This colorful bug-eating plant is at home in highest parts of North Carolina mountains
The roundleaf sundew looks like something out of an alien movie, a tiny plant with tentacle-like stems extending in a rose pattern and red hairs sticking out from the leaves. It’s not a typical mountain flower, even more so because the leaves act something like flypaper to trap insects for food, according to Blue Ridge Discovery.
The roundleaf sundew is a rare find in North Carolina, growing mainly above 3,500 feet in the mountains, according to the naturalist site.
They only grow to about the size of a nickle, the site says
Sharing a photo of the plant on the Blue Ridge Parkway Facebook page, the National Park Service said, “late September is actually one of the best times of year to encounter this little member of the Sundew family in the Parkway’s higher elevations.
“Usually due to growing in areas with poor soil nutrients, sundew have adapted to ‘eating’ insects to gain the vital nutrients needed to survive,” the Park Service said.
There are 194 species of sundews, making it one of the largest carnivorous plant groups, according to the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service.
The species “is easily identifiable by its tentacle-like stems that unwind out of a basal rosette of leaves. They can be green, yellow-green to red in color,” the extension service said.
The leaves are covered in “hair-like structures and tipped with glands that exude a sticky, dew-like substance” that attract and trap insects, according to the extension service.
“These plants are found in bogs, fens, and marshes throughout the world and range from tropicals to ones that are native to Canada. They are listed as endangered or threatened in several native states,” the extension service said.
The roundlead sundew may be rare in North Carolina, but it is more common to the north and in western states, according to Blue Ridge Discovery.
This story was originally published October 4, 2019 at 1:36 PM.
