''Drosera zonaria'', the painted sundew, is a

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

tuber Tubers are a type of enlarged structure used as storage organs for nutrients in some plants. They are used for the plant's perennation (survival of the winter or dry months), to provide energy and nutrients for regrowth during the next growing ...

ous species in the

carnivorous plant Carnivorous plants are plants that derive some or most of their nutrients from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans Protozoa (singular: protozoan or protozoon; alternative plural: protozoans) are a group of single-celled eukaryot ...

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 ...

'' and is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found 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 found elsew ...

to south-west

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

from near

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

southeast to near Esperance. It grows in a tight rosette approximately 5 to 7 cm in diameter with 20 to 30 green to red leaves that are arranged in concentric layers. The leaves are typically 1 cm wide and are usually described as being "kidney-shaped" with crimson leaf margins. It grows in deep silica sands in open woodland or coastal

heathland A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler ...

and only flowers after a

bush fire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identif ...

, which is speculated to be caused by the release of

ethylene Ethylene (IUPAC name: ethene) is a hydrocarbon which has the formula or . It is a colourless, flammable gas with a faint "sweet and musky" odour when pure. It is the simplest alkene (a hydrocarbon with carbon-carbon double bonds). Ethylene i ...

. Its white, sweetly perfumed flowers, which are very similar to those of '' D. erythrorhiza'', emerge on 4 to 5 cm tall

scapes Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatta ...

.Gibson, R. 1994
Carnivorous plants of the Esperance Region, Western Australia
''Carnivorous Plant Newsletter'', 23(2): 43-49.Lowrie, A. 1981
''Drosera zonaria'' in flower
''Carnivorous Plant Newsletter'', 10(3): 74-75.Slack, A. 1980.
Carnivorous Plants
'. Boston: MIT Press. As with most other tuberous ''Drosera'' species, ''D. zonaria'' will die back during the dry summer months and retreat to the fleshy

10 to 30 cm below ground.Barthlott, W., S. Porembski, R. Seine, and I. Theisen. 2008
''The Curious World of Carnivorous Plants''
Portland, Oregon: Timber Press. DroseraZonariaTuber1

''D. zonaria'' flowers so rarely that very few botanists have ever witnessed the event. It was first seen flowering in 1954,Russell, M. C. 1958. Rediscovery of ''Drosera zonaria'' Planch. ''The Western Australian Naturalist'', 6(5): 109-111. 106 years after it was formally described in 1848 by Jules Émile Planchon in ''Annales des Sciences Naturelles'' 9:303,1848. It was first collected near the

Swan River Colony The Swan River Colony, also known as the Swan River Settlement, or just Swan River, was a British colony established in 1829 on the Swan River, in Western Australia. This initial settlement place on the Swan River was soon named Perth, and it ...

by James Drummond.Diels, L. 1906. Droseraceae. ''In'' A. Engler d. Das Pflanzenreich, vol. 4, 112. (Heft 26), 1–128. W. Engelman, Weinheim, Germany. Those specimens collected by Drummond were just two barren rosettes; later authors would try ascertain the proper species for these specimens. George Bentham in 1864 questioned the species status of ''D. zonaria'' and suggested that the Drummond specimens might actually be examples of '' D. rosulata''. In the 1930s, both

Ludwig Diels Dr. 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 Prit ...

and

Charles Austin Gardner Charles Austin Gardner (6 January 1896 – 24 February 1970) was an English-born Western Australian botanist. Biography Born in Lancaster, in England, on 6 January 1896, Gardner emigrated to Western Australia with his family in 1909, whe ...

omitted this species name in their discussions of the genus. The

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

was even recorded under the name '' D. erythrorhiza'' at

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,100 ...

. The species was finally rediscovered near

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...

in 1952 by M. C. Russell, who then also saw it in flower for the first time in May 1954. By the time Rica Erickson wrote her 1968 book ''Plants of Prey in Australia'', no other flowering specimen of ''D. zonaria'' had been found.Erickson, R. 1968. ''Plants of Prey in Australia''. Lamb Paterson Pty. Ltd.: Osborne Park, Western Australia.

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q143206 Carnivorous plants of Australia Caryophyllales of Australia

zonaria Zonaria is a melodic death metal band from Umeå, Sweden, formerly known as Seal Precious. The band is currently signed to Century Media Records. Background Formed in 2001 by Simon Berglund, Christoffer Vikström, and Mikael Hammarberg, the ba ...

Eudicots of Western Australia Plants described in 1848

See also

References

External links