Sundews in Bloom!

Drosera adelae "Giant Red"

I finally have some Drosera adelae flowers! So many tiny red stars! I've been waiting for this moment. Almost every time my D. adelae sends up a flower stalk, it ends up with little plantlets growing off it instead of flowers. Now, at last, I get to see the tiny red stars.

Drosera adelae "Giant Red"

The plant which flowered is my "Giant Red" clone. I'm really not too sure what's different about this clone versus "regular" Drosera adelae. My guess is that it is supposed to be bigger and turn red in strong light, but, for the most part, it looks very similar to my "regular" Drosera adelae. (It's possible that "red" refers to the flower color, but most Drosera adelae are red flowered. Only a few are white flowered).

Drosera adelae flowers

What I find remarkable about the flowers is how small they are compared to other Drosera. I'm used to Drosera flowers being small, often only a bit larger than medium-sized terrestrial Utricularia flowers, but these flowers are about the same size as regular Utricularia bisquamata flowers, minuscule. That surprised me. I expected them to be much bigger, given the size of the stalk.

Drosera adelae flowers

What's also remarkable is that several flowers are open at a time. Most Drosera open one at a time, and are self-pollinating. Here, having several flowers open at once, indicates that this species is not self-pollinating, much like Drosera prolifera. (Unfortunately, I didn't have any flowers open on my Drosera prolifera or Drosera schizandra, so I couldn't try to make a cross like Drosera 'Andromeda').

Drosera esmeraldae flower

Also in flower is my Drosera esmeraldae. If all goes well, this plant will set seed and I will have plenty of small plants of this species in the future. (I already have a few seedlings sprouting up elsewhere in this terrarium from an earlier seeding event.

Drosera esmeraldae

I'm finding this an interesting species. I knew that it has variable flower color, depending on the environmental factors. At least the light lilac color confirms that this is, indeed, most likely, a correctly labeled specimen.