Range: Cadeia do Espinhaco highlands, Brazil

 

This Latin American species is a mountain endemic with a disjunct distribution, found from the Serra do Cipo to Itacambira in Minas Gerais and also further north in the Diamantina Plateau in Bahia. Plants grow at 800-1600 meters in elevation in white sand and quartz or sandy peat soils in sandstone cracks or thin soil sheets that dry in winter, rarely in perennially wet locations. Specimens may develop stems to 2.5 cm tall, topped by rosettes to typically only 3 cm across, rarely larger in wet locations, with flat rosettes of obovate to cuneate leaves. The short petiole is broad and tapered, with sparse hairs on the back, and the lamina is more rounded to wedge-shaped with fewer to no hairs, the edges adorned by distinctly lengthy snap tentacles. Color is anywhere from green with red tinged tentacles to solid wine red, depending on the light intensity; commonly plants look nearly bicolored with green petioles and orange-red lamina. Scapes may reach 16 cm tall and are densely covered in small red glands, bearing up to 8 blooms. Flowers are up to 1.8 cm in diameter, with broadly obovate light to deep pink blooms. This species is easily distinguished from its relatives by its manner of leaf unfurling (folded rather than circinate) and large marginal tentacles (a trait only seen so far in D. sessilifolia in South America).

 

Cultivation: grow in a 2:1 peat/sand soil, kept very moist to wet but well aerated and humid, with temps of 65-80°F daytime, cooler at night, throughout the year. If plants begin to slow in growth, let pot dry to just damp for a few months to promote flowering. Sow seeds on soil surface, and grow in strong artificial light to full sun.

 

Lifespan and reproduction: perennial. Reproduces through seed and occasional division, and can be grown through leaf or root cuttings.   

 

Sources: Rivadavia et al. (2014). Elucidating the controversial Drosera montana complex (Droseraceae): a taxonomic revision. Phytotaxa 172(3): 141-175.

http://www.ladin.usp.br/carnivoras/Photos/Genera/Drosera/Congonhas_Diamantina_07_1999__1.jpg