Drosera x beleziana and the September CPN

From the ICPS Website

I just received September's Carnivorous Plant Newletter (CPN) and saw Matt Kaelin's report about discovering Drosera x beleziana, the natural hybrid between Drosera rotundifolia and Drosera intermedia, on Long Island. Strangely, the hybrid had never been reported on Long Island (or even in New York). In fact, according to Matt's research, it has only been reported in France, England, Scandinavia, the New Jersey Pine Barrens, and Massachusetts!

Drosera at a bog in southern New Hampshire

At first, I found this lack of reporting odd. Then, I considered the bogs I had visited, such as the one photographed above, and it became obvious to me why this hybrid wasn't reported more frequently. It is so similar to the parents, which themselves aren't too different, and the individual plants are so small that you'd have to have a lot of patience to bother to look closely at more than a handful of the thousands upon thousands of Drosera that you'd pass in an environment where the parents are both living in close proximity.

(For the record, I've seen Drosera x beleziana in both New Hampshire and Maine, so you can add those states to the list of places it occurs. I would be surprised if Vermont could not be added as well, but I haven't been to any bogs there, yet. I'll be sure to (kind of) keep my eye out to take a picture of it in the wild whenever I see it next).

Drosera x beleziana and parents

In my own collection I grow D. x beleziana, by accident. Last year, I had a pot of mixed D. rotundifolia and D. intermedia. The plants flowered at the same time and, of the seed I collected, I got a few D. beleziana. I haven't noticed anything special about the hybrid in terms of better growth or catching ability, although, to be honest, I haven't actually given it a whole lot of attention as it grows mixed in with a bunch of the parent plants in one of my bog trays.