Carniflora Australis Journal of the Australasian Carnivorous Plant Society Inc. Volume 9 No. 3, March 2014 1 ISSN 1448-9570 PRICE $5.00 Free with Membership Subscription All members, single, family and overseas $AU25.00 Please make cheques or money orders payable to the Australasian Carnivorous Plant Society Inc. Membership and correspondence should be forwarded to the Secretary at [email protected] or PO BOX 4009 Kingsway West NSW 2208 (Australia) Meeting are held on the second Friday of each month Time: 7.30pm—10.00pm Venue: Woodstock Community Centre Church St, Burwood More information is also available at: http://www.auscps.com/modules/newbb/ An electronic copy of this issue is available at: https://auscps.wordpress.com/ Contents Front Page: . Utricularia grampiana and Drosera auriculata, Mt William, Grampians National Park, Robert Gibson Back Page: Drosera spatulata ’Typical Form’, Ahipara, New Zealand Robert Gibson Title Author Page The search for the ‘Blaze of purple’: Robert Gibson 4 Unraveling mysteries of the Utricularia dichotoma complex Carnivorous Plants of the North Robert Gibson 21 Island, New Zealand. 2 UPCOMING SPEAKERS AND EVENTS Date Subject Speaker 10th January 2014 General Meeting 14th February 2014 General Meeting 14th March 2014 General Meeting 11th April 2014 General Meeting 9th May 2014 General Discussion 13th June 2014 Book Launch Stewart McPherson Pygmy Drosera Kirk ‘Füzzy’ Hirsch Committee 2014 President: Robert Gibson Vice President: Wesley Fairhall Secretary: Wesley Fairhall Treasurer: Gareth Hambridge Committee Members: Marina Chong Kirk ‘Füzzy’ Hirsch Glen Moss Terry Watts 3 The search for the ‘Blaze of purple’: Unraveling mysteries of the Utricularia dichotoma complex Robert Gibson Newcastle E-mail: [email protected] In late 2012 I had the great N.S.W. to Penola in South fortune to assist Dr. Richard Australia, to The Grampians and Jobson from the NSW National to surrounding country in Herbarium on a fieldtrip. We western Victoria and the aimed to visit sites in western Wangaratta/ Beechworth area in New South Wales (N.S.W.), inland eastern Victoria (Figure northern Victoria and south 1). In many cases sites had dried eastern South Australia where out in the weeks that preceded members of the Utricularia our visit: such as near Wee Waa dichotoma and related species in N.S.W. and near Wangaratta had been collected, in order to in Victoria. However, seeing provide data for one of his these areas provided informative current research projects. Most clues about the ecology of these of the taxa seen were plants. subsequently formally named in a paper published by Jobson We saw seven species of Drosera (2013). and three taxa of Utricularia on our travels. The following is a On the six day fieldtrip we drove brief summary of the over 4,500 km and visited at observations I made on this trip. least 20 sites where plants had been collected or were likely to Drosera auriculata grow. We found carnivorous Plants of the Tall Sundew plants at about a dozen site. Our (Drosera auriculata) were seen travels took us from Wee Waa in The Grampians and around on the north western plains of Beechworth. Plants grew where soil moisture persisted well into 4 Figure 1. Key locations visited during fieldwork for the Utricularia dichotoma complex. the summer, such as: wet peaty Plants had erect stems to 40 cm soil in roadside gutters near tall with alternate crescentic Dunkeld, moist grassland leaves. As observed by others downslope of a spring-fed creek (e.g. Fretwell, 2012; Spence near Beechworth, thin moss 2008) plants at higher parts of covered soil by a creek in the Mt William and the Wonderland Wonderland Range near Halls Range had an overall dark red Gap, and thin-moss-covered soil colouration to all vegetative on sheltered cliffs fed by seepage parts and pink-petalled flowers near the summit of Mt William (Front cover). Most of the in The Grampians. flowers on the plants seen had been pollinated and were setting 5 fruit. rapidly gone dormant once summer heat and drought settled Usually this tuberous sundew is in on the area. Plants often grew a winter-grower that is dormant with D. pygmaea, U. dichotoma, by mid to late spring. However, U. lateriflora and U. grampiana. in cooler situations this species may persist into late spring and Drosera binata early summer provided that the The forked-leaf Sundew soil remains moist. It is likely (Drosera binata) was observed that this species grew at other in two locations - a wetland lowland sites on our fieldtrip but south of Casterton (Figure 2) and had gone dormant prior to our a roadside gutter near Dunkeld. visit. It is also likely that plants This species favours permanent we saw in growth will have moiature, rather than periodically Figure 2. Drosera binata ‘T-form’ near Glenelg, growing with U. barkeri. 6 wet peaty soils and at the site this species I had seen years near Casterton it grew in a before in western Tasmania. sodden peaty soil on the edge of a swamp with Button Grass This species often grew with (Gymnoschoenus D. peltata, D. pygmaea, sphaerocephalus). A few small U. dichotoma and U. barkeri. plants were also seen in a wet roadside gutter near Dunkeld. Drosera burmanni Burman’s sundew (D. burmanni) The plants seen on this trip had is an annual or short-lived erect leaves with a petiole to perennial rosette sundew with about 15 cm tall topped with a distinctive wedge-shaped leaves. once-forked lamina to about 10 It is a widespread species across cm across. This form fits within northern Australia and into South the informally recognized D. East Asia (Lowrie 1998). We binata ‘T-form’ (sensu Slack found a population of this 1980). A few of the larger plants species in sandy loam soil on a were observed with an unfolding bank of a small creek (Figure 3) inflorescence at their centre, but near the city of Dubbo in central no open flowers were seen. western N.S.W. The plants Many plants supported small formed pale green rosettes to Sundew Bugs that hunted for trapped prey in the leaves. The plants at the site near Casterton were richly red and formed the main biomass on the peat beside the road. Thus formed a wonderful blaze of red that had the added beauty of low -angle sunlight reflecting off the droplets of mucin on the leaves (e.g. see Spence, 2008). The site was wonderful to see and reminded me of a few sites with Figure 3. Drought-affected Drosera burmanni plants near 7 about 5 cm across, some of tuberous sundew from south which had scapes. The site was eastern Australia (Gibson et al., drying out and the new leaves of 2012). This erect sundew is the plants were held erect – typically bright yellow-green and something I had not seen before occurs as usually a short stem (Figure 1). The dead stems of that has multiple branches from Drosera hookeri were also the basal rosette centre. Some present at this this site. types though grow as a taller plant with a stem that branches Drosera glanduligera near the apex. Both plant types The Pimpernel Sundew (D. glanduligera) is a widespread, and locally abundant sundew native to southern Australia (Lowrie, 1989), and is known from western Victoria (e.g. Fretwell, 2012). It is a winter-growing annual and no live plants were seen on our travels. However, at one site west of Horsham, the remains of D. glanduligera plants were seen in a dry sandy loam soil in a clearing in dry sclerophylla forest. The distinctive scapes were about 3 cm tall with their multiple round (now-empty) fruit were clearly recognizable. They grew in a mini-forest of dormant D. hookeri stems. (Figure 4). Drosera hookeri Figure 4. Standing dead stems of The Pale Sundew (Drosera D. hookeri and scatted dead scapes hookeri) is a widespread of D. glanduligera near Mount Arapiles. 8 typically grow in winter and plants on the western slopes of flower in spring before going the Snowy Mountains suggested dormant for the summer. they were stoloniferous. The remains of dormant plants This tuberous sundew grows were seen in woodands west of most frequently in permanently Horsham and also in a drainage saturated, often flooded habitats line near Dubbo. Live plants, in fruit were seen beside wetlands in western Victoria and near Penola in South Australia, and also in a wetland near Jamieson in eastern Victoria. Plants grew in the company of D. burmanni, D. glanduligera, D. pygmaea, U. dichotoma and U. lateriflora, with a different assemblage of associated plants at each site. Drosera peltata Lovely red plants of Drosera peltata were seen at three sites on our travels: at a wetland near Casterton (Figure 5), in spring- fed wetland near Beechworth and in a swampy creekbed near Walwa in the headwaters of the Murray River. Each population was represented by only a few plants, each of which was gracile and richly pigmented. All plants were in fruit. The sepals were completely and thickly covered in hairs (Figure 2). Brief examination of the rootsystem of Figure 5. Drosera peltata in fruit. 9 in peaty soil. It appears that at the sites seen dormancy is more likely driven by air and soil temperature rather than seasonal drought. This sundew was observed growing with D. binata, U. dichotoma and U. barkeri, and was never common. Drosera pygmaea Drosera pygmaea is the most Figure 6. Drosera pygmaea in the widespread of the ‘pygmy Grampians National Park with an sundews’ (Drosera subgenus atypical number of petals. Bryastrum) and occurs widely in south eastern Australia (Lowrie, to 3 cm tall also emerged from 1989).