Lawn Sundews

[FrankenSnyder]

We’ve all seen lawn mushrooms. An old friend of mine, Greg Boudreaux, recently sent me photos of something amazing: A naturally occurring population of Drosera brevifolia within a damp unkept space of a residential grass lawn. The residence of his parent’s next door neighbors, in Louisiana. The site was evidently formerly a boggy pine savannah.

 

[adnedarn]

Wow, that's interesting. Is that sphagnum growing by it too?

 

[hcarlton]

I've seen a few people posting from the south about D. brevifolia and others in their yards. Seems a ditch at the end of the property for runoff can be enough for them.

 

[FrankenSnyder]

Wow, that's interesting. Is that sphagnum growing by it too?

I cannot identify. Maybe some type of Selaginella?

 

[FrankenSnyder]

I've seen a few people posting from the south about D. brevifolia and others in their yards. Seems a ditch at the end of the property for runoff can be enough for them.

It was news to me. I just read this:

Drosera brevifolia in some unlikely places

I suspect many yards in the rural southeast are home to Drosera brevifolia. A teacher of mine in 7th grade mentioned that she had some in her yard. Many of my neighbors front yard ditches are filled with little white sundew blooms during sunny spring days. Likewise, my yard has some nice...

terraforums.com

 

[FrankenSnyder]

I visited the Florida Panhandle in 2001 and photoed these practical lawn sundews. In the town of Crestview D. capillaris grew in the clearing of a mowed grassy roadside; just like a lawn. In the adjacent overgrown thicket I saw some pitiful Sarracenia purpurea and S. rubra gulfensis, but no sundews. I had info there was previously P. primulaflora around there but I saw none. Just three years later I got word the area would soon become a strip mall. A group of CPers rescued the pitcher plants there.

Here is more from Greg on the Louisiana residence lawn D. brevifolia:
“I recall someone saying that this is common in subdivisions in the south. Perhaps when I was a kid or when my parents were kids, but now it is exceedingly rare… It is now a rare sight to spot pitcher plants along the side of the road, mainly due to roundup. It is easier to spray poison than to cut the grass. When they used to cut the grass beside the interstate, the pitcher plants and other CP's benefited.”

 

[hcarlton]

At least spraying herbicides is getting really, really bad press anymore, maybe that will subside in favor of cutting...but I doubt many places would get the plants back if it stopped.

 

[FrankenSnyder]

I recalled reading about how Dandelion has made adaptations to growing in lawns. I wonder if somewhere sundews are doing the same.

When I met Robert Gibson in Australia he showed me sundews on his parent’s property. Here is what he writes:
“The Drosera hurmannii plants at Mulgoa came from seed from plants collected at Richmond, in north western Sydney. Strangely the plants did not do well in pots but the seed that found its way to the clay seepage area in the lawn did well. I agree, it is a species that has weed potential. It does pose an interesting question about why D. sessilifolia has not extended its range into Central America and the Caribbean.”