{{Short description|Species of carnivorous plant}} {{Speciesbox | image = DroseraZonaria3.jpg | image_caption = | genus = Drosera | display_parents = 2 | parent = Drosera sect. Erythrorhiza | species = zonaria | authority = Planch. }}

'''''Drosera zonaria''''', the '''painted sundew''',<ref name="FloraBase">{{FloraBase|id=3135|name=''Drosera zonaria''}}</ref> is a perennial tuberous species in the carnivorous plant genus ''Drosera'' and is endemic to south-west Western Australia from near Perth southeast to near Esperance.

== Description == It grows in a tight rosette approximately 5 to 7&nbsp;cm in diameter with 20 to 30 green to red leaves that are arranged in concentric layers. The leaves are typically 1&nbsp;cm wide and are usually described as being "kidney-shaped" with crimson leaf margins. It grows in deep silica sands in open woodland or coastal heathland and only flowers after a bush fire, which is speculated to be caused by the release of ethylene. Its white, sweetly perfumed flowers, which are very similar to those of ''D.&nbsp;erythrorhiza'', emerge on 4 to 5&nbsp;cm tall scapes.<ref name="FloraBase" /><ref name="Gibson 1994">Gibson, R. 1994. [http://www.carnivorousplants.org/cpn/articles/CPNv23n2p43_49.pdf Carnivorous plants of the Esperance Region, Western Australia]. ''Carnivorous Plant Newsletter'', 23(2): 43-49.</ref><ref name="Lowrie 1981">Lowrie, A. 1981. [http://www.carnivorousplants.org/cpn/articles/CPNv10n3p74_75.pdf ''Drosera zonaria'' in flower]. ''Carnivorous Plant Newsletter'', 10(3): 74-75.</ref><ref name="Slack">Slack, A. 1980. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=ROS4xtUpMFwC&pg=PA143 Carnivorous Plants]''. Boston: MIT Press.</ref><ref>D'Amato, P. 1998. ''The Savage Garden: Cultivating Carnivorous Plants''. Ten Speed Press.</ref> As with most other tuberous ''Drosera'' species, ''D.&nbsp;zonaria'' will die back during the dry summer months and retreat to the fleshy tuber 10 to 30&nbsp;cm below ground.<ref name="Barthlott">Barthlott, W., S. Porembski, R. Seine, and I. Theisen. 2008. [https://books.google.com/books?id=vYwnc_L6el0C&pg=PA19 ''The Curious World of Carnivorous Plants'']. Portland, Oregon: Timber Press.</ref>

== Botanical history == [[File:DroseraZonariaTuber1.JPG|thumb|left|''D. zonaria'' tuber, beginning to emerge from dormancy]] ''D. zonaria'' flowers so rarely that very few botanists have ever witnessed the event.<ref name="Lowrie 1981" /> It was first seen flowering in 1954,<ref name="Slack" /><ref name="Russell 1958">Russell, M. C. 1958. Rediscovery of ''Drosera zonaria'' Planch. ''The Western Australian Naturalist'', 6(5): 109-111.</ref> 106 years after it was formally described in 1848 by Jules Émile Planchon in ''Annales des Sciences Naturelles'' 9:303,1848.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Annales des sciences naturelles [...] Troisième série. Botanique. Tome neuvième |url=https://bibdigital.rjb.csic.es/records/item/11481-redirection |access-date=2022-09-18 |website=bibdigital.rjb.csic.es |language=es}}</ref> It was first collected near the Swan River Colony by James Drummond.<ref name="Russell 1958" /><ref name="Diels">Diels, L. 1906. Droseraceae. ''In'' A. Engler [ed.], Das Pflanzenreich, vol. 4, 112. (Heft 26), 1–128. W. Engelman, Weinheim, Germany.</ref> Those specimens collected by Drummond were just two barren rosettes; later authors would try ascertain the proper species for these specimens. George Bentham in 1864 questioned the species status of ''D.&nbsp;zonaria'' and suggested that the Drummond specimens might actually be examples of ''D.&nbsp;rosulata''. In the 1930s, both Ludwig Diels and Charles Austin Gardner omitted this species name in their discussions of the genus. The type specimen was even recorded under the name ''D.&nbsp;erythrorhiza'' at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The species was finally rediscovered near Guildford in 1952 by M. C. Russell, who then also saw it in flower for the first time in May 1954.<ref name="Russell 1958" /> By the time Rica Erickson wrote her 1968 book ''Plants of Prey in Australia'', no other flowering specimen of ''D.&nbsp;zonaria'' had been found.<ref name="Erickson 1968">Erickson, R. 1968. ''Plants of Prey in Australia''. Lamb Paterson Pty. Ltd.: Osborne Park, Western Australia.</ref>

== See also == *List of ''Drosera'' species

== References == {{Reflist|30em}}

== External links == {{Commons-inline}}

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Category:Carnivorous plants of Australia Category:Caryophyllales of Australia zonaria Category:Eudicots of Western Australia Category:Plants described in 1848 Category:Taxa named by Jules Émile Planchon