Kentucky botanists discover new carnivorous plant

KENTUCKY (WXIX) - A new carnivorous plant native to Kentucky has been discovered.

The Round-leaved Sundew was found by botanists Devin Rodgers and Toby Shaya in a remote gorge in the Cumberland Plateau on a sunny, wet cliff above a stream clinging to small, moss-covered cracks in the sandstone bedrock, according to the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves (OKNP).

Officials said this is the first known population of this species in Kentucky and was found during rare plant monitoring for another species.

The environment in which the Round-leaved Sundew was found is described by OKNP as “nutrient-poor,” but the species has an advantage: it can “acquire nutrients from insects that become trapped on the sticky glands covering the leaves.”

The species occurs throughout the northern hemisphere and is more locally abundant in central Ohio along with the mountains of West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee, according to OKNP.

“With only one known population, the plant was ranked as S1 with a status of Endangered at the state level,” explained OKNP.

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