To Zach and others,
I just wanted to warn you Zach, and everyone else, that the
plants going around as D.intermedia "Brazil" are NOT from Brazil. I'm not
sure how this happened, but believe it's partly my fault. Years ago I sent
seeds of D.intermedia to the ICPS Seed Bank. These seeds were from plants
that don't go dormant in the winter, which is perfect for me here in SE
Brazil, since the winters are rather mild. People told me this was the
"tropical" variety of D.intermedia, native to the SE US or maybe Central
America. So I sent it to the seed bank as D.intermedia "tropical" and I
guess they took it too literally. I later saw it labeled as D.intermedia
"Brazil"in CPN.
D.intermedia does grow in Brazil though. Lots of us have
cultivated the D.intermedia Mt.Roraima. For those of you not good at
geography, Mt.Roraima is the division point between Brazil, Venezuela,
and Guyana in northern S.America. D.intermedia grows on this tepui at over
3000m of altitude plus in other areas of northern S.America.
Yet it has just been discovered that D.intermedia grows in
coastal habitats of SE Brazil!! Since Saint-Hilaire's collections here
back in the early 19th century, there has been much confusion between
D.capillaris (also found in coastal habitats in Brazil) and D.intermedia.
After much discussion, it seemed accepted that all the D.intermedia
collections from the coast of Brazil actually belonged under the name
D.capillaris var.brasiliensis. Only recently have people finally noticed
that BOTH are present here. D.intermedia is known from a few sites in the
states of Rio de Janeiro north along the coast to southern Bahia state.
D.capillaris var.brasiliensis grows from Sao Paulo state (and maybe Rio
de Janeiro too) south along the coast through Parana, Santa Catarina,
Grande do Sul states, and into Uruguay and maybe Argentina.
It's strange that both these species show this gap in their ranges,
between northern Brazil and their coastal habitats in southern and eastern
Brazil. And they're not the only ones, D.brevifolia does it too! It can
be found on the coast and highlands from Sao Paulo state in SE Brazil
down to Uruguay (and maybe Argentina again). Yet the gap is even larger
with this species, since it's not found elsewhere in S.America. If I'm
not mistaken, the closest sites are in Mexico!
Other species going around mislabeled are D.montana "white
flower" and D.sessilifolia. I've never seen D.montana with white flowers
in the wild here in Brazil, all having light-lilac to pink-lilac flowers.
All the D.montana "white flowers" seeds I've received turned out to be
white-flowered D.spatulata. The plants going around as D.sessilifolia
without location data are actually a S.African Drosera, maybe D.aliciae.
By the way, I'm interested in seeds of D.brevifolia and
D.capillaris WITH location data from the southern USA, to compare with my
Brazilian specimens. I've had these in the past, but lost them. If any of
you have one or both of these, please contact me.
Fernando Rivadavia
Sao Paulo, Brazil