International Carnivorous Plant Society

Pygmy Drosera Taxonomy Changes

Keeping up with the correct botanical names for the full roster of Pygmy Drosera has been a complex task over the past 20 years, consequently many plants in cultivation have been incorrectly labeled and continue to be so today. The release of Magnum Opus by Lowrie in 2014, went a long way to clearing up this confusion. With exhaustive field work, literature reviews and herbarium studies, Lowrie cleared up previous errors, matched the correct type material to plants that had been elusive in the field and also ensuring that the first published name of a species stands as the correct name. The roster of names published in Magnum Opus is now accepted as the benchmark work for the correct naming of Pygmy Drosera, and this treatment was followed in the 3 volume Drosera of the World.

More recently two species Lowrie described, Drosera coalara and Drosera micra, have been reduced to synonymy, leaving us with the roster of species treated in the Pygmy Drosera resource. The result of this work has seen a lot of plant material in cultivation being mislabled, for example the plant that was widely known in cultivation as Drosera dichrosepala was in fact not the true Drosera dichrosepala and was given the name Drosera verrucata when the true Drosera dichrosepala was rediscovered. The tables below and using the Pygmy Drosera resource should help Pygmy Drosera growers correctly label their collections.

 

Recent changes of note to growers.

Former name Correct Name Notes
Drosera dichrosepala Drosera verrucata The true Drosera dichrosepala has been rediscovered and is not widely in cultivation.
Drosera parvula Drosera minutiflora Drosera parvula is an invalid name.
Drosera paleacea Drosera micrantha The true Drosera paleacea has been rediscovered and is not widely in cultivation.
Drosera coalara Drosera citrina  
Drosera micra Drosera pygmaea  

 

List of currently accepted names with previous names that have been reduced to synonyms.

Accepted Name Synonym
Drosera allantostigma Drosera nitidula subsp. allantostigma
Drosera nitidula var. allantostigma
Drosera australis Drosera occidentalis subsp. australis
Drosera barbigera Drosera drummondii
Drosera citrina Drosera chrysochila
Drosera coalara
Drosera dichrosepala Drosera scorpioides var. brevipes
Drosera enodes Drosera dichrosepala subsp. enodes
Drosera leioblastus Drosera paleacea subsp. leioblastus
Drosera leucostigma Drosera nitidula subsp. leucostigma
Drosera nitidula var. leucostigma
Drosera mannii Drosera manniana
Drosera microscapa Drosera occidentalis var. microscapa
Drosera nitidula Drosera nitidula subsp. nitidula
Drosera nivea Drosera citrina var. nivea
Drosera omissa Drosera emissa
Drosera ericksoniae
Drosera paleacea Drosera parvula
Drosera pygmaea Drosera micra
Drosera rechingeri Drosera coolamon
Drosera roseana Drosera paleacea subsp. roseana
Drosera sargentii Drosera parvula subsp. sargentii
Drosera silvicola Drosera barbigera subsp. silvicola
Drosera stelliflora Drosera paleacea subsp. stelliflora
Drosera trichocaulis Drosera paleacea var. trichocaulis
Drosera paleacea subsp. trichocaulis

 

References:

Allen Lowrie. 1987–1998. Carnivorous Plants of Australia, vol. 1–3, Nedlands, Western Australia.

Allen Lowrie, Richard Nunn, Alistair Robinson, Greg Bourke and Andreas Fleischmann. 2017. Drosera of Oceana. IN: Drosera of the World, Volume 1-2. Redfern Natural History Productions, Poole, Dorset, England.