Drosera rotundifolia in the north

[naoki]

We were morel-hunting last week-end, but instead of morels, my son found this:


Drosera rotundiflora on Flickr

From herbarium records, there are a couple records from further north (Kobuk Valley National park around the Brooks range), but this seems to be at the northern edge of the distribution in Alaska. It was a nice father's day treat to see it in the nature!

This is the surrounding area. They were everywhere on the sphagnum moss:

Drosera rotundiflora habitat on Flickr

There is a bit of related info in my Orchid Borealis blog post (includes unrelated topics).

 

[FrankenSnyder]

Beautiful! The sundews look small. I wonder if the are genetically smaller that far north.

 

[Grey Moss]

That's pretty cool. What kind of prey did you see those plants with? Is it any different from something you'd find further south?

 

[naoki]

Beautiful! The sundews look small. I wonder if the are genetically smaller that far north.

It could be. A lot of plants are much smaller in the nature, but it is much smaller (the rosette diameter of the larger ones are about 2-3cm, but most are around 1.5cm) than the cultivated ones which I had.

That's pretty cool. What kind of prey did you see those plants with? Is it any different from something you'd find further south?

I didn't see anything caught on the leaves. Well, it is a bit of mosquito hell, so I didn't have too much patience to look them in details. I'll try to check more next time.

 

[FrankenSnyder]

Most people probably prefer larger forms, but I think those tiny plants are really neat.