''Drosera indica'', sometimes known as the Indian sundew, is a species of

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

native to

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

and southern

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

and tropical and

subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones immediately to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Ge ...

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

. It was first described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

in his ''

Species Plantarum ' (Latin for "The Species of Plants") is a book by Carl Linnaeus, originally published in 1753, which lists every species of plant known at the time, classified into genus, genera. It is the first work to consistently apply binomial nomenclature ...

'' in 1753. Until the early 21st century it was mostly considered a highly variable species with a wide distribution including Australia, but since 2000 several distinct species have been separated from ''D. indica'' within ''Drosera'' section ''Arachnopus'', which is often referred to as the ‘''Drosera indica''

complex Complex commonly refers to: * Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe ** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...

’. Many of these species are

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 ...

to Australia, but ''D. indica'' itself is now widely considered to be absent from that country.

Description

''Drosera indica'' is an unbranched,

annual Annual may refer to: *Annual publication, periodical publications appearing regularly once per year **Yearbook **Literary annual *Annual plant *Annual report *Annual giving *Annual, Morocco, a settlement in northeastern Morocco *Annuals (band), a ...

herbaceous plant Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition o ...

, supported by a fibrous root system and reaching a height of 5–50 cm (2–20 in). Leaves are narrowly linear, up to 10 cm inlong with 1–1.5 cm .4–0.6 inpedicels.Lowrie, Alan. 1998. ''

Carnivorous Plants of Australia Australia has one of the world's richest carnivorous plant floras, with around 187 recognised species from 6 genus, genera.Bourke, G. & R. Nunn 2012. ''Australian Carnivorous Plants''. Redfern Natural History Productions, Poole. Species The fol ...

'', volume 3. University of Western Australia Press. p. 180. Young plants stand upright, while older ones form scrambling stems with only the newest growth exhibiting an upright habit. The plant can be yellow-green to maroon in color. Flower petals can be white, pink, orange, or purple. Its chromosome count is 2n=28.Kondo, K. 1969. Chromosome numbers of carnivorous plants. ''Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club'', 96(3): 322–328.

References

External links

Catalogue of Life entry
indica Carnivorous plants of Africa Carnivorous plants of Asia Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Flora of Maharashtra Flora of Madagascar {{Droseraceae-stub