Spoon-Leaved Sundew

Drosera spatulata is a small, variable sundew that forms flat rosettes of spoon-shaped, sticky leaves. It has a very large range, from East and Southeast Asia to Australia and New Zealand.

Drosera spatulata is a perennial that forms a small rosette of many spoon-shaped (spathulate) leaves, generally about 1.6 inches (4 cm) across. Each leaf has a narrow petiole about 8 mm long, glandular only on its upper half, and a blade typically about 5 mm long and 4 mm wide. The name spatulata is Latin for "spatula shaped".

In early summer it produces upright flower stalks about 3 inches (8 cm) tall, each carrying around six small white or pink flowers on one side of the stalk; each flower is up to about 6 mm across.

The species is highly variable, and growers often label plants by the locality they came from. Three varieties are recognized, and registered cultivars include Drosera 'Kanto', the very dark red 'Ruby Slippers' and the large 'Tamlin'.

Because it is hardy and flowers freely, producing large amounts of seed that germinates easily, carnivorous plant growers often regard it as a weed that appears in neighboring pots.

Herêma Xwecihî: Southeast Asia, southern China, Japan, Micronesia, New Guinea, eastern Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand

Herêmên Avhewayê: Subtropical to warm temperate

D. spatulata occurs naturally throughout Southeast Asia, southern China and Japan, Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, eastern Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand. In New South Wales it grows in wetlands and heath and is especially widespread in coastal areas, and it is also recorded from Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania. Var. bakoensis was described from Bako National Park in Sarawak, Borneo. The plant does not form winter resting buds (hibernacula).

Mezinahiya Gihiştî: Rosette about 1.6 in (4 cm) across; flower stalks about 3 in (8 cm)

Rêjeya Mezinbûnê: Moderate

Cureyê Defikê: Flypaper Trap

Like other sundews, the leaf blades are covered with stalked glands whose glistening drops of sticky mucilage attract and hold small insects. Trapped prey is held by the mucilage, which can clog its breathing pores, and the stalked glands secrete enzymes to digest it while sessile glands absorb the resulting nutrients. The tentacles bend toward captured prey.

Growers often call it a weed because its seed sprouts readily in neighboring pots.
The common misspelling 'spathulata' dates from an 1824 printing error by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle.
Drosera tokaiensis arose in the wild from a hybrid of D. rotundifolia and D. spatulata that became fertile through chromosome doubling.
Var. gympiensis is distinguished by its consistently hairy sepals.
Unlike temperate sundews it does not form hibernacula in winter.

Jacques Labillardière first described Drosera spatulata in 1804 in Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen, from a specimen found in Tasmania. In 1824 Augustin Pyramus de Candolle included it in a publication but misprinted the name as Drosera spathulata, a spelling that is still common. The species has been described under several other names since, now treated as synonyms, including D. loureirii, D. lovellae and D. propinqua. In 2005 Robert Gibson and Ivan Snyder described var. gympiensis, and in 2009 var. bakoensis was described from Bako National Park in Borneo.

1. Drosera spatulata, Wikipedia
2. Drosera, Wikipedia
3. Drosera spatulata, PlantNET (NSW Flora Online), Royal Botanic Garden Sydney
4. Any other Drosera species, The Carnivorous Plant FAQ (Barry Rice)
5. Growing Subtropical Drosera, International Carnivorous Plant Society