Species
+

Drosera filiformis Raf.

Threadleaf sundew, dew-thread, dew-threads, dewthread

Climate known 53 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 filiformis, commonly known as the thread-leaved sundew, is a small, insectivorous, rosette-forming species of perennial herb. A species of sundew, it is unusual within its genus in that the long, erect, filiform (thread-like) leaves of this plant unroll in spirals – an arrangement similar to the circinate vernation seen in ferns.

Text from Wikipedia, “Drosera filiformis”, 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
Raf.
Native to
Nova Scotia, Massachusetts, New Jersey +6
Wild records
1150 in range· 349 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Jul, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1247mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Aug 123 mm (CHELSA)
Light
12–40DLI
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: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (December to January, March to April and June to September in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1247 mm a year, wettest August at 123 mm, driest February at 90 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 12 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -8.7 °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 filiformis var. typica E.Reid; Drosera leionema Raf.; Drosera tenuifolia Willd.; Filicirna filiformis (Raf.) Raf.; Filicirna leionema (Raf.) Raf. and 1 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: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (December to January, March to April and June to September in the northern hemisphere).

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

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (874 mm of 1247 mm) takes 8 months, December to January, March to April and June to September. Mean temperature moves 23.5 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March, June to July and September to October.

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 1247 mm a year, wettest August at 123 mm, driest February at 90 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1247 mm a year at the habitat, 874 mm of it December to January, March to April and June to September. Wettest month August at 123 mm, driest February at 90 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1147 mm to 1808 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: 12 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 12 to 40 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 11, 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 -8.7 °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 -8.7 °C, the absolute minimum -18.5 °C, about 58 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 29.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -1.2 °C in January (across the envelope cells -3.2 °C to 8.8 °C), warmest day 29.7 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -8.7 °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 63% 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 5 °C in Jan to 30 °C in Jul; mean night from -1 °C in Jan to 21 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1247 mm of rain a year, most in Aug. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 315 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -18.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 29.7 °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°frost29.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)-18.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 12–40RH 57–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 315 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 °C5 / 4–177 / 4–1911 / 6–2217 / 10–2523 / 15–3027 / 20–3130 / 23–3229 / 23–3125 / 20–3019 / 15–2613 / 11–228 / 6–18
Night °C-1 / -3–9-1 / -2–102 / 1–137 / 5–1613 / 10–2018 / 16–2421 / 19–2521 / 19–2518 / 16–2312 / 10–197 / 5–142 / -0–10
Rain mm95 / 86–13790 / 73–142118 / 105–169104 / 96–11795 / 82–106104 / 91–198121 / 90–241123 / 99–229104 / 90–17495 / 87–11093 / 86–117105 / 98–124
DLI14 / 13–2120 / 19–2527 / 26–3334 / 33–4039 / 37–4240 / 39–4139 / 37–4035 / 34–3629 / 28–3222 / 20–2815 / 13–2212 / 11–19
RH %58 / 56–5957 / 55–5957 / 55–6057 / 55–6158 / 57–6361 / 58–6563 / 57–6563 / 59–6660 / 58–6358 / 57–6057 / 57–5958 / 56–59

Each figure is the median across the 315 grid cells holding the 659 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 1012:2107 (39.375, -74.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -18.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -8.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.7 °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 315 distinct grid cells holding the 659 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1012:2107 (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 39.50_-74.375, lapse-corrected +2 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 13 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.
NativeNova Scotia, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Florida, Maryland, North Carolina
Extinct inConnecticut, Rhode I., Delaware· recorded as extinct by WCVP: history, not habitat; no records are tested against these regions
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker39.796, -74.535 · in the densest population, 624 records (54% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1150 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 349 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5 km away. 338 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 491 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 4° block of the 1150 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Drosera filiformisDrosera filiformisDrosera filiformisDrosera filiformisDrosera filiformisDrosera filiformisDrosera filiformisDrosera filiformis

Photographs: (c) er-birds, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) Chris Hoess, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Jason K., some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Sandra Keller, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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 filiformis, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Differential Escape of Insects from Carnivorous Plant Traps
Thomas C. Gibson (1991) · The American Midland Naturalist
The Role of Carnivory in the Growth and Reproduction of Drosera filiformis and D. rotundifolia
Cairn Krafft, Steven N. Handel (1991) · Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club
Distribution of Drosera filiformis and D-tracyi (Droseraceae): Phytogeographic implications
Bruce A. Sorrie (1998) · Biodiversity Heritage Library (Smithsonian Institution)
The East-facing Flowers of Drosera tracyi
Paul W. Wilson (1994) · The American Midland Naturalist
The thread-leaf sundews Drosera filiformis and Drosera tracyi
Barry Rice (2011) · Carnivorous Plant Newsletter
The sundew hybrid Drosera xbeleziana found on Long Island, New York
Matthew M. Kaelin (2014) · Carnivorous Plant Newsletter
Noteworthy collections: Florida
Barry A Rice (2010) · Carnivorous Plant Newsletter
History of the endangered thread-leaved sundew (Drosera filiformis) in southern Nova Scotia
Mark Landry, Les C. Cwynar (2005) · Canadian Journal of Botany
Drosera filiformis Raf. var. floridana Rice forma albiflora J.Ksepka f. nov
Jason Ksepka (2022) · Carnivorous Plant Newsletter
A noteworthy Florida find: Drosera filiformis var. tracyi (Droseraceae)
John H. Hummer (1998) · Carnivorous Plant Newsletter

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 64 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.