FLORA OF ICELAND elements: Drosera rotundifolia, Round-leaved Sundew, Sóldögg

Drosera rotundifolia; The Round-leaved Sundew is a remarkable plant. It is an insectivorous plant that catches insects with sticky droplets on long stiff red-colored hairs on their leaves. Once an insect is caught the hairs bend back to the blade. On the leaf-blade are red glands. When in touch with an insect it releases digestive enzymes. An interesting note concerns the digestive process. Unlike in animals, where proteins are broken down in peptide's (relative short chains of amino acids) or single amino acids, this plant break down proteins further to ammonia. It is a small plant with leaves in a basal rosette and flowering stems up to 5cm tall. Note though that in other countries they can be quite taller. It is a perennial herb. It survives winter through hibernacula. Those are buds detaching from the parent plant sinking down.
  - The leaves are round shaped and have many stiff hairs on the margin producing sticky droplets. The leaf stalks have quite long soft white hairs. The flowering stem is usually red-colored and lack leaves.
  - The flowers are small with 4mm white petals. The flowers though are closed most of the time.
  - The plants grow only in bogs among peat mosses in coastal regions. It is rather rare on Iceland.
  - It is a member of the Droseraceae, the Sundew family. The Icelandic name for this species is Sóldögg.