Drosera Rotundifolia: Structure and Function

The Roundleaf Sundew is an insectivorous and perennial angiosperm, showcasing hairs with drops of sticky mucus that trap prey, allowing the flower to fold inward and digest their prey via digestive enzymes and anesthetics that allow for prey absorption. Also on display are small leaves, of about 3/4 and inch, and green and red stalks. This red color may attract insects, luring them to their eventual sticky entrapment. This plant has a flowering season from approximately June- September during the warmer, summer periods and is one of the most widely distributed carnivorous plant species. The Roundleaf Sundew is capable of both asexual reproduction- by the development of new buds- and sexual reproduction- by the use of the plants flowers.

Drosera Rotundifolia:  Evolutionary Relationships

The roundleaf sundew originate in bogs and areas of little nutrient density. Insectivorous and carnivorous plants evolved their ability to consume prey as a means to support and sustain themselves with no other alternative nutrition sources. Regionally, the degree to which the plant may rely on prey for nutrition depends largely on the nutrition availability of the immediate environment, wherein roundleaf sundews in a shady and more nutrient-rich environment invest significantly less in carnivory.

Drosera Rotundifolia: Ecology

The roundleaf sundew has grown and evolved in areas of high acidity (with soil pH of less than 6 being ideal) and relative hostility- this adaptive plant spends its time in as harsh and diverse of areas such as the Adirondack mountains, American wetlands, Europe, Siberia, and Canada; primarily in both continental and oceanic climates. While it is limited by its necessity for wet and damp environments, its carnivorous adaptations allow for a plethora of new and relatively un-inhabited climates that would harm plants less evolved to low-nutrient environments.  

Drosera Rotundifolia are found not only in the Botany Greenhouse, but all over WI! Keep an eye out in wetlands, bogs, fens,

and marshes in Wisconsin to find this small, yet mighty, 2-10 inch plant!