When I first climbed Mount Bokor, I found a beautiful small population of Drosera peltata. It was in 2007. Those plants were growing on the roadside and are now gone.
Since then, I was hoping to find another population since the Bokor plateau is extensive. I was lucky enough to find such a population during this 2011 trip. "In Location C", several kilometres from the former spot, I found thousands of Drosera peltata growing with many other carnivorous plants in a very large clearing, what is refered here as a "Veal" in the Khmer language.
Those sundews were everyhwhere and it was impossible, at one point, not to step on them.
Unfortunately, as many of you should know by now, unless some conservation programme is accepted, that very location will soon be filled with houses and roads. Let's enjoy this while we can.
That veal is composed of short vegetation, very short shrubs and grass. Orchids, especially lithophytic ones are everywhere. Unfortunately, they were not in bloom.
The plant below was fairly common and it was not the first time that I observed it in carnivorous plants habitats. I used to know its name but I just can't recall right now, so if you can help me...
If you look carefully, you'll notice several Drosera peltata in the following photo.
We observed two colour "variants" of Drosera peltata in that "Location C". The majority was vivid red but many plants were also yellowish green and few of them were intermediate in colour. I'm not familiar with the various forms of this species but it seems to me that this Cambodian "form" is fairly big. Many plants were
at least 30 cm tall.
Some plants were blooming. Others were producing seeds. Almost all plants developed white flowers, except a few individuals which produced flowers with pinkish petals.
Drosera peltata was growing everywhere: on rocks, in pure sand, on moss... It was easy to find the typical rosette-shape seedlings.
Other species of carnivorous plants include many bladderworts, the endemic Nepenthes bokorensis...
and Drosera burmanii which also grow in large numbers up there.
How exciting, what an adventure! Thank you for sharing the photos. Now I am even more excited about germinating my seeds of D. peltata. :-P
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteIt seems to be a fantastic site with many carnivores and other interesting plants. Thanks for sharing.
I guess the orchid is Bulbophyllum blepharistes. It is lithophytic and hardy.
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