Drosera Lanata

Drosera lanata –

is a perennial carnivorous plant with a rosette up to 2.5″ in diameter that grows in very well draining sandy soil in Atherton Tableland, Lotus Glen and Mareeba of Northern Queensland, Australia. It can also be found growing among small shrubs and in open forest at the West Alligator River of Northern Territory, Australia.

Its green lanceolate petioles are narrow and linear with densely covered dendric silver hairs. These hairs become more predominant when the air and soil are dryer than normal (dry season/winter). This helps insulate the plant allow it to trap morning dew for additional moisture. The suborbicular lamina is green, pale orange or red, with with glandular tentacles on the upper surface that are longer at the edge than in the center. The bottom surface are is densely covered with white dendritic hairs. This species stands out from the other petiolaris complex species with some having dark maroon to dark purple traps with the upper leaf being the same color.

The inflorescence reaches 10″ in height and can have up to 30 white or pink flowers .4″ in diameter. Flowering occurs between January and March. The scape and the lower surface area of the sepals are also densely covered with white dendritic hairs.

Drosera lanata was first formally described by Katsuhiko Kondo in 1984 when he authored three new species of the D. petiolaris complex. The type specimen was collected near Mareeba on the Cape York Peninsula on March 28, 1982. D. lanata is closely related to D. derbyensis but defer from the dendric hairs.