''Drosera burmanni'', the tropical sundew,
[Erickson, Rica. 1968. ''Plants of Prey in Australia''. Lamb Paterson Pty. Ltd.: Osborne Park, Western Australia.] is a small, compact species in the
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 ...
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 ...
''. Its natural geographical range includes the tropical and subtropical regions of Asia (India, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and China's
Guangxi
Guangxi,; officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam (Hà Giang Province, Hà Giang, Cao Bằn ...
,
Guangdong
) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...
,
Yunnan
Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...
, and
Fujian
Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...
provinces) and Australia.
It is one of the fastest trapping sundews as well, and its leaves can curl around an insect in only a few seconds, compared to the minutes or hours it takes other sundews to surround their prey.
In nature, ''D. burmanni'' is an
annual, but in cultivation, when grown indoors during the cold months, it can live for many years. Since ''D. burmanni'' is an annual, it produces large amounts of seed.
''Drosera burmanni'' has been considered a powerful
rubefacient
A rubefacient is a substance for topical application that produces redness of the skin, e.g. by causing dilation of the capillaries and an increase in blood circulation. It has sometimes been used to relieve acute or chronic pain, but there is limi ...
in
Ayurveda
Ayurveda (; ) is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. It is heavily practised throughout India and Nepal, where as much as 80% of the population report using ayurveda. The theory and practice of ayur ...
.
[Lewis, Walter H., 1977 ''Medical Botany - Plants Affecting Man's Health''. John Wiley & Sons, St. Louis, Missouri.]
Description
''Drosera burmanni'' is an herb that produces very short stems and red or green leaves in a
rosette. It normally spans only in diameter. Each leaf is wedge-shaped or orbicular that grows close to the soil level, it is typically 6–10 mm long and 4–6 mm wide. White flowers are produced in groups of 3 to 10 on tall
racemose
A raceme () or racemoid is an unbranched, 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 produced as the shoo ...
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, of which there can be one to three per plant.
Taxonomy
The first brief description of the species was written by
Paul Hermann and published after Hermann's death by
William Sherard
William Sherard (27 February 1659 – 11 August 1728) was an English botanist. Next to John Ray, he was considered to be one of the outstanding English botanists of his day.
Life
He is still a little-known figure of that era coming as he did fr ...
in ''Musaeum Zeylanicum''. It was described in more detail by
Johannes Burman
Johannes Burman (26 April 1707 in Amsterdam – 20 February 1780), was a Dutch botanist and physician. Burman specialized in plants from Ceylon, Amboina and Cape Colony. The name ''Pelargonium'' was introduced by Johannes Burman.
Johannes ...
in his 1737 publication on the flora of
Ceylon
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
. Burman used the polynomial ''Ros solis foliis circa radicem in orbem dispositis'',
[Burman, Johannes. 1737]
Thesaurus zeylanicus, exhibens plantas in insula Zeylana nascentes.
Amsterdam. p. 207. but the species was not formally published until 1794 when
Martin Vahl
Martin Henrichsen Vahl (10 October 1749 – 24 December 1804) was a Denmark-Norway, Danish-Norwegian botanist, herbalist and zoologist.
Biography
Martin Vahl was born in Bergen, Norway and attended Bergen Cathedral School. He studied botany at ...
named it in honor of Burman as ''Drosera burmanni''. The species epithet is frequently modified to ''burmannii'', however because it was derived from the Latinised form 'Burmannus' the original spelling is correct.
In 1871
Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach
Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach (Dresden, 3 January 1823 – Hamburg, 6 May 1889) was a botanist and the foremost Germany, German orchidologist of the 19th century. His father Ludwig Reichenbach, Heinrich Gottlieb Ludwig Reichenbach (author of ''Ico ...
described a new species, ''D. dietrichiana'', named after its discoverer
Amalie Dietrich
Koncordie Amalie Dietrich (née Nelle) (26 May 1821 – 9 March 1891) was a Germans, German naturalist who was best known for her work in Australia from 1863 to 1872, collecting specimens for the Museum Godeffroy in Hamburg.
Australia
Dietrich w ...
. In his 1906
monograph
A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...
of the
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 ...
,
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 ...
reduced this species to a
variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
of ''D. burmanni.'' This variety was described as being a larger and more robust plant than ''D. burmanni'' var. ''burmanni.'' Both ''D. dietrichiana'' and the variety are now considered synonyms of ''D. burmanni''.
[Schlauer, J. 2009]
World Carnivorous Plant List - Nomenclatural Synopsis of Carnivorous Phanerogamous Plants
. Accessed online: 12 September 2009.
See also
*
List of ''Drosera'' species
Gallery
Image:P9270030 Drosera burmanni 02.jpg, Massed plants
Image:P9270030 Drosera burmanni 01.jpg, Habit
Image:Drosera burmannii - The Burmese Sundew at Makutta.jpg, Flower
Image:Drosera burmannii - japan.jpg, ''Drosera burmanni'' in a greenhouse.
References
External links
{{Taxonbar, from=Q135663
Carnivorous plants of Asia
Carnivorous plants of Australia
Caryophyllales of Australia
burmanni
Eudicots of Western Australia
Flora of Bangladesh
Flora of Thailand
Flora of Vietnam
Flora of Malesia
Flora of New Guinea
Flora of the Northern Territory
Flora of Queensland
Flora of New South Wales
Plants described in 1794
Taxa named by Martin Vahl