Drosera latifolia
Range: Southeastern Brazilian highlands, central Minas Gerais south to Parana and Santa Catarina
Once the species referred to in cultivation as D. ascendens, this taxon is a notably widespread South American highlander, found in the Espinhaco Mountains of Minas Gerais as well as along the mountains of the Brazilian coast to the south, where it dwells in the former within sandy soils or rock cracks near vegetation and seeps and in peat or clay soils in the latter, places where there is always moisture. Plants may develop stems up to 10 cm high (though typically acaulescent), upon which rosettes up to 15 cm across spread. Leaves unfurl erect and bend downward with age; shape is lanceolate or narrowly oblong, with a prominent adaxially glabrous petiole of variable length (always less than half the total leaf length) and the lamina making up the majority of the leaf, lanceolate or oblong in shape. Color is bright green with crimson tentacles to solid wine-red throughout. Inflorescences are relatively bare, but with glandular trichomes particularly on the distal half, and often branch to bear up to 30 blooms. Flowers are just under 2 cm across, with pale to bright pink broad obovate petals. This species can be distinguished from its relatives by its notably elongate lanceolate-oblong leaves which possess a distinct but moderately short petiole (near none in ascendens, very prominent in villosa), glabrous petiole and inflorescence base, and relatively small blooms for the group.
Cultivation: grow in a 1:1 peat/perlite or sand mix (or even with a higher sand component), kept very moist to occasionally even wet and humid, with temps of 60-85°F day time and a nighttime drop of at least 10°F, year round. Sow seeds on soil surface, and grow in strong artificial light to full sun.
Lifespan and reproduction: perennial. Reproduces through seed, and can be grown through leaf and root cuttings.
Gonella et al. (2014). Exhuming St. Hilaire: revision of the Drosera villosa complex (Droseraceae)supports 200 year-old neglected species concepts. Phytotaxa 156(1): 1-40.