Click here to see Part 1, which covers basic info. about Barren Grounds and Drosera pygmaea.
Click here to see Part 3, which covers Drosera binata, Sphagnum and general wildlife.
Drosera peltata
There are several forms of Drosera peltata (note the stipules on the sepals) to be found here. The above is a rather spindly, golden coloured form with red tentacles. A second, golden-green form occurs near the toilets in the carpark and picnic area; I have also found it growing near Ingleburn, on the outskirts of Sydney. There is also a third form that is almost uniformly red growing here as well. It looks like:
If you look closely in this photo, you can actually see there is a sole plant of the golden form with red tentacles (arrowed) growing in with the red form:
As with Drosera pygmaea, D. peltata also grows next to other species of Drosera…
Drosera spathulata
After D. peltata, D. spathulata is probably the commonest and most widespread sundew in eastern Australia. I grew up with a different form, f. gympiensis, in southeastern Queensland, and have also found it in Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park and on King’s Tableland in the Blue Mountains. This species varies tremendously in size; the largest plants I have seen in Queensland were giants of over 100 mm; here they are no bigger than 60-50 mm. There does seem to be some size correlation between the wetness of a site and rosette size; the wetter the soil, the larger the diameter of the rosette. The drier site plants also have less elongate leaves as well, in some instances they can resemble (but are not) D. burmannii.
Click here for Part 3…
