Species
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Drosera regia Stephens

King Sundew

Climate known 31 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 regia, commonly known as the king sundew, is a carnivorous plant in the sundew genus Drosera that is endemic to a single valley in South Africa. Individual leaves can reach 70 cm (28 in) in length. It has many unusual relict characteristics not found in most other Drosera species, including woody rhizomes, operculate pollen, and the lack of circinate vernation in scape growth. All of these factors, combined with molecular data from phylogenetic analysis, contribute to the evidence that D. regia possesses some of the most ancient characteristics within the genus. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Drosera regia”, 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
Stephens
Native to
Cape Provinces
Wild records
30 in range· 9 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Feb, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1192mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 208 mm (CHELSA)
Light
17–53DLI
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 winter growing season, November to March in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 1192 mm a year, wettest July at 208 mm, driest February at 26 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 53 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -0.5 °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 Freatulina regia (Stephens) Chrtek & Slavikova.

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 winter growing season, November to March in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, southern).

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

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (845 mm of 1192 mm) falls in May to September, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 10.2 °C against a yearly mean of 14.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

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 1192 mm a year, wettest July at 208 mm, driest February at 26 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1192 mm a year at the habitat, 845 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 208 mm, driest February at 26 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 991 mm to 1381 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern 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: 17 to 53 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 53 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 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 53).

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 -0.5 °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 -0.5 °C, the absolute minimum -2.9 °C, about 6 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 3.6 °C in July (across the envelope cells 2.9 °C to 4.9 °C), warmest day 27.9 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -0.5 °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: 53 to 59% 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 14 °C in Jul to 28 °C in Feb; mean night from 4 °C in Jul to 14 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1192 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 6 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -2.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 37.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost37.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)-2.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 17–53RH 53–59 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 6 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 °C27 / 26–2828 / 26–2926 / 25–2722 / 20–2318 / 16–1914 / 13–1514 / 13–1515 / 13–1617 / 15–1820 / 18–2123 / 21–2425 / 24–26
Night °C14 / 12–1514 / 13–1513 / 12–1410 / 9–118 / 7–95 / 4–64 / 3–54 / 3–56 / 5–78 / 7–910 / 9–1112 / 11–13
Rain mm34 / 30–3826 / 22–3042 / 35–4890 / 74–103157 / 128–183206 / 169–240208 / 174–241157 / 132–184117 / 98–13763 / 55–7451 / 44–5941 / 34–47
DLI53 / 53–5348 / 47–4839 / 38–4028 / 27–2920 / 19–2117 / 15–1718 / 17–1923 / 22–2431 / 30–3241 / 40–4149 / 48–4952 / 52–53
RH %53 / 53–5453 / 53–5454 / 53–5455 / 54–5557 / 55–5857 / 56–5957 / 56–5959 / 58–6059 / 58–6056 / 55–5755 / 55–5654 / 54–55

Each figure is the median across the 6 grid cells holding the 9 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 2470:3982 (-33.525, 19.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -2.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -0.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.0 °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 6 distinct grid cells holding the 9 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2470:3982 (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 -33.50_19.375, lapse-corrected +82 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 804 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.
NativeCape Provinces
Kew's description“perennial” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-33.625, 19.125 · in the densest population, 30 records (100% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 30 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 9 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 7 km away. 5 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 21 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 of the 30 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Drosera regiaDrosera regiaDrosera regiaDrosera regiaDrosera regiaDrosera regiaDrosera regiaDrosera regia

Photographs: (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (7); (c) Vicente Lopes, 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 regia, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Phylogeny of the sundews, Drosera (Droseraceae), based on chloroplast rbcL and nuclear 18S ribosomal DNA Sequences
Fernando Rivadavia, Katsuhiko Kondo, Masahiro Kato, Mitsuyasu Hasebe (2003) · American Journal of Botany
Relationships of Droseraceae: a cladistic analysis of rbcL sequence and morphological data
Stephen E. Williams, Victor A. Albert, Mark W. Chase (1994) · American Journal of Botany
Plastome-Wide Rearrangements and Gene Losses in Carnivorous Droseraceae
Paul G. Nevill, Katharine A. Howell, Adam T. Cross, Anna V. Williams (2019) · Genome Biology and Evolution
Relationships of Droseraceae: A Cladistic Analysis of rbcL Sequence and Morphological Data
Stephen E. Williams, Victor A. Albert, Mark W. Chase (1994) · American Journal of Botany
Effect of Agitation and Temporary Immersion on Growth and Synthesis of Antibacterial Phenolic Compounds in Genus Drosera
Wojciech Makowski, Kinga Mrzygłód, Agnieszka Szopa, Paweł Kubica (2024) · Biomolecules
Drosera arcturi in Tasmania and a comparison with Drosera regia
Robert A. Gibson (1999) · Carnivorous Plant Newsletter
A NEW SUNDEW,DROSERA REGIA(STEPHENS), FROM THE CAPE PROVINCE
Edith L. Stephens (1925) · Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa
Investigations on Drosera regia and Schleichera oleosa leaves for anthelmintic activity
Rama Shankar Dubey, Rajesh Shukla, Vikas Pandey, Ajay Kumar Shukla (2019) · Advance Pharmaceutical Journal
Drosera regia Stephens
Nigel Hewitt-Cooper (2012) · Carnivorous Plant Newsletter
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

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