Forked sundew

Description

Drosera binata, commonly known as the forked sundew or fork-leaved sundew, is a large, perennial sundew native to Australia and New Zealand. The specific epithet is Latin for "having pairs" - a reference to the leaves, which are dichotomously divided or forked. Like all sundews, it is a Carnivorous plant. It is unique among sundews in having narrow, branching leaves. It is the only species in the Drosera subgenus Phycopsis. D. binata occurs naturally in Australia, primarily in coastal areas from Fraser Island in Queensland, southwards down through New South Wales and Victoria to Tasmania and the south-east corner of South Australia. The range of this species extends to New Zealand where it is common below an elevation of 1000 metres, being found in both the North and South Islands, Stewart Island/Rakiura and farther afield on the Chathams. Some populations go dormant in the winter, while others are truly tropical. Plants similar to the type specimen, commonly referred to as the "T-form", were first collected in 1792 by the French exploration of Australia's southern coast led by Bruni d'Entrecasteaux. The naturalist on board that expedition, Jacques Labillardière, first described D. binata in his 1804 publication on the flora of Australia, Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen. The T-form, so named for its single leaf bifurcation spreading into a T-shape, is a robust plant from temperate zones that can grow up to 30 cm (12 in) and has green foliage that becomes redder with age. This form has been described as being genetically stable. The second observed form, commonly referred to as var. dichotoma, is similar to the T-form, but the foliage is yellower and the leaf typically divides into four terminal leaf points, though it has been known to produce as many as eight leaf points. It was first validly described in an 1819 volume of Rees's Cyclopædia by James Edward Smith as D. dichotoma, based on the description by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander. This name, however, has since been reduced to synonymy with D. binata. This morphological form was first published as "var. dichotoma" by J. A. Mazrimas in a 1976 volume of the Carnivorous Plant Newsletter, but the publication of that name was invalid under the rules of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. Even though the name is not valid, it is still widely used in cultivation to refer to this D. binata form.