Wildlife
Sundews are a genus of carnivorous plants which usually live in wet habitats where the acidic conditions limit the amount of nutrients they can extract from the soil. These plants therefore supplement their diet by catching and digesting small creatures such as insects. Some species of sundew are very long-lived. Sundews can be found growing on every continent except Antarctica.
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Sticky end
On Mount Roraima in northern South America, sundews feast on inquisitive mosquitoes.
On Mount Roraima in northern South America, sundews feast on inquisitive mosquitoes.
Meat-eating plants
Living fly-paper tentacles deliver a sundew's meal.
Like an alluring octopus, the carnivorous sundew plant wraps its sticky tentacles around a mosquito that it has lured with its droplets of sweet-smelling stickiness. Then it turns the mosquito into a nitrogen-rich soup and sucks the miserable mozzy dry.
Hungry plants
A carpet of sundews are a hazard for the insect life of the bog.
A carpet of sundews are a hazard for the insect life of the bog.
Botanical treasures
Moorland bogs are home to cotton grass and sticky sundews.
Moorland bogs are home to cotton grass and sticky sundews.
The Sundews can be found in a number of locations including: Africa, Asia, Australia, China, Europe, North America, Russia, South America, United Kingdom, Wales, Ynys-hir nature reserve. Find out more about these places and what else lives there.
Drosera, commonly known as the sundews, comprise one of the largest genera of carnivorous plants, with at least 194 species. These members of the family Droseraceae lure, capture, and digest insects using stalked mucilaginous glands covering their leaf surface. The insects are used to supplement the poor mineral nutrition of the soil in which they grow. Various species, which vary greatly in size and form, can be found growing natively on every continent except Antarctica.
Both the botanical name (from the Greek δρόσος: "drosos" = "dew, dewdrops") as well as the English common name (sundew, derived from Latin ros solis, meaning "dew of the sun") refer to the glistening drops of mucilage at the tip of each tentacle that resemble drops of morning dew.
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