Drosera paleacea identification

[Tamlin Dawnstar]

My continuing discussion with Phill Mann regarding how to tell the difference between these subspecies has nailed down at least one certainty.

If your plants have glabarous (non-hairy) sepals that look like stacks of little smooth balls before the flowers open, you have Drosera paleacea ssp. paleacea.

More information on the other subspecies will be provided once I can find a way to seggergate D. paleaces ssp. roseana from D. paleacea ssp trichocaulis.


Photo: Drosera paleacea ssp. paleacea flowering

 

[Vic Brown]

No hairs here! They are bald as a coot Squire!

Drosera palacea ssp. palacea

 

The flowers on my Drosera palacea ssp. stelliflora are, perhaps not suprisingly, star-shaped, and the sepals also bald.

Drosera palacea ssp. stelliflora

According to Lowrie (Vol. 2.), both ssp. trichocaulis and ssp. roseana have hairy sepals, 'hairs wool-like, non glandular', ssp. trichocaulis also has 'minute, terate stalked glands' on the sepals, which are absent in ssp. roseana. The flower buds are different shapes too, ssp. trichocaulis is rounder and ssp. roseana is more elongate (think soccer ball and American football).

Vic

 

[CP2k]

Hi Tamlin,

Do you happen to know if the misidentified "hyperostigma" is D.palacea ssp. roseana or palacea ssp. palacea?

 

[Tamlin Dawnstar]

Cp2K,

Are your plants in flower now? If the sepals are hairy, as I think they are, it is likely to be D. paleacea ssp. trichocaulis.

 

[CP2k]

Hi Tamlin,

I just checked. The sepals are hairy. The plant I have labeled as roseana also has hairy sepals.
I also grow a clone of palacea ssp.trichocaulis from Botanique that has hairy sepals, but the rosette looks very different from the "D.not hyperostigma".

I also have palacea ssp.palacea in flower. These have non-hairy sepals.

 

[Tamlin Dawnstar]

Well then, we know it is either D. paleacea ssp trichocaulis ot D. paleacea ssp. roseana.

Phill told me a good way to tell D. paleacea ssp roseana is by the smell: they are fragarant. Use the nose where the eye fails.

Let me know how you make out.

I REALLY need a copy of Lowrie I and II, ah me achin' head!