The Drosera species known to occur in Brazil south of the Amazon Basin are: D.brevifolia Pursh, D.capillaris Poir., D.chrysolepis Taub., D.colombiana Fernández-Pérez, D.communis St.Hil., D.graminifolia St.Hil., D.graomogolensis T.R.Silva, D.hirtella St.Hil. var.hirtella, D.hirtella var.lutescens St.Hil., D.intermedia Hayne, D.montana St.Hil. var.montana, D.montana var.schwackei Diels, D.montana var.tomentosa (St.Hil.) Diels, D.sessilifolia St.Hil., and D.villosa St.Hil. I have studied all of these in their natural habitats and have even found a few new species, three of which will be discussed in this article and which I refer to as: D.sp.’Congonhas’, D.sp.’Emas’, and D.sp.’stemless chrysolepis’.

Although nearly all Brazilian Drosera can be occasionally found in flower throughout the year, most species will flower more profusely during a specific period. The following species are mostly winter/spring (dry season) bloomers: D.chrysolepis, D.graminifolia, D.graomogolensis, D.montana var.tomentosa, D.villosa, D.sp.’Congonhas’, and D.sp.’stemless chrysolepis’. Other species prefer to flower during the summer/fall (wet season): D.brevifolia, D.colombiana, D.hirtella var.hirtella, D.hirtella var.lutescens, D.montana var.montana, D.montana var.schwackei, and D.sessilifolia.

D.sessilifolia is the only true annual species in Brazil. The rest of the summer/fall bloomers (except D.montana var.schwackei) lose their rosettes and survive the dry season as dormant roots, much like some South African species such as D.cistiflora L. and D.pauciflora Banks ex DC. And there are always exceptions: D.capillaris, D.communis, D.intermedia and D.sp.’Emas’ appear to have no definite flowering season. Only certain populations of each of these three species appear to sometimes prefer flowering at specific times of the year.

Inflorescences usually begin appearing and opening their flowers synchronously in each population of a given species. One to three successive scapes may be produced per plant in most taxa, although second scapes are always fewer in number, and third scapes even more so. Because of this, flowering may erupt all of a sudden and then diminish slowly over a period of several months.

Instead of opening a single flower at a time, starting from the base of the inflorescence, two or three flowers are sometimes found open on a single scape – the lower one having probably postponed blooming due to overcast weather on previous days. Bifurcated inflorescences have been found in nearly all the Brazilian Drosera taxa listed above, but are most commonly observed in the larger species: D.chrysolepis, D.graminifolia, D.graomogolensis D.villosa, and D.sp.’stemless chrysolepis’. In these species I have seen as many as four to six flowers open at the same time on a single scape. The largest number of bifurcations observed was six, in D.graminifolia.

Curiously, in seven years of studying native Brazilian CPs in their natural habitats, only on two occasions did I actually catch insects in the act of pollinating Drosera flowers. These two observations were made at different sites on subsequent days in early September 1994 near the small town of Grão Mogol (northern Minas Gerais state, southeastern Brazil). The first obervation involved an unidentified small native green bee species pollinating flowers of D.graminifolia which were growing on wet sandstone surrounded by a grassy seepage containing D.communis, D.montana var.tomentosa, and D.sp.’Emas’. Neither of the latter three species were in flower at this site.

The second observation involved the same green bee species and common honeybees, at a location where D.communis, D.graomogolensis, D.montana var.tomentosa, D.sp.’Emas’, and D.montana var.tomentosa X D.sp.’Emas’ grew sympatrically. The two bee species were flying indiscriminately between flowers of D.montana var.tomentosa, D.graomogolensis, and similarly colored pink-purple flowers of unidentified species of Burmanniaceae and Melastomataceae. D.sp.’Emas’ was also flowering at this site, but only in an isolated group of individuals where no bees were seen.

Considering the short duration of flowers in most Drosera spp. and the apparent scarcity of natural pollinators, it would seem that self-pollination is the norm. Many species of Drosera do not need to be cross-pollinated and will automatically self-pollinate and set seeds (a blessing or a curse for CPers, depending on the species!). The amount of seeds produced is variable, depending on the species. For example D.graminifolia and D.villosa will often produce an absurd amount of seeds per inflorescence, while D.graomogolensis produces a frustratingly small quantity of seeds.

Nearly all the Brazilian Drosera spp. were found to have variable flower colors, although in most cases the variation was very small, surely a result of ecological factors. I have noticed that flowers in cultivation will often be of a lighter shade than they were in the wild, just as the rich red rosettes will become bleached or all green – possibly due to reduced amounts of sunlight.

Most native Brazilian species have flowers that vary between different shades of pink-lilac, including: D.brevifolia, D.chrysolepis, D.colombiana, D.graminifolia, D.graomogolensis, D.hirtella, D.montana, D.sessilifolia, D.villosa, D.sp.’Congonhas’, and D.sp.’stemless chrysolepis’. At one site, again near Grão Mogol, I once found a population of D.graminifolia where a few specimens had pure-white flowers. Yet the plants were not albino since there was plenty of red pigment on the leaves and flower scapes.

The flowers of D.intermedia are white and those of D.capillaris light-pink, while D.communis and D.sp.’Emas’ have flowers that vary over a large range of colors, the most variable among New World Drosera taxa. In D.communis flowers may be purple-lilac to white to light-pink while in D.sp.’Emas’ flowers vary between light-lilac to white to pink. As far as I have seen, there is no correlation between geographic distribution and variation in flower colors in any of these species.

Although potentially very variable in D.communis and D.sp.’Emas’, flower colors are always uniform in each population. I have never seen, for example, D.communis with white and lilac flowers at the same site. Nonetheless mixed white and pink-flowered specimens have been reported for D.sp.’Emas’ collected in the Distrito Federal (central Brazil). The collector interpreted what he saw as “...flowers white when young and pink when old”. Experienced Drosera cultivators will notice that this guy doesn't know what he's talking about. After all, nearly all Drosera spp. (excluding a few Australian pygmy sundews and D.adelae plus related taxa) produce flowers that are only open for a few hours during a single (sunny) day, from morning to early afternoon.

Interestingly, I have also observed that flowers may vary in color from year to year in the same population. Near Parelheiros, on the outskirts of the city of São Paulo, a D.communis population was discovered in January 1992 with very light-lilac corolla. The same population in September 1995 was found to have darker-lilac corolla. I am not certain of what caused this, but I did notice that the weeks preceding the first observation had been of relatively sunny and hot weather while the second observation was preceeded by cooler rainy weather. Could flower colors therefore be partially influenced by soil humidity, exposure to sunlight, and/or possibly even soil pH?

Although coloration of the flowers may vary from population to population in a species, or even from plant to plant, each individual flower always has uniformly-colored petals. Well, almost always. In July 1995 I discovered an exception to this rule, a population of D.sp.’stemless chrysolepis’on the Serra do Cipó (M.Gerais state) which had flowers that were a darker pink-lilac around the base of the petals. Because this was not observed in other populations of the same species, I assume it is influenced by ecological factors. Nonetheless, I have never seen bicolored flowers anywhere else in nearly ten years of botanizing Brazil for CPs. In fact it is the first record of a New World Drosera species with bicolored corolla.

Apparently however, there is at least one other South American species which may occasionally produce bicolored flowers. In 1997 I saw a picture taken at the Venezuelan Gran Sabana by my friend Ms.Chiaki Shibata from Japan of the widespread and variable D.roraimae (Klotzsc ex Diels) Maguire & Laudon, which clearly showed a white flower with a red center.