''Drosera binata'', commonly known as the forked sundew or fork-leaved sundew. It is a large,

perennial In horticulture, the term perennial ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. It has thus been defined as a plant that lives more than 2 years. The term is also ...

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 Native may refer to: People * '' Jus sanguinis'', nationality by blood * '' Jus soli'', nationality by location of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Nat ...

to south-eastern

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 ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. The

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

for "having pairs", a reference to the leaves, which are

dichotomous A dichotomy () is a partition of a set, partition of a whole (or a set) into two parts (subsets). In other words, this couple of parts must be * jointly exhaustive: everything must belong to one part or the other, and * mutually exclusive: nothi ...

ly (sometimes twice-dichotomously) divided or forked.Salmon, B. 2001. ''Carnivorous Plants of New Zealand''. Ecosphere Publications. These leaves are up to long. Like all sundews, it 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 ...

. It is unique among sundews in having narrow, branching leaves. It is the only species in the ''Drosera''

section Section, Sectioning, or Sectioned may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea * Section (typography), a subdivision, especially of a chapter, in books and documents ** Section sig ...

''Phycopsis''.

Distribution and habitat

''D. binata'' occurs naturally in Australia, primarily in coastal areas from

Fraser Island K'gari ( , ), also known by its former name Fraser Island, is a World Heritage-listed sand island along the south-eastern coast in the Wide Bay–Burnett region of Queensland, Australia. The island lies approximately north of the state capi ...

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 ...

, southwards down through

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

and

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

and the south-east corner of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

. The range of this species extends to New Zealand where it is common below an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

of 1,000 metres, being found in both the

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

and

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

Islands,

Stewart Island / Rakiura Stewart Island (, 'Aurora, glowing skies', officially Stewart Island / Rakiura, formerly New Leinster) is New Zealand's third-largest island, located south of the South Island, across Foveaux Strait. It is a roughly triangular island wit ...

and farther afield on the Chathams. Some populations go dormant in the winter, while others are truly tropical.

Taxonomy and botanical history

Plants similar to the

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wikt:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally associated. In other words, a type is an example that serves to ancho ...

, commonly referred to as the "T-form", were first collected in 1792 by the French exploration of Australia's southern coast led by

Bruni d'Entrecasteaux Antoine Raymond Joseph de Bruni, chevalier d'Entrecasteaux (; 8 November 1737 – 21 July 1793) was a French Navy officer, explorer and colonial administrator who served as the Governor of Isle de France (Mauritius), governor of Isle de Fran ...

. The naturalist on board that expedition,

Jacques Labillardière Jacques-Julien Houtou de Labillardière (28 October 1755 – 8 January 1834) was a French biologist noted for his descriptions of the flora of Australia. Labillardière was a member of a voyage in search of the Jean-François de Galaup, comte ...

, first described ''D. binata'' in his 1804 publication on the flora of Australia, '' Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen''. The T-form, so named for its single leaf bifurcation spreading into a T-shape, is a robust plant from temperate zones that can grow up to and has green foliage that becomes redder with age. This form has been described as being genetically stable.Gilbert, I. 1984
''Drosera binata''.
''

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 ...

'', 13(3): 74-76.Rice, B. 2010
Any other ''Drosera'' species.
The Carnivorous Plant FAQ v. 11.5. Retrieved 25 January 2010. The second observed form, commonly referred to as

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 ...

''dichotoma'', is similar to the T-form, but the foliage is yellower and the leaf typically divides into four terminal leaf points, though it has been known to produce as many as eight leaf points. It was first validly described in an 1819 volume of ''

Rees's Cyclopædia Rees's ''Cyclopædia'', in full ''The Cyclopædia; or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature'', was an important 19th-century British people, British encyclopaedia edited by Rev. Abraham Rees (1743–1825), a Presbyterian minis ...

'' by James Edward Smith as ''D. dichotoma'', based on the description by

Joseph Banks Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English Natural history, naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the European and American voyages of scientific exploration, 1766 natural-history ...

and

Daniel Solander Daniel Carlsson Solander or Daniel Charles Solander (19 February 1733 – 13 May 1782) was a Sweden, Swedish naturalist and an Apostles of Linnaeus, apostle of Carl Linnaeus. Solander was the first university-educated scientist to set foot o ...

. This name, however, has since been reduced to

synonymy A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

with ''D. binata''.Schlauer, J. 2010
World Carnivorous Plant List - Nomenclatural Synopsis of Carnivorous Phanerogamous Plants
. Retrieved 25 January 2010. This morphological form was first published as "var. ''dichotoma''" by J. A. Mazrimas in a 1976 volume of the ''

'', but the publication of that name was invalid under the rules of the

International Code of Botanical Nomenclature The ''International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN or ICNafp) is the set of rules and recommendations dealing with the formal botanical names that are given to plants, fungi and a few other groups of organisms, all tho ...

. Even though the name is not valid, it is still widely used in cultivation to refer to this ''D. binata'' form.Mazrimas, J. A. 1976
The ''Drosera binata'' complex.
''

, 5(1): 15. This was one of many plants used by

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

in his investigation of carnivorous plants for his 1875 book '' Insectivorous Plants''.Darwin, C. 1875
''Insectivorous Plants''.
London: John Murray. pp. 281-282. A third described form, often called ''D. binata'' f. ''multifida'', has even more leaf divisions, bifurcating several times to produce anywhere from eight to 16 or even 30 terminal leaf points. This, too, was published by J. A. Mazrimas in the same 1976 volume of the ''Carnivorous Plant Newsletter'' as var. ''multifida'', referring to the description of a 27-point ''D. binata'' found by George Ashley and published in a 1975 volume of the ''Carnivorous Plant Newsletter''.Ashley, G. 1975
The search for the 27 point ''Drosera binata''.
''

'', 4(3): 48. Neither of these names were validly published, but again they remain in use among carnivorous plant growers. A final form, known for producing up to 40 terminal leaf points, is frequently titled f. ''extrema'', another name that has never been validly published but remains in use.This represents five-fold dichotomy, with some points undergoing the beginnings of a sixth. The variety ''D.b.'' f. ''extrema'' is native to

Stradbroke Island Stradbroke Island, also known as Minjerribah, was a large sand island that formed much of the eastern side of Moreton Bay near Brisbane, Queensland until the late 19th century. Today the island is split into two islands: North Stradbroke Is ...

off the coast of

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

. Two

cultivar A cultivar is a kind of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and which retains those traits when Plant propagation, propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root a ...

s of ''D. binata'' have been named. ''Drosera'' 'Giant' is a particularly large form of the "var. ''dichotoma''" type and was published by Peter D'Amato in 1998 and registered in 1999. The other, ''Drosera'' 'Marston Dragon', was published by Adrian Slack in 1986 and registered in 2001.

References

External links

NZ Carnivorous plants society website page about this species

''Drosera binata'' Occurrence data
from AVH {{Taxonbar, from=Q138163 Carnivorous plants of New Zealand Carnivorous plants of Australia Flora of the Chatham Islands Flora of New South Wales Flora of Queensland Flora of South Australia Flora of Tasmania Flora of Victoria (state) binata Caryophyllales of Australia Plants described in 1804

Distribution and habitat

Taxonomy and botanical history

See also

References

External links