The Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves posted on Wednesday that the Round-leaved Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) was discovered while monitoring for another species.
They said it was found in a remote gorge on the Cumberland Plateau on a sunny, wet cliff above a stream clinging to small, moss-covered cracks in the sandstone bedrock.
The scarce soil in the nutrient-poor environment is normally a harsh environment, but botanists said the sundew has an advantage of being able to acquire nutrients from insects that become trapped on the sticky glands covering the leaves. The secretions dissolve the bugs and allow nutrients to be absorbed by the leaves.
This species occurs throughout the northern hemisphere and is more locally abundant in central Ohio along with the mountains of West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee.
Its discovery in the Cumberland Plateau is a notable distance from well-known Southern Appalachian populations.
The Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves has a database of 24,248 species and rare community site specific records. A total of 2,316 species and community occurrence records were added or updated just during the past year.
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