This rather peculiar plant is in many respects the odd man out among the more commonly grown carnivorous plants, in its being found naturally in dry sandy soils.
It occurs in Southern Spain, Portugal, and Northern Morocco, and is found around the coastal areas where it receives regular moisture from the nightly fogs. In appearance it produces an open rosette of long, linear leaves to about 20 centimeters in length, giving the overall appearance of a cluster of long pine needles.
These leaves are vertical when they first open out and gradually bend down to the horizontal by the time they brown and die off. The base of the plant is covered in the remains of the old leaves, and forms a sort of grass skirt with the rosette placed on the top. It is a stem forming plant, gradually becoming too tall to support it's own weight and sometimes falling over and growing in a prostrate manner with the crown being held upright.
The stem can grow to 1 meter in length.
There is no dormant period as such, but in cultivation growth slows over the winter months, with the first signs of the emergence of flowers occurring sometimes as early as January.
The flowers are a beautiful sulphur yellow and can be 2.5 centimeters in diameter. They open for only a single day each and are self-fertile, therefore guaranteeing the production of seed 2-3 months later. The black pear shaped seed can be collected when the translucent seed capsule splits.
DROSOPHYLLUM
