Drosera citrina is best known for its lemon-coloured flowers. The colour is memorable, but understanding this pygmy sundew requires a closer look at the boundaries between related names.
Accepted name and the coalara question
Kew accepts D. citrina Lowrie & Carlquist, published in 1992, as a perennial native to south-western Australia. It lists D. chrysochila as a synonym. Kew record
Krueger and Fleischmann’s 2020 revision treats D. coalara as conspecific with D. citrina, while retaining D. nivea separately. The captured Kew checklist still contains D. coalara as its own entry. This encyclopedia preserves both the baseline entry and the later-treatment discussion so the difference remains visible. Taxonomic revision
Recognising the plant
Fierce Flora describes a low rosette around 1.5 cm across, with pale yellow and white flowers, growing in deep yellow sand beneath heathland shrubs. Its field account records spring flowering and summer rest. Field observations
The 2020 revision cautions against separating these plants through flower colour or resting-bud shape alone. Its more useful comparisons include yellow pollen and a greenish-yellow ovary in D. citrina, versus orange pollen and a usually pale red ovary in D. nivea. Diagnostic discussion
A white-flowered plant should therefore not be renamed simply because its petals fall outside the familiar lemon-coloured image. A reliable record includes the flower centre, the whole plant and the source locality or accession history.
Cultivation guidance
Carlton Carnivores recommends a strongly sand-based mixture, bright light and a moist but drained winter growing season. It advises against forcing complete dry dormancy in cultivation because restarting plants can be difficult. Gemmae are its main recommended route for renewal. Growing guidance
These are horticultural recommendations, not a published comparison of alternative mixtures. Use the response of an established accession to refine the starting method, and keep a record of seasonal changes rather than imposing the same treatment on every pygmy sundew.
Maintaining useful labels
Where a plant was received as D. coalara, retain that original name in the accession record even if a later determination follows the synonymy above. A changed working name should add information, not erase the plant’s history.
This is particularly useful when several sources use different treatments at the same time. Readers can then understand which concept the article follows and compare material without assuming that every difference in label represents a different biological species.
Nano Nursery Drosera Encyclopedia — species profile. Related core chapters: 16, 17 and 29. Reviewed 23 September 2026. Cultivation guidance concerns established plants.
