Plant

Round-leaved Sundew

Drosera rotundifolia

Also known as: sundew, common sundew

A small carnivorous perennial plant — leaves rarely larger than a dime — with circumpolar distribution across the boreal and northern temperate zones of the northern hemisphere. The leaves are covered in red, glandular tentacles tipped with sticky droplets that look like dew; small insects (gnats, mosquitoes, springtails) become stuck, are bent toward the leaf surface by the closing tentacles, and are digested over a few days. *Drosera rotundifolia* is one of the most cosmopolitan carnivorous plants in the world. In the Poconos, it occurs on sphagnum mats in nearly every plateau kettle bog — a small, easily-overlooked but reliable signature of the bioregion's relict-boreal peatland community.

Scientific

Drosera rotundifolia is the type species of the genus Drosera (sundews — about 200 species worldwide, more than any other carnivorous plant lineage). The plant is a small rosette, 2–6 cm across, with rounded leaves on long petioles. Each leaf carries 100–200 red glandular tentacles, each with a sticky mucilage droplet at the tip.

When an insect lands on a leaf, it sticks. The tentacles bend toward the prey within minutes, increasing contact with the digestive surface. The leaf itself slowly folds inward (over hours). Digestive enzymes secreted from the tentacles dissolve the prey’s soft tissues. Absorption takes 1–3 days; the leaf then unfolds and the tentacles reset.

A summer-blooming flower (white or pinkish, on a stalk well above the leaves) self-pollinates if not visited by insects.

Habitat

[[sphagnum-moss|Sphagnum]] bogs, sphagnum lawns at fen edges, occasionally on wet acid sand. D. rotundifolia requires:

Acidic substrate (pH 3.5–5.5)
Constant moisture
Low competition from larger plants (full sun, sparse cover)
Very low soil nitrogen — too much nitrogen kills sundews directly

In the [[poconos|Poconos]], sundew co-occurs with [[sphagnum-moss|sphagnum]], leatherleaf, cranberry, and pitcher plant on the open mat of nearly every plateau kettle bog.

Why it matters

Sundew is a more sensitive indicator than [[pitcher-plant|pitcher plant]]: it requires open, low-shrub conditions. As bogs succeed toward shrub or forested-bog stage, sundew disappears. A bog with abundant sundew is a bog whose hydrology and acid budget are still maintaining the open-mat condition. A bog where sundew has retreated to a few patches is a bog drying or shifting succession.

For Pocono peatland stewardship, sundew is a small but reliable signal that the bog is still doing what bogs do.

Cultural use

Indigenous use across the boreal range included sundew preparations for warts and corns (the digestive enzymes can break down keratinized tissue) and as a respiratory medicine — a use that survived into European folk practice and into homeopathy. Modern medical use is mostly historical.

Sources

USDA NRCS Plant Guide, Drosera rotundifolia
Crowder, A.A. et al., “Distribution and ecology of Drosera” (Canadian Journal of Botany)
PA Natural Heritage Program, peatland surveys

What links here, and how

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Scientific

enables

Sphagnum Moss creates the acid, low-nutrient substrate carnivorous plants depend on

General

shares approach with

Venus flytrap auto-linked via shared tag: carnivorous

2 inbound links · 4 outbound

Scientific

Habitat

Why it matters

Cultural use

See also

Sources

What links here, and how