Range: Southern Cerra do Cipo, Minas Gerais, Brazil

 

This South American highlander is an endemic of the south-central mountains of Brazil, north of Rio de Janeiro, where it grows in the campo rupestre vegetation on fine quartz sand or gravel soils often a fair distance from either permanent or seasonal water sources. Plants can form stems up to 3 cm high, topped by 3 cm rosettes of flat, broadly oblanceolate to elongate obovate leaves bearing a prominent tapered petiole nearly as long as the ovular lamina, the petiole notably covered in pilose silver hairs. Coloration is often notably bicolored with silver-green or yellowish petioles and crimson to wine red lamina and scarlet tentacles. Flower stalks are tall and covered particularly near the apex in small glands. Flowers are diagnostic for this species, possessing broad, stiff overlapping sepals that form pointed projections when closed and wrapped in a spiral manner. Blooms reach 1.5 cm across, with broad, obovate to slightly truncate pink to mauve petals. Plants in the wild appear to have a lateral budding habit, forming large clusters and colonies of rosettes.

 

Cultivation: grow in a 2:1 sand/peat soil, kept only moist and moderately humid with temperatures of 70-85°F day, cooler at night, year round. During summer, permit conditions to dry to just damp to promote flowering. Sow seeds on soil surface, and grow in strong artificial light to full sun.

 

Lifespan and reproduction: Perennial. Reproduces via seeds and division or lateral root and stem offshoots, and may be propagated via leaf pullings.

 

Sources: Rivadavia et al. (2014). Elucidating the controversial Drosera montana complex (Droseraceae): a taxonomic revision. Phytotaxa 172(3): 141-175.