Species
+

Drosera rotundifolia L.

Common Sundew, Round-leaf Sundew, Round-leaved Sundew, Roundleaf Sundew

Climate known 76 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 rotundifolia, the round-leaved sundew, roundleaf sundew, or common sundew, is a species of carnivorous flowering plant that grows in bogs, marshes and fens. One of the most widespread sundew species, it has a circumboreal distribution, being found in almost all of Europe, all of Siberia, large parts of North America, Korea and Japan but is also found as far south as eastern China, the Philippines, and into the Southern Hemisphere in New Guinea.

Text from Wikipedia, “Drosera rotundifolia”, 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
L.
Native to
Denmark, Finland, Føroyar +108
Wild records
386 in range· 93 open

At a glance

Warmest month
21°C
Jul, mean day; nights 13 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
957mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 96 mm (CHELSA)
Light
4–35DLI
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 (June to January in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 957 mm a year, wettest October at 96 mm, driest April at 60 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -11.4 °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 belezeana E.G.Camus; Drosera corsica (Maire) A.W.Hill; Drosera corsica Maire; Drosera rotundifolia f. breviscapa Domin; Drosera rotundifolia f. comosa (Fernald) B.Boivin and 42 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 (June to January 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 (691 mm of 957 mm) takes 8 months, June to January. Mean temperature moves 14.8 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to July.

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 957 mm a year, wettest October at 96 mm, driest April at 60 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

957 mm a year at the habitat, 691 mm of it June to January. Wettest month October at 96 mm, driest April at 60 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 722 mm to 2032 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: 4 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 35 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 2, the highest 90th-percentile month 40).

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 -11.4 °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 -11.4 °C, the absolute minimum -20.2 °C, about 53 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -0.1 °C in January (across the envelope cells -7.7 °C to 3.4 °C), warmest day 21.1 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -11.4 °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: 60 to 68% 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 21 °C in Jul; mean night from -0 °C in Jan to 13 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 957 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 262 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -20.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 30.6 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost30.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)-20.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 4–35RH 60–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 262 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 / -1–75 / -1–88 / 3–1011 / 8–1416 / 12–1819 / 15–2221 / 17–2521 / 17–2517 / 14–2113 / 10–158 / 4–115 / -0–8
Night °C-0 / -8–3-0 / -7–32 / -4–44 / 0–78 / 5–911 / 8–1313 / 11–1613 / 11–1611 / 8–137 / 4–104 / -2–61 / -6–4
Rain mm84 / 51–24364 / 41–18474 / 44–18260 / 39–13868 / 52–14679 / 59–13985 / 53–13783 / 59–14087 / 63–14696 / 71–22490 / 64–24587 / 57–261
DLI5 / 3–1210 / 7–1817 / 15–2627 / 24–3334 / 32–3835 / 32–4034 / 31–4028 / 25–3519 / 16–2811 / 8–196 / 3–134 / 2–10
RH %68 / 61–7265 / 59–6964 / 58–6661 / 56–6460 / 57–6461 / 58–6561 / 58–6762 / 59–6763 / 59–6665 / 60–6967 / 60–7168 / 61–72

Each figure is the median across the 262 grid cells holding the 301 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 814:1143 (49.275, -122.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -20.2 °C, 1st-percentile night -11.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.6 °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 262 distinct grid cells holding the 301 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 814:1143 (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 49.50_-123.125, lapse-corrected -464 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 101 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.
NativeDenmark, Finland, Føroyar, Great Britain, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Svalbard, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Corse, France, Portugal, Spain, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Altay, Buryatiya, Chita, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Tuva, West Siberia, Yakutskiya, Amur, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Kuril Is., Magadan, Primorye, Sakhalin, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Lebanon-Syria, Turkey, Manchuria, China Southeast, Japan, Korea, Philippines, New Guinea, Aleutian Is., Alaska, Greenland, Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Yukon, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Labrador, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, California, Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia· introduced: Argentina South
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker52.862, 7.873 · in the densest population, 107 records (28% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 386 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 93 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 708 km away. 1 record outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 85 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 386 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Drosera rotundifoliaDrosera rotundifoliaDrosera rotundifoliaDrosera rotundifoliaDrosera rotundifoliaDrosera rotundifoliaDrosera rotundifoliaDrosera rotundifolia

Photographs: (c) Sylvain Montagner, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Dominic McLean, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5).

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media 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 rotundifolia, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Isolation of High Quality DNA and RNA from Leaves of the Carnivorous Plant Drosera rotundifolia
Ildiko Bekesiova, Jan‐Peter Nap, Ľudmila Mlynárová (1999) · Plant Molecular Biology Reporter
Experiments on the Nutrition of Drosera rotundifolia.
Francis Darwin (1878) · Journal of the Linnean Society of London Botany
Myrica gale L.
Keith R. Skene, Janet I. Sprent, John A. Raven, Lindsey Herdman (2000) · Journal of Ecology
Resource availability affects investment in carnivory in Drosera rotundifolia
L. Magnus Thorén, Juha Tuomi, Terttu Kämäräinen, Kari Laine (2003) · New Phytologist
Comparison of the antiinflammatory effects ofDrosera rotundifolia andDrosera madagascariensis in the HET-CAM assay
D. Paper, Elisabeth Karall, M. Kremser, Liselotte Krenn (2005) · Phytotherapy Research
Direct plant regeneration from leaf explants of Drosera rotundifolia cultured in vitro
M. Bobák, Alžbeta Blehová, J. Krištín, Miroslav Ovečka (1995) · Plant Cell Tissue and Organ Culture (PCTOC)
Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy as a non-destructive method for analysing herbarium specimens
Miranda Barnes, Josep Sulé‐Suso, Jonathan Millett, Paul Roach (2023) · Biology Letters

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 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; 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 9 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.