Drosera monticola facts for kids

Drosera monticola is a special type of carnivorous plant. It's a perennial plant, which means it lives for many years. This plant is a kind of sundew, known for catching insects. You can only find this unique plant in one mountain range in Western Australia.

What is Drosera Monticola?

Drosera monticola is a small plant. It usually grows to be about 2 to 7 centimeters tall. That's roughly the length of your thumb! Like other sundews, it has a special way of life. Its appearance changes depending on if it's flowering or not.

How Does it Grow?

This plant grows from bright red, round tubers. These tubers are like small underground storage units, about 6 millimeters wide. The tubers help the plant survive tough times.

Catching Bugs with Sticky Leaves

Like all sundews, Drosera monticola' has reddish, round leaves. These leaves are covered in tiny, sticky hairs. These hairs are actually glands that produce a sticky liquid. This liquid looks like dew drops, which is why they are called sundews!

When small insects like arthropods land on the leaves, they get stuck. The plant then slowly digests the insect. This helps the plant get nutrients it can't find in the soil. The reddish leaves grow in circles around the plant's upright stems. Unlike some other sundews, the leaves of D. monticola do not fold up to trap prey.

Flowers and Reproduction

Drosera monticola blooms from October to November. It grows a smooth stem with pink flowers at the top. Besides making seeds, this plant can also make new plants by forming colonies. This means new plants can grow from the original one, creating a group.

Where Does Drosera Monticola Live?

This amazing plant lives only in the Stirling Range National Park in Southwestern Australia. You can find it on the very tops of Toolbrunup Peak and Bluff Knoll. These are high mountains in the region.

High Mountain Homes

Drosera monticola prefers to live in very high places. It likes areas near the cloud-lines on mountain summits. Here, it grows in wet, loamy soils that collect in rocky ledges and dips. While scientists think it might grow on other peaks in the Stirling Range, it has only been officially found on Toolbrunup Peak and Bluff Knoll so far.

How Was it Discovered and Named?

Scientists Allen Lowrie and N. G. Marchant first described this plant in 1992. At first, they thought it was a subspecies of another plant called Drosera stolonifera. They collected a sample from Toolbrunup Peak. This sample is called a type specimen and helps scientists identify the plant.

Getting the Right Name

Later, in 2005, Allen Lowrie decided it was different enough to be its own species. He tried to name it Drosera monticola. However, there are strict rules for naming plants. He made a small mistake in how he cited the original description. This meant the new name wasn't officially valid yet.

Lowrie fixed this mistake in 2011. He published a short note in a scientific journal called Nuytsia. He provided the correct information, and finally, the name Drosera monticola became official.