''Drosera adelae'', commonly known as the lance-leaved sundew, is a

carnivorous plant Carnivorous plants are plants that derive some or most of their nutrients from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans, typically insects and other arthropods, and occasionally small mammals and birds. They have adapted to grow in waterlo ...

in the genus ''

Drosera ''Drosera'', which is commonly known as the sundews, is one of the largest genus, genera of carnivorous plants, with at least 194 species. 2 volumes. These members of the family Droseraceae lure, capture, and digest insects using stalked mucil ...

'' that is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Description

''Drosera adelae'' is a tropical

perennial plant In horticulture, the term perennial (''wikt:per-#Prefix, per-'' + ''wikt:-ennial#Suffix, -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annual plant, annuals and biennial plant, biennials. It has thus been d ...

that produces long, sword-shaped leaves in a basal

rosette Rosette is the French diminutive of ''rose''. It may refer to: Flower shaped designs * Rosette (award), a mark awarded by an organisation * Rosette (design), a small flower design *hence, various flower-shaped or rotational symmetric forms: ** R ...

. The leaves, like most other ''Drosera'' species, are covered with sticky, stalked tentacles that secrete the prey-capturing glue.McPherson, Stewart. 2008. ''Glistening Carnivores''. Poole, Dorset, England: Redfern Natural History Productions. pp. 212-214. Tentacle movement in this species, unlike other ''Drosera'', is minimal and slow to the point of being barely noticeable.McPherson, Stewart. 2008. ''Glistening Carnivores''. Poole, Dorset, England: Redfern Natural History Productions. p. 35. The leaves are narrowly

lanceolate The following terms are used to describe leaf plant morphology, morphology in the description and taxonomy (biology), taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (that is, the leaf blade or 'lamina' is undivided) or compound (that is, the leaf blade ...

and are typically long and 7–10 mm wide. The lower surface of the leaves are

glabrous Glabrousness () is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes, or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of a plant or animal, or be due to loss because of a physical condition, ...

and petioles are either very short or absent.

Inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

s are one-sided

raceme A raceme () or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate growth, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are ...

and up to long, bearing many red, reddish orange, or cream coloured flowers from June to November. The five petals produce a perfect pentagon shape.Lowrie, Allen. 1998
''Carnivorous Plants of Australia: Volume 3''
Nedlands, Western Australia: University of Western Australia Press. pp. 132-135. ''Drosera adelae'' reproduces rapidly by asexual means, generating new

plantlet A plantlet is a young or small plant, produced on the leaf margins or the aerial stems of another plant."Plantlet", Merriam-Webster' Many plants such as Chlorophytum comosum, spider plants naturally create stolons with plantlets on the ends as ...

s from the spreading roots, which means this species is often found in large clumps. This species has a

diploid Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for autosomal and pseudoautosomal genes. Here ''sets of chromosomes'' refers to the number of maternal and paternal chromosome copies, ...

chromosome number of 2n = 30, though a cultivated

cytotype A karyotype is the general appearance of the complete set of chromosomes in the cells of a species or in an individual organism, mainly including their sizes, numbers, and shapes. Karyotyping is the process by which a karyotype is discerned by de ...

of the species had been reported as having 2n = 28, which botanist

Fernando Rivadavia Fernando is a Spanish and Portuguese given name and a surname common in Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Switzerland, and former Spanish or Portuguese colonies in Latin America, Africa and Asia (like the Philippines, India, and Sri Lanka). It is e ...

suggested may represent different forms of the species.Rivadavia, Fernando. 2005
New chromosome numbers for ''Drosera'' L. (Droseraceae).
''

Carnivorous Plant Newsletter The ''Carnivorous Plant Newsletter'' is the official publication of the International Carnivorous Plant Society (ICPS), the largest such organization in the world. It is headquartered in Walnut Creek, California. History and editorship The news ...

'', 34(3): 85-91.

Distribution and Habitat

''Drosera adelae'' typically grows in the densely shaded margins of the northeastern Australian rainforests in sandy soils along creek banks or on wet rocks near waterfalls. The species is native to Rockingham Bay,

Hinchinbrook Island Hinchinbrook Island (or Pouandai to the Biyaygiri people) is an island in the Cassowary Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. It lies east of Cardwell, Queensland, Cardwell and north of Lucinda, Queensland, Lucinda, separated from the north-eas ...

in Queensland, Australia. It shares similar habitats with the other two closely related Queensland ''Drosera'': '' D. schizandra'' and '' D. prolifera''. Together the species are informally known as the sisters of Queensland.

Botanical History

''Drosera adelae'' was first described by

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Victoria, Australia ...

in volume 4 of his work ''Fragmenta phytographiæ Australiæ'', published in 1864. A later

infraspecific taxon In botany, an infraspecific name is the scientific name for any taxon below the rank of species, i.e. an infraspecific taxon or infraspecies. The scientific names of botanical taxa are regulated by the ''International Code of Nomenclature for al ...

, described by

Ludwig Diels Friedrich Ludwig Emil Diels (24 September 1874 – 30 November 1945) was a German botanist. Diels was born in Hamburg, the son of the classical scholar Hermann Alexander Diels. From 1900 to 1902 he traveled together with Ernst Georg Pritzel thro ...

in his 1909 work published in a volume of ''

Das Pflanzenreich Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler (25 March 1844 – 10 October 1930) was a German botanist. He is notable for his work on plant taxonomy and phytogeography, such as ''Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien'' (''The Natural Plant Families''), edited with ...

'' as ''D. adelae''

var. In botanical nomenclature, variety (abbreviated var.; in ) is a taxonomic rank below that of species and subspecies, but above that of Form (botany), form. As such, it gets a three-part Infraspecific name (botany), infraspecific name. It is s ...

''latior'' F.Muell. ex Diels is now considered to be a synonym of ''D. schizandra''.Schlauer, J. 2011
World Carnivorous Plant List - Nomenclatural Synopsis of Carnivorous Phanerogamous Plants
. Accessed online: 14 August 2011. Drosera adelae young

Cultivation

Though it is a tropical plant, ''D. adelae'' is somewhat tolerant of frost and can return from its roots after short periods of cold temperatures just below the

freezing point The melting point (or, rarely, liquefaction point) of a substance is the temperature at which it changes state of matter, state from solid to liquid. At the melting point the solid and liquid phase (matter), phase exist in Thermodynamic equilib ...

.D'Amato, Peter. 1998. '' The Savage Garden: Cultivating Carnivorous Plants''. Berkeley, California: Ten Speed Press. p. 51. It can be grown in brighter light, less humidity, and cooler temperatures than its closely allied relatives, ''D. prolifera'' and ''D. schizandra''. In low light conditions, the leaves are typically greener and the plant can grow to be a foot in diameter, but brighter light will cause the plants to produce shorter, bronze coloured leaves.D'Amato, Peter. 1998. '' The Savage Garden: Cultivating Carnivorous Plants''. Berkeley, California: Ten Speed Press. p. 144.

References

External links

The original description
of the species by Ferdinand von Mueller in 1864 {{Taxonbar, from=Q145561 Carnivorous plants of Australia Caryophyllales of Australia adelae Flora of Queensland Plants described in 1864 Rare flora of Australia Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller