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- The Greek name, drosera rotundifolia, might be translated, "dewy, roundleafed." Margo and I have found the sundew usually while we are walking along a lake margin. When first we spotted them, sparkling up at us, we found them to be disappointingly small. It is necessary to get down on one's knees amongst the pebbles, so to get get a good look, and to see, and to appreciate these little beauties: it is as strange a plant as one will ever see. They lay flat amongst their few neighbours in nutrient poor soil. They blossom from mid-July to mid-August; the flowers being small, yellowish-white, five petaled, and opening only one at a time and then only in the bright midday sun. The flowers are born on a short leafless stock rising from a rosette of leaves. But its not the flowers of this plant that are the most fascinating, - it's the "leaves." They are reddish, basal; rounded at the tip; with bristles all around that have spiked glistening drops at each of their tips, like dew in the early morning. These drops form as a result of a viscous liquid exuded in order to attract and stick any little nosey creature that may happen by; they are in turn consumed by the insectivorous sundew as a nitrogen source.
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_______________________________Peter Landry
2011 (2019)