Drosera gunniana
Common name
sundew
Synonyms
Drosera foliosa Hook.f. ex Planch. nom. illegit.; Drosera peltata var. foliosa ( Planch. ) Benth., Drosera peltata var. genuina Planch., Drosera peltata var. gracilis ( Planch. ) Benth.; Drosera peltata var. gunniana Planch.; Drosera peltata Thunb. auct. Salmon (2011), Drosera hookeri R.P.Gibson, B.J.Conn et Conran auct. New Zealand authors
Family
Droseraceae
Flora category
Vascular – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Herbs - Dicotyledons other than Composites
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
DROHOO
Chromosome number
2n = 32
Current conservation status
The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2017 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS). This report includes a statistical summary and brief notes on changes since 2012 and replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Authors: By Peter J. de Lange, Jeremy R. Rolfe, John W. Barkla, Shannel P. Courtney, Paul D. Champion, Leon R. Perrie, Sarah M. Beadel, Kerry A. Ford, Ilse Breitwieser, Ines Schönberger, Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Peter B. Heenan and Kate Ladley.
2012 | Non-resident Native – Coloniser | Qualifiers: EF, SO
Previous conservation statuses
2009 | Non-resident Native – Coloniser | Qualifiers: SO, DP, EF
2004 | Not Threatened
Distribution
Indigenous. North Island from Te Paki south to the northern Waikato. Also Australia (south-eastern Australia and eastern Tasmania).
Habitat
Coastal to lowland on consolidated sand dunes, on clay pans, sometimes on peat. Usually in low gum land scrub and adjacent shrub lands. Often common after fires, and favours frequently disturbed ground.
Features
Tuberous herb, yellow-green to yellow in colour (rarely reddish); tuber ovoid, up to 5 × 5 mm tall; surface pink to red, often in a papery sheath; vertical stolon 10–40 mm long. Above ground parts of the plants glabrous stems up to 380 mm tall; unbranched or branched apically, distally, or both. Leaves, often in a flat basal rosette and cauline; basal leaves 2–22, the lamina ovate, elliptic, flabellate, reniform to hatchet-shaped, 1–5 × 2–11mm on a linear petiole 3.0–17.0 × 1.8 mm; cauline leaves alternate, the lamina crescentic, 1.0–6.5 × 1–10 mm, with acute angles, on petiole 3–17 mm long. Inflorescence a 1-sided raceme, 1–10-flowered; peduncle usually 10–50 mm long, but can be as short as 0.1 mm; pedicels 0.5–15 mm long. Sepals ovate, elliptic or obovate, 2.0–5.0 × 0.7–2.4 mm, usually moderately to densely hairy (with up to 30 hairs per mm square), but can also be glabrous; always with a fimbriate margin with hairs up to 1.3mm long. Petals obovate, 5–8 mm long by 3-8 mm wide, pink or white (drying pink). Styles 3, 0.3–1.2 mm long, divided into a total of between c.20-30 segments. Seeds 0.5 × 0.25 mm, black, ovoid to almost cylindrical with a short neck, surface deeply reticulated
Similar taxa
In New Zealand, D. gunniana could be confused only with D. auriculata, with which it often grows and from which it differs by the hairy rather than glabrous sepals and cylindrical, reticulate seeds (these 0.5 mm long rather than > 1 mm long).
Flowering
September - November
Flower colours
White
Fruiting
November - February
Propagation technique
Can be grown in pots from seed or from the small overwintering bulbils. Quite easily grown in this way. In suitable conditions it can naturalise itself.
Threats
Drosera gunniana was first recorded for New Zealand as D. peltata (Salmon 2001) when it was recognised from various swamps and gum land scrub Northland. Although it is not clear when this species first arrived in New Zealand, it has been widely collected since it was first drawn to the attention of botanists, and it is now well established throughout Northland and has expanded it’s range to as far south as the northern Waikato. Drosera gunniana (as D. hookeri) has been listed for New Zealand as a “Coloniser” since 2009 (de Lange et al., 2009) a status which still remains appropriate (see de Lange et al. 2018).
Etymology
drosera: Dewy
Taxonomic notes
New Zealand plants of Drosera gunniana have previously been treated as Drosera peltata (Salmon 2001), and then, by Gibson et al. (2010), as a new species, D. hookeri. Recently de Salas (2018) elevated Drosera peltata var. gunniana Planch. to species rank and in process redefined D. hookeri. Since then de Salas (pers. comm.) has examined images of New Zealand planted referred to Drosera hookeri and commented that they are D. gunniana. His view is followed here.
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared for NZPCN by P.J. de Lange (7 June 2019). Description adapted from de Salas (2018).
References and further reading
de Lange, P.J.; Norton, D.A.; Courtney, S.P.; Heenan, P.B.; Barkla, J.W.; Cameron, E.K.; Hitchmough, R.; Townsend, A.J. 2009: Threatened and uncommon plants of New Zealand (2008 revision). New Zealand Journal of Botany 47: 61-96.
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Barkla, J.W.; Courtney, S.P.; Champion P.D.; Perrie, L.R.; Beadel, S.M.; Ford, K.A.; Breitwieser, I.; Schoenberger, I.; Hindmarsh-Walls, R.; Heenan, P.B.; Ladley, K. 2018: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2017. New Zealand Threat Classification Series 22. Department of Conservation, Wellington. 82pp.
de Salas, M. 2018: Drosera gunniana comb. et stat. nov., a species in the Drosera peltata
(Droseraceae) complex. Muelleria 36:97-106.
Gibson, R.P.; Conn,B.J.; Conran, J.G. 2010: Drosera hookeri R.P.Gibson, B.J. Conn & Conran, a replacement name for Drosera foliosa Hook.f. ex Planch. nom. illeg. (Droseraceae). Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens 24: 39–42.
Gibson, R.; Conn, B.J.; Bruhl, J.J. 2012: Morphological evaluation of the Drosera peltata complex (Droseraceae). Australian Systematic Botany 25: 49-80.
Salmon, B. 2001: Carnivorous Plants of New Zealand. Ecosphere Publications: Auckland.
NZPCN Fact Sheet citation
Please cite as: de Lange, P.J. (Year at time of access): Drosera gunniana Fact Sheet (content continuously updated). New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/drosera-gunniana/ (Date website was queried)