Drosera affinis

A stem-forming tropical sundew widespread across central and eastern Africa, from Angola and the DR Congo through Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Tanzania. It grows in boggy places and seepage areas in grassland and open Brachystegia woodland, at 900-2200 m elevation. Plants go dormant during the pronounced dry season (May to September), flowering at the start of the wet season.

When young, D. affinis forms a compact rosette with paddle-shaped leaf blades on long, thin petioles. As plants mature they can develop a stem, placing them in the same tropical African complex as D. madagascariensis and D. flexicaulis, though D. affinis has a more gracile profile and wider leaf blades. Flowers are pale to mid-pink. The species is variable in overall height, stem length and petiole hairiness across its range.

This is the Namibia form, which stands out from other populations: it grows larger, barely forms a stem, and has almost hairless petioles. In good light the whole plant turns a deep crimson, not just the tentacles.