Drosera binata

The only sundew in the world with forked leaves. Every other Drosera sends up a simple blade or rosette; D. binata splits each leaf, often more than once, into a Y, a fork or a many-pointed antler. Some forms stop at two tips, others branch into four, eight or sixteen — the most baroque f. extrema can reach forty points on a single leaf. Charles Darwin used it in some of the experiments for his 1875 book on carnivorous plants, struck by how quickly its tentacles moved around captured prey.

It grows across south-eastern Australia, from Queensland down through New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania, and on both islands of New Zealand, wherever the ground stays wet: sandy marshes, peat bogs, seepage slopes, the edges of creeks. Lowland coastal populations keep growing through mild winters, while highland forms die back to the ground and spend winter dormant.

Leaves are erect and slender, covered in long red tentacles tipped with sticky dew, and can reach 60 cm in the largest forms — making this one of the tallest sundews. Flowers are white, held on tall stalks above the traps in summer. Long, rope-like roots drop deep into the sand or peat to tap groundwater: the plant likes a deep pot.