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Drosera filiformis

I took a few photos of my filiformis flowering today, it is looking great! What are the differences between the two subspecies? This is growing in full sun and it is staying green, does that mean it is tracyi?
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D. filiformis filiformis is a northern plant, mainly growing from about North Carolina to Nova Scotia. It also stay generally smaller, to about 6 inches high, and with deeper red colors. There are exceptions, such as the Giant form in Florida, and the Florida All Red which is a fully subtropical form, needing no dormancy.
D. filiformis tracyi (or D. tracyi if you believe it's a separate species, I haven't seen enough difference yet to warrant this) is a much larger southern plant, growing along the gulf coast into Florida and Georgia, and reaching up to 20 inches high or more. It tends to be nearly all green, with only a tint of pink to the tentacles, and usually shorter, but denser tentacles on the leaves as well.
 
Definitely not a Tracyi. The dew has no color with the Tracyi. Mine never flowered though, but I am assuming the flower should be white, like the D. Capensis 'Alba' is. It looks like a var. filiformis to me.
 
perhaps inter species / inter population hybrid like D. 'California Sunset'. Has traits of both parents in terms of size, tentacle color, etc...
 
The plant definitely isn't 30cm tall, but I believe it is larger than 15cm, I will measure the leaves when I get home. I bought it as an unlabeled plant from Bunnings so no help there. From looking at the photos on the icps, tracyi can have a slight amount of colour and pink flowers. But there are photos of a version with no pigment. Here's a close up of one of the unfurling leaves.

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D. fil. tracyi can have pink glands, and only the anthocyanin free form has the white flowers. Like subsp. filiformis, tracyi has large, bright pink flowers like in your pictures. However, if the tentacles stay anything more than pinkish when the leaf unfurls, it could well be that you have D. x californica, the hybrid between the subspecies. Going by estimated size of the plant from earlier pictures and the pic of the ne leaves you just posted though, I'd bet it's either tracyi or the cross with tracyi as the seed parent, since the tentacles appear to fade to pink or green, and they're very dense across the leaf.
 
Here we go, I snapped this photo quickly, it's very blurry but I was in a rush, I don't see any red at all on the plant and it is in full sun almost all day, it only gets shaded late afternoon. Is there anyway to tell for sure if the plant is a cross between the two or a pure one? I'll make sure to measure it with a ruler tomorrow.
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I grabbed a couple of photos today, they aren't great but they show what I'm talking about. I hadn't noticed but the newer leaves now have red tentacles, much darker than when I bought it, I guess it's taking its time adjusting to the full sun?
Oh the plants are inside for the photos only because it felt like there might be a storm today.
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With the newer leaves turning that dark it may well be the cross or the FL Giant form. I would hazard a guess that it's the cross.
 
  • #10
Thanks very much! Is there anyway I will be able to know for sure which it is?
 
  • #11
I doubt very much you will be able to know for sure what the plant is beyond a hybrid between Drosera filiformis and Drosera tracyi. If you want a name, you can call it Drosera x californica and leave it at that. Among the Drosera x californica plants it looks too red for Drosera x californica 'California Sunset'. There is no published definition of "Florida Giant" or "Carolina Giant" or comparison between them and Drosera 'California Sunset' but they are very similar to Drosera 'California Sunset'. I also consider them hybrids--more than likely natural hybrids. The plants I have seen purported to be "Florida Giant" look a lot like your plant.

One way to know the simple Drosera x californica hybrids is they start out with all red tentacle heads but then fade to red tipped or pink tipped tentacle heads like new tentacle heads in Drosera tracyi. Drosera tracyi tentacle heads start out red or pink tipped and fade to very light pink tipped if not clear. Of course the anthocyanin-free white flowered Drosera tracyi has clear tentacle heads only. I presume in backcross hybrids anything can happen such as the tentacle heads not fading if backcrossed to Drosera filiformis and plants almost indistinguishable from Drosera tracyi if backcrossed to that species.
 
  • #12
looks like California sunset to me looks just like mine
 
  • #13
Thanks very much, that description sounds accurateof how my plant behaves.

I'm not sure it could be California Sunset, Australia has very strict quarantine laws so it's not worth the trouble to import live plants as seed can be imported for approved species just fine. So it's unlikely that the cultivar has been imported.
 
  • #14
The cutting from this plant are very vigorous! From memory, I cut them off of the plant around a month ago.
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