Drosera rotundifolia in the north

[naoki]

It is not an orchid, but there are a couple people interested in carnivorous plants here. We were morel-hunting last week-end, but instead of morels, my son found this:


Drosera rotundiflora on Flickr

From herbarium records, there are a couple records from further north (Kobuk Valley National park around the Brooks Range), but this seems to be at the northern edge of the distribution in Alaska. It was a nice father's day treat to see it in the nature!

This is the surrounding area. They were everywhere on the sphagnum moss:

Drosera rotundiflora habitat on Flickr

There is a bit of related info in my Orchid Borealis blog post (includes unrelated topics).

 

[Happypaphy7]

Oh, wow~ amazing photo!!! What camera do you use?

This one looks like ones I saw in Korea.
The habitat looks similar, too.

They are just small but close-up picture rally shows off the interesting feature of this plant.

I think there are more than just a couple of people that are interested in these.

For now, I'm only trying ones that do not need cold winter.

Did you find some morel?
Didn't realize how expensive they could be until I had them at a restaurant a couple of years ago.

 

[naoki]

The two photos above are with an older point-and-shoot Canon S100, and the other photos in the blog are with Olympus E-M1.

You are right, I think this species is in Korea, too.

My son found some in our backyard, and we were hoping to fill up several grocery bags (my friend did 2 weeks ago). We didn't find any because we stayed close to the road; the hike through burned boreal forest was a bit too tough for 3 & 4 year-old kids.

 

[SlipperFan]

Very cool! Thanks.

 

[Carkin]

I love to see them growing in the wild!! Thank you for sharing.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[abax]

Sundews are sooo gorgeous when the sun hits them just
right...they sparkle like diamonds. I used to grow them in
a terrarium and fed them fruit flies. They're jolly little
monsters!

 

[fibre]

Wonderful scenes!

 

[Lanmark]

I had no idea Sundews grew that far north! Beautiful!

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

Naoki, it is hard to imagine living as far north as you do. How do you take those winters? Still, there is something terribly appealing about all that wilderness at one's doorstep.

D. rotundifolia must be the most widely distributed sundew in the world. I've seen them in the eastern US from the southern mountains to Maine, and it is equally at home here in Japan in upland bogs. In north Florida it is replaced by the very near relative D. brevifolia, which is remarkably an even smaller plant!

 

[naoki]

Tom, winter isn't so bad for me, but you are right,it is impossible for some. People say that we have to get out and do something to like Alaskan winter; XC ski, sledding, ice fishing, snow-machine, dog mushing etc. But a bit of global warming could help us. Indeed, last winter was crazy warm, and the temperature stayed mostly around -10F (and I don't remember a day with -30F; we usually get -35 to -40F for 1-2 weeks per year). This could be a part of the reason one of my Platanthera started to grow too early, and it didn't make it.

It is great to be so close to the wilderness, indeed. We just came back from Dragonfly festival, and there were bunch of kids chasing around them, and an author of a Dragonfly book was helping them identify and telling them all kinds of cool facts. I learned that a Four-spotted Skimmer will eat flies in your hand even if the dragonfly is captured in your hand. My son tried it and he had a blast. This species is the state insect of Alaska (mosquitoes are not it). It is a great place to raise kids, indeed.

I think you are right, D. rotundifolia has a wide world-wide distribution; and others with wide distributions are D. anglica and D. intermedia. I have to try to find D. anglica in Alaska next.

 

[NYEric]

Thanks for sharing. My GF and I watch a few of those 'Alaska;...' shows on TV. We always say, "why would anyone want to work so hard just to live?!:

 

[eOrchids]

Stunning! One of my favorite sundew species.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[SFLguy]

Naoki, it is hard to imagine living as far north as you do. How do you take those winters? Still, there is something terribly appealing about all that wilderness at one's doorstep.

D. rotundifolia must be the most widely distributed sundew in the world. I've seen them in the eastern US from the southern mountains to Maine, and it is equally at home here in Japan in upland bogs. In north Florida it is replaced by the very near relative D. brevifolia, which is remarkably an even smaller plant!

Not to mention it is also native to England. Charles Darwin studied them extensively, he even said that he cared more for Drosera than the origin of all the species

 

[daniella3d]

Nice photos! I like them too but I much prefer pitcher plants. I have quite a collection of sarracenias in small portable bog gardens at home. I keep them in my garage at 4 C in winter and they do great year after year. I bought some from France through Ebay and some from Hawaiian Batanical in Canada. Great place to buy carnivorous plants! You can even buy the purpura which is a native Canadian bog plant.

 

[cnycharles]

I like the threadleaf sundew which only grows on Long Island in ny, though they are all cool

Wilderness is great for quietude. Once while camping overnight in the Adirondacks to get an early start on orchid photographing I heard what thought was a loud creature but was only a vole in the leaves 15 yds away


Elmer Nj

 

[SFLguy]

I like the threadleaf sundew which only grows on Long Island in ny, though they are all cool

Wilderness is great for quietude. Once while camping overnight in the Adirondacks to get an early start on orchid photographing I heard what thought was a loud creature but was only a vole in the leaves 15 yds away


Elmer Nj

The one you're thinking of is Drosera filiformis

 

[likespaphs]

super cute!

 

[naoki]

Nice photos! I like them too but I much prefer pitcher plants. I have quite a collection of sarracenias in small portable bog gardens at home. I keep them in my garage at 4 C in winter and they do great year after year. I bought some from France through Ebay and some from Hawaiian Batanical in Canada. Great place to buy carnivorous plants! You can even buy the purpura which is a native Canadian bog plant.

I also grow a couple Sarracenia species, too. I think S. purpurea can grow in very cold area, and there are records from Yukon Territory. I'd love to get seeds of these northern populations. Maybe it can survive the Alaska winter.

I like the threadleaf sundew which only grows on Long Island in ny, though they are all cool

Wilderness is great for quietude. Once while camping overnight in the Adirondacks to get an early start on orchid photographing I heard what thought was a loud creature but was only a vole in the leaves 15 yds away

I'd love to see photos of D. filliformis, Charles! I have a hard time growing mine for some reason. Leaves seem to lot easily. Any tips, SFLguy?

It is tough to find completely quiet place. Even Denail NP is pretty noisy. You are right that you notice a lot of things we usually don't notice in the situation. In the winter time, I also noticed faint noise a couple time, and I think that it was voles moving around under their snow tunnel. Some nature shows have clips of foxes listening intensely to find the voles under the snow, and now I know what they are listening to.

 

[Dandrobium]

I spotted S. purpurea a few weeks back at the base of a ditch along a common highway in the middle of Manitoba. We can get pretty harsh winters here also, so these should be good candidates to grow outdoors in the north.

http://i.imgur.com/95pWqwl.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/NdtUskS.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Peba4rX.jpg

I tried growing D. rotundifolia from seed but alas, I let it dry too much while I was on my trip up north and snapping these pics! My D. capensis were still okay, they weren't nearly as tiny.

 

[SFLguy]

I also grow a couple Sarracenia species, too. I think S. purpurea can grow in very cold area, and there are records from Yukon Territory. I'd love to get seeds of these northern populations. Maybe it can survive the Alaska winter.



I'd love to see photos of D. filliformis, Charles! I have a hard time growing mine for some reason. Leaves seem to lot easily. Any tips, SFLguy?

It is tough to find completely quiet place. Even Denail NP is pretty noisy. You are right that you notice a lot of things we usually don't notice in the situation. In the winter time, I also noticed faint noise a couple time, and I think that it was voles moving around under their snow tunnel. Some nature shows have clips of foxes listening intensely to find the voles under the snow, and now I know what they are listening to.

I know purpurea grows into Canada but in not sure up to where.
How were you growing yours?
Were you using distilled water? I've only recently started growing filiformis but i haven't really done anything special for it
They get as much sun as possible too