland, Australia

 

A very recently described and unique species of sundew, this is the newest member of the so-called Sisters of Queensland group (section Prolifera) and is found further north than any of the other three, in a pair of aboriginal national parks north of Cooktown on the Cape Melville Peninsula. Here it grows in the shaded sandy streambanks of the gallery forests in the rainforest ravines, also reported from sandstone cliff faces with permanent moisture, at elevations of around 400 meters. This species grows to 30 cm in diameter, with flat rosettes of oblanceolate leaves that bear short but usually distinctive petioles and tapering lamina with a narrow base and broader, rounded tip (juvenile leaves with longer petioles and round lamina). The inflorescences are up to 42 cm in length with a dense covering of small hairs, and grow semi-erect to prostrate along the ground bearing up to 40 blooms. The flowers are minuscule, often barely over 0.5 cm in diameter, with obovate, reddish to pink-purple petals and thick, split anthers bearing white pollen granules. The inflorescence often develops a plantlet at its very tip once blooming has ceased, similar in habit to D. prolifera. Most similar in overall appearance to D. schizandra, this species differs in having longer, more slender leaves, prostrate inflorescences with smaller flowers, thicker anthers, and white rather than yellowish pollen.

 

Cultivation: grow in a very sandy peat or 1:1 long-fiber sphagnum/perlite mix, kept moist though preferably not sopping wet and very humid, with temperatures of between 60-80°F year round. Seeds are unlikely but should be sown on the soil surface as soon as harvested if produced, and grow in bright shade to dappled sunlight, avoiding strong direct lighting.

 

Lifespan and reproduction: Perennial. Reproduces primarily through inflorescence budding and possibly root plantlets, rarely seeds, and likely can be propagated via leaf and root cuttings.

 

Sources: Mathieson, M. T. and Thompson, S. L. (2020). Drosera buubugujin M.T.Mathieson (Droseraceae, Drosera section Prolifera C.T.White), a spectacular new species of sundew from the Cape York Peninsula bioregion. Austrobeileya 10(4): 549-557.