Drosera dilatato-petiolaris

Drosera dilatato-petiolaris –

is a carnivorous plant that grows one or more rosettes in damp sandy soils (sometimes on laterite in open forests) of wet depressions near sandstone outcrops of coastal areas of Arnhemland, Berrimah, Berry Springs, Channel Island, Darwin River, Humpty Doo, Nhulumbuy, Palmerston, and West Alligator River in the Northern Territory and the northern Kimberley region of Western Australia. It can also be found on sand in eucalyptus forests in Cape York Peninsula, Queensland.

Its oblanceolate to linear petioles are erect or semi-erect, which are typically green but can turn red when grown under intense light. There can be pubescent to desne white hair present depending on the humidity in which They emerge from the center in a rosette and commonly produces plantlets, known as divisions, or “growth points”. This causes the plant to grow in large patches consisting of many clumps. These large clumps can grow 1 ft across. Its orbicular lamina are orange or red. The glandular tentacles are present on its upper surface, which are longer at the edge and shorter in the center. The underneath surface is pubescently covered with long, white hairs of both being non-dendritic and dendritic.

The inflorescence reaches 8″ in height and poduces up to 20 white or pink flowers, which occurs from April to October. The scape and the lower surface of the sepals are covered with white hairs.

Natural hybrids are known from the Northern Territory, crossing with D. falconeri, D. kenneallyi, D. darwinensis and D. aff. lanata.

(Name origin: from the Latin dilatare = to enlarge, and petiolus = petiole, with reference to the large petiole)