Christmas Bells

Christmas Bells
Christmas Bells - Blandfordia nobilis

Monday, December 13, 2010

Forked Sundew in flower in the swamps

The striking pure white flowers of the tall, "Forked Sundews" (Drosera binata) are dominant in the wet boggy areas of our Southern Highlands at present.

The leaves of this plant remind me of tiny Reindeer Antlers.

Note the curled-up tips of the forked leaves.
Here is the Illustration from PlantNET.
Here are the leaves and flowers "in situ".
Click to enlarge the image.
Look for the reddish stems.
Another view of the same group of plants.
The low-growing green mats
are groups of small Selaginella plants

But the flowers emerge straight up from the base on an unforked stem. There are numerous white flower buds per stem.

Beautiful pure-white flowers of Drosera binata.

These large patches of white coming from the mud and the ooze of a boggy patch of a farm look quite out of place.

Life is full of surprises.

2 comments:

mick said...

Great photos of these beautiful little flowers - and finally! this is one I know and see up here although the D. spatulata is more common.

Denis Wilson said...

Hi Mick
I only remember the small Sundews from Melbourne, as a Kid. It is reported from Vic and SA, but perhaps it has a preference for warmer climes.
I love the weird curled leaves.
I have some photos of D. spatulata and several shots of what I think is D. peltata, but I need to take a lot more images before I can do a "series" on the tiny Sundews.
Cheers
Denis