Drosera indica L.
Indian Sundew
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 indica, sometimes known as the Indian sundew, is a species of sundew native to tropical and southern Africa, Madagascar and tropical and subtropical Asia. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his Species Plantarum in 1753. Until the early 21st century it was mostly considered a highly variable species with a wide distribution including Australia, but since 2000 several distinct species have been separated from D. indica within Drosera section Arachnopus, which is often referred to as the ‘Drosera indica complex’. Many of these species are endemic to Australia, but D. indica itself is now widely considered to be absent from that country.
Text from Wikipedia, “Drosera indica”, 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.
At a glance
Also known as Drosera angustifolia F.Muell.; Drosera angustifolia subsp. purpuriflora F.Muell.; Drosera finlaysoniana Wall. ex Stein; Drosera hexaginia Blanco; Drosera indica f. albiflora Makino and 13 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 sharp rainy season, May to September at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.4 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (936 mm of 1317 mm) falls in May to September. The temperature curve is flat, 2.4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; with a flat temperature curve there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.
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 1317 mm a year, wettest August at 233 mm, driest January at 10 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
1317 mm a year at the habitat, 936 mm of it May to September. Wettest month August at 233 mm, driest January at 10 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 952 mm to 3509 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: 28 to 38 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 38 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 21, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).
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 14.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 14.7 °C, the absolute minimum 9.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 19.5 °C in January (across the envelope cells 12.6 °C to 24.4 °C), warmest day 31.2 °C in March (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 14.7 °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.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 67% 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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 30 / 19–34 | 30 / 20–36 | 31 / 22–37 | 31 / 24–37 | 30 / 25–35 | 29 / 24–32 | 28 / 24–31 | 28 / 24–30 | 28 / 25–30 | 29 / 25–32 | 29 / 23–33 | 30 / 21–34 |
| Night °C | 20 / 13–24 | 21 / 14–25 | 23 / 16–25 | 24 / 17–26 | 24 / 16–26 | 23 / 18–25 | 22 / 18–25 | 22 / 18–25 | 22 / 18–25 | 22 / 17–25 | 21 / 16–25 | 20 / 14–25 |
| Rain mm | 10 / 1–307 | 20 / 0–287 | 59 / 2–271 | 101 / 9–209 | 128 / 35–253 | 173 / 20–731 | 193 / 14–1075 | 233 / 10–743 | 209 / 12–428 | 126 / 30–301 | 50 / 6–174 | 15 / 1–239 |
| DLI | 35 / 21–38 | 38 / 24–41 | 38 / 29–44 | 37 / 31–45 | 34 / 30–42 | 30 / 25–36 | 28 / 23–35 | 28 / 24–35 | 30 / 27–39 | 32 / 27–43 | 33 / 23–42 | 34 / 21–39 |
| RH % | 56 / 38–67 | 56 / 36–67 | 59 / 43–67 | 61 / 51–67 | 63 / 55–68 | 65 / 58–72 | 67 / 60–74 | 67 / 60–74 | 67 / 60–71 | 64 / 57–68 | 60 / 48–66 | 57 / 40–65 |
Each figure is the median across the 469 grid cells holding the 638 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 1518:5709 (14.075, 105.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 9.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 14.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.9 °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 469 distinct grid cells holding the 638 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1518:5709 (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 14.00_105.625, lapse-corrected -18 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 97 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Sindhu Haridas, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) OnePlanet, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Prashantha Krishna M C, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Oleg Kosterin, 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 indica, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
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.
Thunbergia laurifolia Blue Trumpet Vine
Lagenaria siceraria Bottle gourd
Momordica charantia Balsam Pear
Magnolia champaca Champak, Champak tree, Joy Perfume Tree, Champaca, Yellow Champaka, Orange Chempaca, Orange Champak, Orange Champaka, Chempaca Merah, Sapu, Cempaka Kuning Momordica cissoides Cucurbitaceae
Rhinacanthus nasutus AcanthaceaeOther Drosera 203 in the reference
Drosera aberrans scented sundew
Drosera acaulis Droseraceae
Drosera adelae Droseraceae
Drosera affinis Slender-leaved Sundew
Drosera alba White Sundew
Drosera albonotata Droseraceae
Drosera aliciae Alice Sundew Drosera allantostigma Pygmy Sundew
Drosera amazonica Droseraceae
Drosera andersoniana Droseraceae
Drosera androsacea Droseraceae
Drosera anglica English Sundew all 204 ›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 answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata 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: skippedinat.taxon not askedinat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.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 answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 100 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.