FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Who ever said Drosera spatulata was plain?

I could be wrong but those don’t look like spatulata to me. They look great though by the way. Good growing.

I could be wrong, but I think I took leaf cuttings of my seed-grown spatulatas and these are what turned up. The seed was from a reputable source, although the labelling could be wrong. What do you think they are?

First off they look rather small and compact. And spatulata usually has a more gradual, smooth transition from lamina to petiole. Yours have rounded lamina that meet at a basically straight petiole. The arrow is pointing where I’m talking about. Spatulata usually just gradually tapers down at the point from the end of the leaf to the beginning. Do you have a picture of the parent plant?

The species has a huge geographic range and is extremely variable. Leaf shape is a pretty unreliable indicator for this species (even in sydney alone you get huge variation from straight narrow leaves, to round leaves). This shape is actually quite common in a lot of the compact varieties of Drosera spatulata, for example this one growing wild in Hong Kong and this one from the New Zealand highlands.

That being said, the plant does sorta give out D. tokaiensis vibes, although generally speaking that species doesn't go as red (of course, colour is an unreliable indicator ). Regardless, you have a beautiful plant you should be proud of!

Yeah, I'm growing them under Marshydro 300s, so that's probably why they're red. My parent plants under T5s are more of a greenish color.

I recently had to move the spatulata plants from under the Marshydros to under the T5HOs to make space for some pickier plants. The difference in leaf morphology is incredible.
Definitely spatulata!

I never knew how much a difference in lighting could change the form of the plant. Now that I have some extras of a few plants, I might be able to make a more controlled experiment out of it! Has anyone else had such a dramatic difference in their plants when they've moved the plants to a different quality/level of light?