Hello,
This discussion only shows, why it is so important to have location data for the plants. Location data, as exact as possible, are much more important for me than giving a name for the plant.
I too have problems with the species-concept as used with plants. There is no good definition of what a species is. In the case of Sarracenia, you can easily find arguments, that they all belong to just one species.
Personally, i have problems with some listings of the ICPS-Database. D. venusta/natalensis is one of these. I think, that D. venusta deserves at least subspecies status. For me D. venusta is distiguished from D. natalensis by the leafshape and the form of the seeds. I know, there is much variation and plants, that do not fit into any of these species. Don't forget, that D. dielsiana plays a role in these plants as well. I do not like the idea to call any plant of the complex just D. natalensis. In fact, some of the D. venusta forms i am cultivating are really very differnt to some of the D. natalensis. There is no trained eye needed to see the differences.
Please do not call any plant D. "coccicaulis", that you didn't get as such. There is no real difference to many other D. venusta forms. The plants are just collected somewhere else. In this special case i think it is best to stick to the name D. "coccicaulis" (if you got it as such!).
Finally, some pictures of my plants. I hope i can illustrate, what i tried to say above.
seeds of D. natalensis "Debbert"
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seeds of D. venusta (collected between George and Outdshorn)
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I think, the difference can easily be seen. It is stable in all my cultivated plants.
some pictures of D. venusta/natalensis:
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D. venusta - George,Outdshorn
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Drosera venusta - Tsitsikama National Park
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Drosera natalensis - Natal
D. natalensis has rounder petioles, that are leading into a more/less round lamina, while the petioles of D. venusta are much wider and are more/less searnlessly ending in the lamina.
Christian
P.S.: If anyone has spare seeds of D. venusta/dielsiana/natalensis (or similar) with location data, please let me know! I am really interested in plants from this complex!