Drosera regia
Drosera regia is a carnivorous plant in the sundew genus Drosera. It is endemic to a single valley in South Africa. Individual leaves can reach 70 cm in length. The tentacle-covered leaves can capture large prey, such as beetles, moths and butterflies.
About Drosera regia in brief
Drosera regia is a carnivorous plant in the sundew genus Drosera. It is endemic to a single valley in South Africa. Individual leaves can reach 70 cm in length. The tentacle-covered leaves can capture large prey, such as beetles, moths, and butterflies. Each leaf can possess thousands of tentacles, which can aid in the retention of larger prey when combined with the leaf wrapping tightly around captured insects. The leaves lack petioles and stipules, emerging by circinate vernation and tapering to a filiform point. Asexual reproduction of mature plants usually occurs after flowering with new plants arising from the rhizome and roots. After a fire, undamaged roots will often re-sprout new plants. Each flower has three unbranched, spreading styles emerging from the top of the ovary. Studies have shown that the operculate pollen shed by the plant is incompatible with clones that are self-fertilised and fail to produce seed. The species is threatened with extinction in the wild, but a single cultivar has been registered. It flowers in January and February, producing scapes up to 40 cm long. The scapes emerge vertically, lacking the circinate vernation of its leaves and all other scapes of the genus. The primary scapes consist of 5 to 20 flowers with unscented pink branches and 2–3 cm long petals. The flowers are small, bearing small, long, bearing bracts bearing some reduced branches. The plant is similar in some ways to the related Dionaeamuscipula and Aldrovandamuscus.
It has many unusual relict characteristics not found in most other DroserA species. Some of these are shared with the related Venus flytrap, which suggests a close evolutionary relationship. The lower altitude site is estimated to have about 50 mature plants, making it the most endangered Droser a species. The woody rhizomes produced by the plants are one of the unusual characteristics that it shares only with D. arcturi in the genus, with the exception of D cturi. The leaves are considered active flypaper traps that respond to captured prey by bending to surround it. The tentacles have special stalked glands on the leaf’s upper surface that produce a sticky mucilage. Leaves are even capable of folding over themselves several times. The plants go dormant during the colder season and form a dormant bud, consisting of a tight cluster of short, immature leaves. Plants begin to break dormancy in mid-July with a typical growing season lasting from October to April, though this is variable and plants can continue growing year-round without dormancy. It is often cultivated by carnivorous. plant enthusiasts, and a single cultivatingar was registered. The higher altitude site appears to be overgrown and is essentially extirpated. It produces relatively few thick, fleshy roots along the terminal 15 cm.
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This page is based on the article Drosera regia published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 29, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
