Drosera trinervia

Drosera trinervia is a stemless perennial reaching a height of up to 10 cm when in flower. Short hairs are visible on the erect flower scapes in the photo.

The leaves form a small rosette on the ground. Leaf shape is wedge-like with a rounded tip, tapering to the base. The leaves may be red or green; hairy tentacles adding much red, especially towards the leaf tips. The hair-like, glandular tentacles, tipped with globular, sticky drops are conspicuous on leaf surfaces, longer near the leaf tips.

These tentacles on Drosera leaves serve to harvest food: Whatever unfortunate insect lands upon a leaf of this plant and doesn’t manage to escape forthwith, becomes stuck and eaten. The sticky drops provide the chemical wherewithal for digesting the insect.

The soggy ground where these plants grow is often poor in nutrients, the roots underdeveloped. The leaves armed with soft, sticky tentacles, lethal to some species, are charged with providing the plant’s nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphates. The glue in the drops touching the insect contains enzymes that immediately start breaking down the insect body, the leaf absorbing the nutrients (Privett and Lutzeyer, 2010; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2010; iSpot).