Drosera tokaiensis

Description

Drosera tokaiensis is a carnivorous plant native to Japan. It is considered to be a natural hybrid of Drosera rotundifolia and Drosera spatulata. These two parent species have 20 and 40 chromosomes, respectively, so recent hybrids between them are sterile, having 30 chromosomes, while the stabilized, fertile D. tokaiensis has 60 (i.e. allohexaploid). The species was previously thought to be a subspecies or variety of Drosera spatulata. It is often mistaken for D. spatulata in cultivation. Drosera, which is commonly known as the sundews, is 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 surfaces. The insects are used to supplement the poor mineral nutrition of the soil in which the plants grow. Various species, which vary greatly in size and form, are native to every continent except Antarctica. Charles Darwin performed much of the early research into Drosera, engaging in a long series of experiments with Drosera rotundifolia which were the first to confirm carnivory in plants.In an 1860 letter, Darwin wrote, “…at the present moment, I care more about Drosera than the origin of all the species in the world.” Both the botanical name (from the Greek drosos = "dew, dewdrops") and 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 the glandular trichomes that resemble drops of morning dew. The Principia Botanica, published in 1787, states “Sun-dew (Drosera) derives its name from small drops of a liquor-like dew, hanging on its fringed leaves, and continuing in the hottest part of the day, exposed to the sun.”