''Drosera aliciae'', the Alice sundew, is a carnivorous plant in the family

Droseraceae Droseraceae is a family of carnivorous flowering plants, also known as the sundew family. It consists of approximately 180 species in three extant genera, the vast majority being in the sundew genus '' Drosera''. The family also contains the wel ...

. It is native to the Cape Provinces of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, like '' Drosera capensis'', the cape sundew, and is one of the most common sundews in cultivation.

Description

The plant forms small, tight rosettes of wedge-shaped

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

, up to 5 cm in diameter. Under conditions of good lighting, the insect-snagging tentacles will become deeply coloured with

anthocyanin Anthocyanins (), also called anthocyans, are solubility, water-soluble vacuole, vacuolar pigments that, depending on their pH, may appear red, purple, blue, or black. In 1835, the German pharmacist Ludwig Clamor Marquart named a chemical compou ...

pigments, which probably aid in its attraction of insect prey. The plant is relatively easy to grow, and produces attractive scapes of pink

flower Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants ( angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, m ...

s, which are held about 30 cm away from the carnivorous leaves, so as to prevent pollinators from becoming ensnared. ''D. aliciae'' is very similar in form to a number of other closely related species such as '' D. slackii'', and '' D. natalensis'': the former is rather larger with a slightly different growth habit (8 cm diameter); the latter has hairier stipules and a larger distance between leaf base and the “sticky” trichomes. ''Drosera aliciae'' has received the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr ...

Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. It includes the full range of cultivated p ...

. Image:Drosera aliciae Detail.jpg, Detail of leaf Image:Drosera aliciae Bluete.jpg, Flower File:DroseraAliciaeLeafFruitFly.jpg, Leaf with a fruit fly reduced to

chitin Chitin (carbon, C8hydrogen, H13oxygen, O5nitrogen, N)n ( ) is a long-chain polymer of N-Acetylglucosamine, ''N''-acetylglucosamine, an amide derivative of glucose. Chitin is the second most abundant polysaccharide in nature (behind only cell ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q138152 aliciae Endemic flora of the Cape Provinces Carnivorous plants of Africa