Friday, July 24, 2015

Drosera magnifica, a new species from Brazil. Thank you... Facebook! :-)


Yes! It is published at last! 

Those who, like me, steadily follow the various carnivorous plants groups on Facebook had heard of this spectacular discovery a few years ago: a photo of an unknown sundew from Brazil had been shared by a Brazilian orchid enthusiast on Facebook picking up the curiosity of a couple of well known taxonomists who were lurking out there. ;-)

Quickly, it was clear that it was a new species to science and therefore it awaited a formal description. It is done now. Behold Drosera magnifica, literally the 'magnificent sundew'. This is, in terms of pure biomass, one of the three biggest sundews in the world along with the well known D. regia from South Africa and D. gigantea from Australia.


Here are the references of the paper: 

Gonella, P.M., Rivadavia, F. & Fleischmann, A. (2015) Drosera magnifica (Droseraceae), the largest New World sundew discovered on Facebook, Phytotaxa 220 (3): 257–267. 


I'd like to congratulate all the people involved in this fantastic discovery.
As far as I am concerned, D. magnifica is certainly one of the most, if not the most, exciting carnivorous plants discoveries of the last few years, Nepenthes attenboroughii being, for me at least, the latest occurrence. 

I just thoroughly read the paper (a very good one) and you will find here, in this blog entry, a digest for you lazy readers! ;-) 

Let's start first with this first class botanical drawing by Rogério Lupo that highlights the new species main characteristics (that I will discuss below). What an excellent piece of work! I wish I had provided such excellent botanical illustrations myself in the past. :( The inflorescence, the pecualiar stem and leaf vernation: everything is there.




Drosera magnifica distribution range is very narrow. It is what the author call a 'microendemic' species. It is only currently known from the summit of the Pico Padre Ângelo (1500-1530 masl) in eastern Minas Gerais state. Though the population is fairly abundant D. magnifica grows only in a single 45 degrees slope (where one main population, spread roughly in a 50 m x 50 m square, and two sub-populations occur). Two neighbouring peaks have been explored in hope to find additional populations of D. magnifica but in vain. The habitat there was drier and thus not suitable for the sundew. In the vicinity, one other peak is left to explore so hopes of new populations are still conceivable.

D. magnifica occurs in a habitat composed of 'sandstone outcrops among herbaceous and shrubby vegetation' (quote from the paper). The authors qualify this environment as an 'intermediate between campos rupestres ("rocky fields") and campos de altitude ("highland fields")'. There, the plants grow in a loose layer made of organic matter and sand and stone. Some plants are found in 'cracks of bare sandstone'.





What stroke me the most when I first discovered this impressive plant on Facebook a few years ago were the inflorescences made of multiple cymes that reminded me immediately of far geographically distant species such as Drosera binata or the tuberous species from the section Ergaleium (D. stolonifera and relatives), all of which are Australian natives. To me, this sight was so unusual for a Brazilian species!




While a layman eye might find a vague ressemblance between the leaves of D. magnifica and those of a the well known D. capensis or D. regia, a close inspection reveals a clear relationship with two other Brazilian species: D. graminifolia and D. spiralis.





D. magnifica is also remarkable for its circinate-involute leaf vernation, a unique feature among South-American Drosera

Another striking characteristic that set this species apart from is this enormous stem that can be more than 120 cm long! For comparison, D. chrysolepis, another Brazilian sundew, 'only' manages 46 cm. This combined with the leaves result in specimens that can be more than 150 cm in length! These numbers are so unusual when it comes to a sundew. Indeed, this plant is a true giant within its genus.


Of course, as always, telling the story of a plant is also telling the story of a man (or a woman). This lad that you can see below holding a specimen of D. magnifica that will end as a type specimen in a Brazilian herbarium is the person who discovered this new spectacular sundew. It was in the course of one of the field trips he undertook as an orchid enthusiast


Reginaldo Vasconcelos -that's his name- then shared the photographs on Facebook and, eventually, the plant existence was revealed to Paulo Gonella, Fernando Rivadavia (pictures below with the future holotype and paratypes), well known Drosera specialists. With the help of Andreas Fleischmann, another Drosera expert, and after a couple expeditions (one with Reginaldo himself) the botanists formally described the new species.




Sure, it is a fun to see that new species can be found thanks to a social network but what is even more noteworthy to me is the collegial and ego-less effort that all the parties managed to produce in order to bring a new addition to Brazil amazing, unique and fragile biodiversity.


Again gents, congratulations for this excellent piece of work!
(And thank you for citing me in the acknowledgements. ;-))




The various pictures of this post were taken by Paulo Gonella, Fernando Rivadavia and Carlos Rohrbacher. A big thank you to Paulo for sending the pictures and the paper and for allowing to me to share those wonderful photographs on my blog. ^^


5 comments:

  1. That great! Congratulations fellows!

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  2. Wow, what an amazing species!

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  3. Thanks for a detailed story. It is hard to see some of those decades old plants pulled out of their home. But I guess some of them need to be collected and preserved.

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  4. Will these enter the hobby at some point? I'd love to grow this amazing drosera!

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  5. amazing new species..one thing for sure .. make sure you get a very deep pot as the roots are enormous,very thick with it

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