Species
+

Drosera capillaris Poir.

Pink sundew, Pink sundew, Spathulate-leaved sundew, pink sundew

Climate known 74 photographs Carnivorous plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Drosera capillaris, also known as the pink sundew, is a species of carnivorous plant belonging to the family Droseraceae. It is native to the southern United States, the Greater Antilles, western and southern Mexico, Central America, and northern South America. It is critically endangered in some places and thrives in unique conditions like fires, as it allows new growth to flourish. The prey they capture gives them the majority of their nutrients and allows them to live in nutrient lacking environments. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Drosera capillaris”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Drosera

Drosera, which is commonly known as the sundews, is one of the largest genera of carnivorous plants, with at least 194 species. These members of the family Droseraceae lure, capture, and digest insects using stalked mucilaginous glands covering their leaf surfaces. The insects are used to supplement the poor mineral nutrition of the soil in which the plants grow. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Drosera”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Droseraceae
Described by
Poir.
Native to
West Virginia, Texas, Alabama +36
Wild records
1736 in range· 419 open

At a glance

Warmest month
32°C
Jul, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1467mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Aug 194 mm (CHELSA)
Light
19–41DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a carnivorous plant by the genus Drosera, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, January, March and June to October in the northern hemisphere (January, March and June to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1467 mm a year, wettest August at 194 mm, driest April at 78 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -0.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Drosera brevifolia subsp. major Hook.; Drosera capillaris subsp. minor Shuttlew.; Drosera capillaris subsp. minor Shuttlew. ex Planch.; Drosera communis subsp. breviscapa Wright; Drosera communis subsp. breviscapa Wright ex Griseb. and 8 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a carnivorous plant by the genus Drosera, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, January, March and June to October in the northern hemisphere (January, March and June to October at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1035 mm of 1467 mm) falls in January, March and June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 22.7 °C against a yearly mean of 20.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to April, July and September.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1467 mm a year, wettest August at 194 mm, driest April at 78 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1467 mm a year at the habitat, 1035 mm of it January, March and June to October. Wettest month August at 194 mm, driest April at 78 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1296 mm to 2076 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -0.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -0.6 °C, the absolute minimum -9.3 °C, about 5 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 10.2 °C in January (across the envelope cells 5.8 °C to 21.7 °C), warmest day 31.6 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -0.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 19 °C in Jan to 32 °C in Jul; mean night from 10 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1467 mm of rain a year, most in Aug. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 727 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -9.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost36.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)-9.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 19–41RH 57–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 727 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C19 / 15–2620 / 17–2723 / 19–2726 / 23–2829 / 26–3131 / 28–3232 / 28–3331 / 29–3230 / 28–3127 / 24–2923 / 20–2720 / 16–26
Night °C10 / 6–2212 / 7–2214 / 10–2216 / 14–2220 / 18–2323 / 21–2524 / 22–2524 / 22–2523 / 20–2519 / 16–2315 / 11–2112 / 7–21
Rain mm95 / 54–15391 / 65–152110 / 79–16578 / 60–12692 / 66–144184 / 130–248189 / 128–232194 / 112–234164 / 108–21299 / 74–15582 / 51–14889 / 52–171
DLI21 / 18–2825 / 23–3132 / 30–3539 / 35–4041 / 33–4239 / 30–4038 / 33–4035 / 34–3731 / 29–3327 / 25–3022 / 20–2919 / 17–27
RH %58 / 57–6558 / 57–6558 / 57–6357 / 56–6359 / 57–6562 / 61–6663 / 62–6664 / 62–6663 / 60–6560 / 57–6559 / 57–6659 / 58–66

Each figure is the median across the 727 grid cells holding the 1254 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1215:1966 (29.225, -81.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -9.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -0.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 727 distinct grid cells holding the 1254 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1215:1966 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 29.00_-81.875, lapse-corrected -14 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 14 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeWest Virginia, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Paraguay, Uruguay
Kew's description“perennial or subshrub” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker28.262, -81.265 · in the densest population, 847 records (49% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1736 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 419 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 27 km away. 2 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 482 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 1736 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Drosera capillarisDrosera capillarisDrosera capillarisDrosera capillarisDrosera capillarisDrosera capillarisDrosera capillarisDrosera capillaris

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (8).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Drosera capillaris, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Evidence for competition between carnivorous plants and spiders
David E. Jennings, James J. Krupa, Thomas R. Raffel, Jason R. Rohr (2010) · Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences
Diferenciación morfológica y por ISSR (Inter simple sequence repeats) de especies del género Plukenetia (Euphorbiaceae) de la Amazonía peruana: propuesta de una nueva especie
Ángel Rodríguez, Mike Anderson Corazón-Guivin, Danter Cachique Huansi, Kember Mejía (2011) · Revista Peruana de Biología
Caterpillar Feeding on a Sundew Plant
Thomas Eisner, Julian Shepherd (1965) · Science
Actividad inhibitoria de plantas in vitro de Drosera capillaris sobre Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Jimmy Alvarado, Hilda Vásquez, Guillermo Delgado, Dalva Trevisan (2011) · Revista Peruana de Biología
IN VITRO FLOWERING AND PLANTLETS ELONGATION IN SUNDEW DROSERA VCAPILLARIS
Segundo G. Vásquez-Collantes, Consuelo Rojas-Idrogo, Guillermo E. Delgado-Paredes (2014) · International Journal of Plant Animal and Environmental Sciences
Historia natural y presencia de la "planta insectívora" Drosera capillaris (Droseraceae) en Costa Rica
Luis D Gómez P, Jorge Gómez-Laurito (2015) · Revista de Biología Tropical

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Drosera 203 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 58 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.