Sundew

Description:

Sundews are tiny carnivorous plants, almost hidden in sphagnum, and though there are several species, each captures insects in the same manner. Sticky spines radiate out like a star-burst from flat, quarter-inch leaves. When an insect alights on the leaf, it is instantly stuck as if on flypaper. The leaf responds to the presence of the insect by folding around it, and remains that way until the insect is digested. Leaves with grandular hairs that excude glittering drops of clear sticky fluid; flowers white to red, in 1-sided racemes, usually of 5 sepals, petals, and stamens: 3-5 deeply forked styles; 8

Habitat:

Bogs. Of the 5 species of sundew in eastern North America, Vermont has 2: the more common round leaved (which may be found outside bogs, in roadcuts, ditches, or other exposed areas), and the spatulate-leaved, more restricted to the margins of floating bog mats.

Notes:

This Vermont sundew was discovered outside of a bog in an exposed area, thus it is the common round leaved species.