Drosera capensis – The Cape Sundew

(1 customer review)

$15.00

This South African sundew is a beautiful addition to any carnivorous plant garden. The long green leaves and red, glue covered stalks makes this a very showy, unique and attention grabbing plant. Features of this species are:

  • They are easy to grow and are perfect for beginners.
  • Like all sundews the leaves are covered in a sticky substance (mucilage) which helps to attract, trap and digest insects.
  • The leaves bend around captured insects to aid in trapping and digestion.
  • Leaves are long and thin and get to around 12 cm in length.
  • Plants get up to 20 cm in height.
  • The red, glue covered stalks contrast nicely with the green colored leaf base.
  • The leaves appear bright red and glistening especially in the morning sun (click magnifying glass in second photo for a closeup).
  • Multiple pink flowers are produced regularly throughout the growing season and are self pollinating.
  • Flower stalks are usually higher than the plant itself.
  • With it’s long, tentacle like leaves its the perfect bug catcher catching everything from tiny gnats to Damselflies and even mosquitoes (click magnifying glass on 4th photo).
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More Information

Care Guidelines

  • This plant grows endemically in areas where temperatures rarely dip below 10 degrees Celcius.
  • As a tropical sundew avoid exposing your plant to freezing conditions.
  • Light – provide direct or partial sunlight. Aim for a minimum of 5 hours direct sunlight.
  • Location – can be grown outdoors, in a greenhouse or inside on a sunny window sill.
  • Growing indoors – If growing indoors your plant will attract and capture any insects which may be present.
  • Feeding you plant – If you’re not seeing captured insects on the leaves then add insects such as mosquitoes or flies onto the leaves (tweezers help here). The leaves eventually bend toward and wrap around the hapless victim.
  • Insects as food for your plant can be either alive or dead. Unlike Venus Flytraps insects don’t need to be alive for digestion to occur.
  • Watering – plant can be watered from the top of the pot or placed into a tray of water. The water tray method is preferred because it keeps the peat moss (potting medium) moist replicating the boggy conditions where they come from.
  • Humidity – the tray method of watering also provides humidity which the plants like. As a general rule the higher the humidity the more ‘dew’ will form on the leaves.
  • Use distilled water, reverse osmosis filtered water or rainwater for best results.
  • Dormancy – this plant does NOT require dormancy and provided the temperature doesn’t dip to freezing your plant will continue to grow year round.
  • Tip: these plants produce multiple flowers in the growing season. Consider cutting off the flowers to encourage more vigorous growth in the leaves themselves.
  • Click here for simple instructions on how to plant your rhizomes to give your plants the best start.
Product & Shipping Information
  • Only bare rooted plants are shipped in the mail.
  • All plants are grown outdoors all year round.
Peat Moss (Potting Medium)
  • Need peat moss with your purchased stem? Click here to purchase from the online shop.

Pick-up Purchase

This product can also be purchased as a pot plant for $25 (pick-up only). The plants are potted in 140 mm high plastic growing pots. There are 2 methods of purchasing pot plants.

  1. Nursery visit
  2. Contactless purchase.
Nursery Visits

Please email me at: jerry@succulentflytraps.com.au to organize a nursery visit.

Contactless Purchases

This involves transferring payment into my account before picking up your pot plant at the nursery at your convenient time. Email me at: jerry@succulentflytraps.com.au to confirm your order. I will then email you back to confirm total cost of order, my account details and a date/ time for pick-up. Once I receive payment I will place your pot plant outside my house for collection. Click here for more info about contactless pick-up purchases.

Advantages of purchasing pot plants:

  • There is little to no stress on the plants as there is no re-potting involved.
  • Usually there is a miniature garden in the form of moss and smaller carnivorous plants around the base of the main plant.

1 review for Drosera capensis – The Cape Sundew

  1. Callum –

    Very good buying experience. Plants all arrived fast and in great health!

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