Drosera microphylla, the golden rainbow, is an erect perennial tuberous species in the carnivorous plant genus Drosera. It is endemic to Western Australia and grows on granite outcrops or in sandy or laterite soils. D. microphylla produces small, circular, peltate carnivorous leaves along erect stems that can be high. It blooms from June to September, displaying its large golden sepals and smaller, variably-coloured petals. In populations near Perth, the petals are red, whereas petal colour near Albany tends to be orange. Some plants east of Esperance have white petals.D'Amato, Peter. 1998. The Savage Garden: Cultivating Carnivorous Plants. Ten Speed Press: Berkeley, California. pp. 158.Rice, Barry. 2009. The tuberous erect & scrambling Drosera. The Carnivorous Plant FAQ. Accessed online: 30 August 2009.
Botanical history D. microphylla was first described and named by Stephan Endlicher in 1837. In 1848, Jules Émile Planchon described the new species D. calycina, which was later reduced to synonymy with D. microphylla. George Bentham described the new variety D. calycina var. minor in 1864. This taxon was also reduced to a synonym of D. microphylla. Lastly, in his 1906 taxonomic monograph of the family Droseraceae, Ludwig Diels also described a new variety, D. microphylla var. macropetala, which was also later reduced to a synonym.Schlauer, J. 2009. World Carnivorous Plant List - Nomenclatural Synopsis of Carnivorous Phanerogamous Plants . Accessed online: 29 August 2009.
See also List of Drosera species
References