DROSERACE^E SUNDEW FAMILY 



Drosera filiformis, Raf. 



Purple-magenta Thread-leaved Sundew, 



Red-rot. 

 July-September 



Drosera: Greek for dewy. "The Droseras are the famous 

 Rassolis (Dew of the Sun) of the old herbalists and were 

 sometimes known as Youthwort, from a belief in their 

 regenerating powers when administered medicinally." An 

 old English name was Red-rot, because as the soil where 

 they grow is poor, they were supposed to have caused it 

 to rot. 



Filiformis: Latin for thread-shaped. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: open, boggy land, or wet sand. 



THE PLANT: the flower stem erect, eight inches to twenty 

 inches high, hairless. 



THE LEAVES: basal; erect; dark reddish brown; narrowly 

 linear or filiform; six inches to fifteen inches high, about 

 one-twelfth of an inch wide; covered throughout with 

 glandular hairs, so that they glisten as if washed with 

 dew; woolly with brown hairs at the very base; the hairs 

 capped by a red bead or dot; usually acutish at the apex; 

 with no distinction between the blade and the petiole at 

 the base. 



THE FLOWERS: small; ten to thirty so arranged in a one- 

 sided raceme, that the fresh-blown flower is always the 

 highest, on short stems, opening only in sunshine; five 

 stamens. 



THE FRUIT: a capsule. 



The most beautiful, perhaps, of the three Droseras. The 

 slender scapes, bearing pretty magenta-purple flowers, are 



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