Range: Canning Basin; Dampier and Yampi Peninsulas southeast to Christmas Creek, W. Australia

 

This member of the spider-leaved sunder group is a Western Asutralian endemic, found only in the lowlands of the Canning Basin in the Kimberley where it grows in sand soils along seasonal waterways often in thick grasses. Plants average up to 16 but can reach 20 cm tall, with thick erect to scrambling stems topped by thick tapered leaves in a 22 cm spread. Leaves are filiform to almost linear-lanceolate, erect at first and falling downward with age, up to 10 or occasionally even 13 cm long. Petioles are very short, only up to 3 mm in length, marked by very short stalked glands with milky white heads. Lamina taper gradually from base to tip and are covered in long tentacles. Color is primarily green, tentacles occasionally yellow or pink-tinted at their tips. Inflorescences are distinctly huge, up to 65 cm tall and bearing up to 50 flowers on long pedicels. Flowers are up to 2.4 cm in diameter, with broadly obovate, pale to bright pink petals. The nearly fully glandular green leaves and huge flower stalks distinguish this species from most relatives, and the short but visible petioles and lowland habitats separate it from the closely related D. finlaysoniana.

 

Cultivation: should this species enter horticulture, grow in a 2:1 or greater ratio of sand/peat, kept moist to wet and moderately humid with temperatures of 75-95°F year round. Feed heavily, sow seeds on soil surface to germinate, and grow in strong artificial light to full sun.

 

Lifespan and reproduction: annual. Reproduces via seed only.

 

Sources: Krueger and Fleischmann (2021). A new species of Drosera section Arachnopus (Droseraceae) from the western Kimberley, Australia, and amendments to the range and circumscription of Drosera finlaysoniana. Phytotaxa 501(1): 056–084.