Drosera Regia - Taxonomy and Botanical History

Taxonomy and Botanical History

Drosera regia was originally described by South African botanist Edith Layard Stephens in 1926. The binomial name Drosera regia is derived from the Greek word droseros, meaning "dew-covered" and the specific epithet regia comes from the Latin for "royal", a reference to what Stephens described as its "striking appearance". The genus is collectively referred to as the sundews, while Drosera regia is commonly referred to as the king sundew. Stephens was informed about this new species by Mr. J. Rennie, who had found several plants growing by a stream in the upper end of "Baviaans Kloof" on Easter in 1923. Additional specimens were located directly above this site on a plateau between South Ridge Peak and Observation Point. A second population was located in 1926 about 6.5 km (4 mi) away below the Slanghoek Peak near the headwaters of the Witte River.

Stephens placed D. regia in section Psychophila Planch., which at that time included D. arcturi, D. stenopetala, and D. uniflora, though she noted that the many-flowered inflorescence was unusual for this group. In 1970, the South African botanist Anna Amelia Obermeyer suggested that D. regia did not fit into any of the taxonomic groups established by Ludwig Diels in his 1906 monograph on the family. Obermeyer noted the unusual characteristics that set D. regia apart from any other Drosera species: the operculate pollen, circinate leaf vernation, undivided styles, and woody rhizomes. In 1994, Rüdiger Seine and Wilhelm Barthlott proposed classifying D. regia as the sole species in a new subgenus, Drosera subg. Regiae, to "give adequate recognition to the isolated position of D. regia within the genus." This taxonomic position was affirmed by Jan Schlauer in his dichotomous key and taxonomic revisions published in 1996. Also in 1996 two Czech researchers, Jindřich Chrtek and Zdeňka Slavíková, proposed changes to the taxonomy of the genus by splitting D. regia off into its own, monotypic genus, Freatulina. Chrtek and Slavíková cited the many morphological differences between D. regia and every other member of the genus Drosera in support of their decision to make this taxonomic split. They reaffirmed their taxonomic opinions in a 1999 article that also split the tuberous Drosera, members of the subgenus Ergaleium, to Johann Georg Christian Lehmann's resurrected genus Sondera. These taxonomic revisions, however, have not gained any support, being rejected or largely ignored by recent publications on the genus.