Tropical Sundew in the Arjunpur reserve forest of Sonepur. Telegraph picture

Sonepur, Jan. 4: Forest officials here have come across a rare species of carnivorous plant in the Arjunpur reserve forest in Sonepur forest division.

The species called tropical sundew is locally known as pat kandari and is very rare in India. It is found mostly in Sri Lanka, Cape Colony in South Africa and Amboina Island in Indonesia.

Sushil Kumar Tripathy, the forest range officer of Sonepur who spotted the plant, said the botanical name of the plant is drosera Burmannii and it belongs to the carnivorous plant genus drosera. “It is very rare to find this plant in India. It is carnivorous in nature as it feeds on small creatures like flies, insects and arthropods. We first spotted this rare plant in the wet areas of Arjunpur reserve forest and the nearby Chhanchhan Dunguri reserve forest,” Tripathy said.

The plant grows in wet deciduous forests. “Wet soil is the ideal condition for the plant to grow and we have in the two reserve forests a lot of areas where there are perennial sources of water and the condition is always wet,” Tripathy said.

The round-shaped plant can be found in many colours including white. “What we have found here is a blood red plant. The plant is usually two centimetres in diameter and contains a sticky substance known as trap droplets. It also has spiny hooks to trap the prey. When the prey comes in contact with the plant, the leaves immediately curl, and it gets stuck to the trap droplets. It is one of the fastest trapping plants and its leaves can curl around an insect in just a few seconds,” Tripathy said.

Sources said that the plant was first described by Johannes Burman, a Dutch botanist, in his 1737 publication on the flora of Sri Lanka. In 1794, the species was formally named in honour of Burman as drosera Burmannii. Though in nature, the plant is an annual, but in cultivation, when grown indoors during the cold months, it can live for many years. It is an herb that has very short stems and leaves in a rosette. Each wedge-shaped leaf is typically eight to 10mm long and five to six millimetres wide.

“We are taking up water conservation measures under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, so that perennial undercurrent of water is ensured and moist soil is available in the forest throughout the year. That will help the plant proliferate,” Tripathy added.