Drosera anglica

Langblättriger Sundew ( Drosera anglica )

The Langblättrige Sundew ( Drosera anglica ), ( synonym: D. longifolia), also long- leaf sundew or English sundew, is a species in the genus Sundew ( Drosera ), a genus of carnivorous plants. He is one of only three species found in Central Europe.

Description

The Langblättrige sundew is a perennial, herbaceous plant and forms an upright rosette. The focused less on nutrient supply than on roots and water uptake of the plant root system is weak and extends only a few inches deep.

The leaves of the plants are 35-95 millimeters long. The oblong to linear - spatelige leaf blade is only 15 to 35 mm long and 2-5 mm wide and typical genre - occupied with the reddish tentacles. With their leaves she starts mainly flies, but also smaller butterflies or dragonflies are caught occasionally, within minutes, the tentacles turn on the capture, followed within hours of the leaf blade itself, only after completion of the digestive process, the sheet is unrolled again.

The Langblättrige sundew flowers from June to July. The up to 20 cm tall flower stalks bear a winding whose fivefold flowers open singly. The white petals are 8-12 mm long and can be both alien - like self-pollinated.

After flowering and the formation of capsular fruits with numerous egg-shaped and 1 to 1.5 mm long, black seeds the plant occurs in early autumn in the winter rest a by collecting the leaves and a winter bud, called Hibernakel forms, from which it then the following spring shoots emerging.

At altitudes of Langblättrige sundew forms a height form with smaller leaves and short inflorescence with 1-3 flowers.

Where the species occurs along with the round-leaved sundew, is often the most common hybrid Drosera x obovata Mert & WDJ Cooking to be found. This intersection is often confused with the type and is connected to the inverted - egg-shaped leaves, a capsule, which is shorter than the sepals and identify of sterile seeds.

Dissemination

The Langblättrige sundew comes around the globe before in the temperate zones of the northern hemisphere, so that he is one of the world's most widely used sundews. At some points the way penetrates further south before, as in southern Europe, Japan, California and even on the Hawaiian island of Kauai ( the deposits there are smaller in habit and form no Hibernakel ).

Worldwide locations up to 2000 m above sea level are known in Germany was one of the highest localities a subalpine site in the Black Forest listed in Feldseemoor at 1100 m above sea level, there begin the winter frosts in October and only end in May.

He is next to the round-leaved sundew (D. rotundifolia ) and the Middle sundew (D. intermedia ) is the only representative of its kind in Central Europe.

In Germany the Langblättrige sundew is found even in calcareous fens source in the foothills. Many localities existed once in North West Germany, there has revolutionized the way but experienced a very sharp decline in recent years and is now threatened with extinction. D. anglica in Germany is the rarest of the native species of Drosera and therefore especially worthy of protection.

Threats and conservation

The langblättrige sundew is in Germany at high risk (category 2) and is under protection.

Habitat

Preferred locations are in full sun, submontane and montane raised bog hollows, between Moore and fens, on waterlogged soils, usually associated with peat moss. Unusually for a sundew plant is relatively kalktolerant. The plants are ( with the exception of the Hawaiian stocks ) hardy and also tolerate longer periods of frost.

Evolution

Since long-leaved sundew except with its chromosome number of 2n = 40 all North American sundews a chromosome number of 2n = 20 have suggested CE Wood 1955 provides that the Langblättrige sundew goes back to a amphidiploids hybrids from the round-leaved sundew and Drosera linearis, molecular genetic studies ( Rivadavia et al., 2003) support this thesis, as well as the occasional ( infertile ) Natural hybrids of the two species in their morphological long-leaved sundew similarity to.

Pictures

Drosera anglica in a raised bog in northern West Germany.

Alpine dwarf in a marshy slopes in Carinthia

Hybrids of D. anglica x D. rotundifolia Drosera x obovata.