FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I couldn't fine a lot of info on this amazing South African Drosera sp. in cultivation, so here it is! D. xerophila is a fairly new species closely related to D. aliciae, D. esterhuyseniae, D. slackii, etc. Like other rosetted species from South Africa, D. xerophila forms a short stem over the years. Not many people grow it ex-situ, but it appears to be fairly easy like its closely related species, D. aliciae and admirabilis. In the summer xerophila will go dormant (not fully unfurling leaves, forming a tight, small, green rosette) if temperatures rise above its growing tolerance. This specimen was grown from seed from Kleinriver Mountains, Western Cape Province, South Africa, and is about a year old. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will bloom this spring, then I will have a nice donation for the seedbank . I'm guessing it's self fertile like D. admirabilis and aliciae, but to my knowledge nobody in the U.S. has bloomed it, maybe a small amount of people in Europe. This plant just came out of dormancy about a month ago and colors up much more in the spring.

Looks nice, I like the wide leaves on it. Have you tried taking cuttings from it?

Apollyon wrote:Looks nice, I like the wide leaves on it. Have you tried taking cuttings from it?

Thanks! Kind of reminds me of slackii without such red coloring. Xerophila stays pretty green except for the outer edges of the leaves, which turn pink/red in color under high light.

Unfortunately this species does not propagate with leaf cuttings. Also, it has very few, long, thick roots that penetrate deep into the arid soils where it grows. It does propagate through root cuttings, but plants only have 1-3 roots (I believe mine had 2) and I'm afraid that taking one of them would cause some damage to the plant. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for seed in the spring!

I expect there are more people growing this species than we (or they) realize, since it was only recently described and is fairly widespread in the wild from what I understand. There are probably many in cultivation labeled as D. aliciae. Here's one of mine from a while back:

nimbulan wrote: ↑Sat Nov 28, 2020 6:24 am I expect there are more people growing this species than we (or they) realize, since it was only recently described and is fairly widespread in the wild from what I understand. There are probably many in cultivation labeled as D. aliciae. Here's one of mine from a while back:

That’s pretty awesome! Do you still grow this species? If so, how does yours go through dormancy if at all? I’ll have to keep a watch on some of my aliciae locations to make sure they’re not this one...

Nepenthes0260 wrote:That’s pretty awesome! Do you still grow this species? If so, how does yours go through dormancy if at all? I’ll have to keep a watch on some of my aliciae locations to make sure they’re not this one...

Oh most certainly, I try to take good care of my rare plants. I'm hoping for flowers next year so I can start spreading some seeds around.

And as you indicated before, an easy way to tell these apart from related species is the color. The leaves always stay a particular shade of bright green, even under very strong light. You can see how red the tentacles get on my plant with strong light, but not a hint of color on the leaves themselves.

nimbulan wrote:

Nepenthes0260 wrote:That’s pretty awesome! Do you still grow this species? If so, how does yours go through dormancy if at all? I’ll have to keep a watch on some of my aliciae locations to make sure they’re not this one...

Oh most certainly, I try to take good care of my rare plants. I'm hoping for flowers next year so I can start spreading some seeds around.

And as you indicated before, an easy way to tell these apart from related species is the color. The leaves always stay a particular shade of bright green, even under very strong light. You can see how red the tentacles get on my plant with strong light, but not a hint of color on the leaves themselves.

Good to know. And I'm guessing we have the same location? (300 m asl Kleinriver Mtns.) Mine was grown in lower light so really can't wait till it colors up nicely.

Nepenthes0260 wrote:Good to know. And I'm guessing we have the same location? (300 m asl Kleinriver Mtns.) Mine was grown in lower light so really can't wait till it colors up nicely.

Yes it's the same. As far as I'm aware, seeds have only been collected of this species once since it was described. I really don't know how many of them are in cultivation mislabeled as aliciae, but I imagine there's a few a least, probably mostly if not all in Europe.

D. xerophila has colored up pretty well by now- still hoping for some flowers in the spring!

OG D. xerophila is looking as dewy as ever. Should be hopefully seeing a flower stalk soon.. slackii, hamiltonii, natalensis, nidiformis, regia, and capensis have already started. Also was able to acquire another species from the same location of D. xerophila, a bit ratty because it recently had root cuttings taken.

So no flowers on D. xerophila for whatever reason... fingers crossed for next year . Never really went truly dormant this summer, just slowed down and lost a lot of dew. Can’t wait to see it this winter when the temps are cooler.