D. sp. 2 Kouebokkeveld, SA

[cpgeek]

Hi folks, I received seed of this plant a couple years ago from Rachel Saunders of Silverhill Seeds shortly after her tragic disappearance. It's a robust, large plant quite unlike any other SA Drosera I've grown. I was hoping it would have flowered for identification but no luck as yet. Unlikely to be a large trinervia or aliciae as the root is very thick and long (like cuneifolia or esterhyseniae). Perhaps a stemless cistiflora, zeyheri or ...?

 

[WillyCKH]

It's so lovely and vibrant. Would love to grow one!

 

[cpgeek]

@ Willy Yes, it does light up well. I'll take some leaf cuttings if you would like to swap later
@ Lloyd Seed were labelled exactly as written in the title. I've heard from another grower who also obtained seed from their catalog around the same time that it was labelled as simply D. sp. Kouebokkeveld. Rachel mentioned the plants grew on the Witzenberg at 1200 m with another unknown Drosera she called D. sp. 1 Kouebokkeveld.

 

[Lloyd Gordon]

Maybe you have a unnamed species.

 

[WillyCKH]

@ Willy Yes, it does light up well. I'll take some leaf cuttings if you would like to swap later
@ Lloyd Seed were labelled exactly as written in the title. I've heard from another grower who also obtained seed from their catalog around the same time that it was labelled as simply D. sp. Kouebokkeveld. Rachel mentioned the plants grew on the Witzenberg at 1200 m with another unknown Drosera she called D. sp. 1 Kouebokkeveld.

That'd be amazing...

 

[Apoplast]

That's a great plant! End of statement.

 

[Hal]

That's a very nice plant.
I have a few Lithops I grew from seeds from Silverhill and I cherish them all the more for their origin.

 

[Lloyd Gordon]

I once wanted to buy a special parasitic plant in South Africa from a nursery. They would only accept a South African bank account payment. I paid Rachel by MasterCard and she paid the nursery for me, just because she knew me from buying seeds.

 

[Apoplast]

I don't want to turn this into a memories of Rachel (I never interacted with Rod much) thread, which it easily could because she was simply an incredible person, but even this much said makes me sad again. I found out about the world's untimely loss from Lloyd. I was distracted for days trying to find out what happened. It was so sad.

 

[cpgeek]

If you're right Lloyd about this turning out to be a new species/subspecies, then I can't think of a better tribute than to name her discovery after her. Next to Eric Green, I can't think of another South African who have made more Drosera available to the cp community or have been as impactful over the years than the Saunders. Perhaps D. saundersii would be appropriate?

 

[stevebradford]

If you're right Lloyd about this turning out to be a new species/subspecies,

that would be awesome let’s hope it is a new species or subspecies. I believe D. trinervia does only have one or two large thick roots not that I have ever grown any. If you are able to look at underside of an old or dead leaf to see if it has three veins on the underside that would identify it as D. trinervia. There is a variant collected from the Ceres district, east slope of the Witzenberg Pillans the same range as the Kouebokkeveld and was tentatively placed in this taxon since it also has the veins but is a larger plant. A possibility is D. afra? Great looking sundew keep us updated!

D. Afra

http://www.utricularia.de/bilder/sammlung/drosera/afra_DROS231_033.jpg

 

[cpgeek]

You're right Steve, trinervia normally has thick, stubby roots less than 6 cm or so. D. sp. 2 also has trinervate leaves though not as pronounced as trinervia. You can see in the 1st pic below, the plant most closely resembles the two trinervia location forms at the bottom, grown under similar conditions, and with 12 cm+ long roots. However, its lamina are thicker and larger and the plant is overall more robust than all my trinervia location forms. D. aliciae is on the left and D. cuneifolia on the right for comparison.

Now D. afra is an interesting proposition, as it does indeed grow in those mountains. Here's an older pic of my afras (from Rachel's seed again!) in the Hex River Mountains above Ceres.

Similar leaf morph but root structure among other features does not align. I'm afraid we'll have to wait another season to compare flowers and check seed viability to solve this mystery!

 

[cpgeek]

Update: My largest plant is finally flowering! Here are some pics from a couple days ago:

The flower is quite unlike anything I've seen and resembles that of a small D. pauciflora flower with its dark center, stamen and elongated styles. Wish me luck in getting a few seed (with a little manual help)