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Can the dew on the sun dew freeze?

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can the dew on the sun dew freeze?
 
Good question,to bad I don't know.
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Jerry
 
That is a good question. My wild guess is that the freezing point of the dew "mucus" is lower than that of water and that by the time the dew froze, the plant cells in the leaf would also be frozen. Just a guess. Someone should do the experiment to determine the freezing point. We also notice that the dew from some Drosera species is more copious and more sticky than from other species. I wonder about the properties of these differences. I see a great MS or PhD thesis: "Variations in the chemical and physical properties of dew within the genus Drosera".
 
Regrettably, from recent personal experience, yes the dew can and will freeze into little jagged ice crystals. We have been experiencing record lows here in central CA so I opted to move my tuberous sundews to the cover of an unheated garage. 55 degrees during the day but, 28 degrees F at night. A bright sunny day seemed like a great opportunity to let the emerging sprouts soak up some rays. That would have been fine had I remembered to bring them back under cover. By the time I remembered to check up on them early the next morning I had popsicles. The shoots above the soil turned to mush in a matter of days, but the rosettes close to the ground will hopefully make a recovery. Very disappointing. . .
 
I usually find that when the temerature beginst to approach freezing point my Drosera actually lack dew. This is not a low humidity thing (living in Atlanta there is no such thing as low humidity LOL) because the plants will have copious amounts of dew during the day but as evening approaches and temps start to fall the plants "dry out" I don't know if it is something that is peculiar to the species I am growing or if it is a genus wide response.
 
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