Drosera binata var. multifida

The most extravagantly branched sundew leaf in the world. D. binata is the only sundew that splits its leaves into a Y at all; the var. multifida forms keep on forking past four tips; and f. extrema pushes it to an almost absurd limit. Each leaf fans out through five or six successive dichotomies and finishes in thirty to forty sticky points that arch inward like a cluster of tiny talons, which is why this form is sometimes sold as the "Staghorn sundew". Wild plants from the type population on North Stradbroke Island, off Brisbane, have been recorded with more than seventy points on a single leaf.

This is the subtropical extreme of a species that otherwise ranges from Queensland all the way down into Tasmania and across both islands of New Zealand. Extrema sits at the northern end of that range, so it is noticeably more tender than the southern ecotypes: it grows year-round in mild conditions rather than dying back for a cold winter. In habitat, plants root into the wet loam and moss at the edges of creeks, ponds and seepage slopes, in full sun.

Leaves reach 30 to 40 cm long in cultivation, olive to bronze-green with deep red tentacles, arching outwards under their own weight as they mature. A well-grown plant can fill a hanging basket with interlocking, coral-like fans, one of the visual showpieces of the genus. Flowers are small and white, on tall stalks in summer. Give it a deep container: the roots are thick and rope-like and dive well below the surface.