Species
+

Drosera peltata Thunb.

mao gao cai

Climate known 103 photographs Carnivorous plant
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Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Drosera peltata, commonly called the shield sundew or pale sundew, is a climbing or scrambling perennial tuberous species in the carnivorous plant genus Drosera. Among the tuberous sundews, D. peltata has the largest distribution, which includes eastern and western Australia, New Zealand, India, and most of Southeast Asia including the Philippines. The specific epithet is Latin for "shield shaped", a reference to the shape of the cauline leaves. It is either a single extremely variable species, or a complex of several closely related species of uncertain taxonomic boundaries. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Drosera peltata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Drosera

Drosera, which is commonly known as the sundews, is one of the largest genera of carnivorous plants, with at least 194 species. These members of the family Droseraceae lure, capture, and digest insects using stalked mucilaginous glands covering their leaf surfaces. The insects are used to supplement the poor mineral nutrition of the soil in which the plants grow. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Drosera”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Droseraceae
Described by
Thunb.
Native to
New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania +2
Wild records
1715 in range· 1422 open

At a glance

Warmest month
25°C
Jan, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
791mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 84 mm (CHELSA)
Light
12–45DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a carnivorous plant by the genus Drosera, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (November to June in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 791 mm a year, wettest June at 84 mm, driest February at 46 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 12 to 45 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 0.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Drosera bicolor Lowrie & Carlquist; Drosera gracilis Hook.f.; Drosera gracilis Hook.f. ex Planch.; Drosera lobbiana Turcz.; Drosera lunata Buch.Ham. and 22 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a carnivorous plant by the genus Drosera, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (November to June in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (586 mm of 791 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 10.8 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November to June.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 791 mm a year, wettest June at 84 mm, driest February at 46 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

791 mm a year at the habitat, 586 mm of it May to December. Wettest month June at 84 mm, driest February at 46 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 590 mm to 1196 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 12 to 45 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 12 to 45 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 10, the highest 90th-percentile month 49).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 0.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 0.6 °C, the absolute minimum -3.8 °C, about 2 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 4.9 °C in July (across the envelope cells 1.9 °C to 9.3 °C), warmest day 24.5 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 0.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 12 °C in Jul to 25 °C in Jan; mean night from 5 °C in Jul to 14 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 791 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1176 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -3.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 40.3 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost40.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)-3.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 12–45RH 57–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1176 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C25 / 20–2825 / 20–2722 / 19–2418 / 16–2115 / 13–1812 / 10–1512 / 9–1413 / 10–1515 / 13–1817 / 15–2120 / 17–2322 / 18–26
Night °C14 / 12–1814 / 12–1813 / 10–1610 / 8–148 / 5–126 / 3–105 / 2–95 / 2–107 / 4–118 / 6–1211 / 8–1412 / 10–16
Rain mm51 / 23–9546 / 21–12652 / 30–10356 / 39–11269 / 46–11384 / 56–12380 / 53–12480 / 52–12470 / 51–10769 / 47–9969 / 37–10365 / 38–96
DLI45 / 41–4941 / 36–4431 / 29–3523 / 20–2615 / 13–1912 / 10–1613 / 12–1819 / 17–2426 / 24–3135 / 33–3841 / 39–4545 / 42–48
RH %57 / 51–6257 / 52–6258 / 54–6259 / 56–6262 / 59–6563 / 59–6863 / 59–6761 / 56–6560 / 56–6358 / 55–6158 / 54–6157 / 52–61

Each figure is the median across the 1176 grid cells holding the 1698 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2534:6447 (-36.725, 142.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -3.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 0.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1176 distinct grid cells holding the 1698 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2534:6447 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -36.50_142.500, lapse-corrected +3 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 136 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeNew South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, New Zealand North
Kew's description“tuberous geophyte or subshrub” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-37.911, 145.265 · in the densest population, 611 records (36% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1715 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 1422 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2 km away. 167 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 17 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1715 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Drosera peltataDrosera peltataDrosera peltataDrosera peltataDrosera peltataDrosera peltataDrosera peltataDrosera peltata

Photographs: (c) Thomas Mesaglio, some rights reserved (CC BY) (8).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Drosera peltata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Antimicrobial activity of aerial parts of Drosera peltata Smith on oral bacteria
N Didry, L. Dubreuil, F Trotin, M Pinkas (1998) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
LC–NMR, NMR, and LC–MS identification and LC–DAD quantification of flavonoids and ellagic acid derivatives in Drosera peltata
Christina Braunberger, Martin Zehl, Jürgen Conrad, Sonja Fischer (2013) · Journal of Chromatography B
Determination of quercetin, plumbagin and total flavonoids in Drosera peltata Smith var. glabrata Y.Z.Ruan
Haitong Wan, Yu He, Zhimin He, Feng He (2012) · Pharmacognosy Magazine
Micropropagation of Drosera peltata, a Tuberous Sundew, by Shoot Tip Culture
Kwang‐Soo Kim, Gi-Won Jang (2004) · Plant Cell Tissue and Organ Culture (PCTOC)
ACTIONS OF DROSERA SP IN DENTISTRY DISEASES. PHITOCHEMICAL COMPONENTS, PHARMACOLOGICAL ACTIONS
Oleg Solomon, Carmen Galea, Ramona Feier, Andrei Mostovei (2023) · Medicine and Materials
Population history of the two carnivorous plants Drosera peltata var. nipponica and Drosera rotundifolia (Droseraceae) in Korea
Mi Yoon Chung, Mi Yoon Chung, Jordi López‐Pujol, Myong Gi Chung (2013) · American Journal of Botany
Naphthaquinones and flavonols from leaves of Drosera peltata.
A.G.R. Nair, P. Shanmugasundaram, K. Madhusudhanan (1990) · Fitoterapia
Bioinspired multifunctional cellulose film: In situ bacterial capturing and killing for managing infected wounds
Chengcheng Li, Ya‐Xuan Zhu, Ying Yang, Wanting Miao (2024) · Bioactive Materials
Morphological evaluation of the Drosera peltata complex (Droseraceae)
Robert A. Gibson, Barry J. Conn, Jeremy J. Bruhl (2012) · Australian Systematic Botany
[Drosera peltata and the standardization of drosera tincture].
Joëlle Leclercq, Luc Angenot (1985) · PubMed

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Drosera 203 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 62 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.