Drosera cucullata rewards a close look inside the flower. Its narrow sticky leaves place it among the familiar spider-like annual sundews, while the conspicuous red stamens provide a more specific identifying feature.
Accepted identity and geography
Kew accepts D. cucullata Lowrie as an annual native from northern Western Australia to the Northern Territory. A description restricted to Kimberley localities therefore does not capture the full range in that database treatment. Kew taxonomic record
Geography is useful context, but it should accompany the botanical characters. A northern Australian origin alone cannot distinguish this species from its many relatives.
The flower and the leaf underside
Carlton Carnivores describes long, narrow leaves with a distinct petiole, pale flowers and broad red, hooded stamens. It also illustrates knobbly red structures on the backs of the petioles and trapping blades. Species description and close photographs
These views serve different purposes. The whole plant establishes habit and scale; a close flower view shows the reproductive structures; the underside of a mature leaf records surface details that are easy to miss from above.
Do not identify the plant only from a red centre in a distant flower photograph. Shape and the accompanying leaf characters deserve examination before a name is changed.
Practical growing guidance
The horticultural account recommends warm, bright conditions, moist sandy peat and surface sowing. It describes seed as the means of renewal and does not report successful cutting propagation. Cultivation guidance
This gives a starting framework rather than a demonstrated optimum. Keep observations from the actual accession beside the general annual-sundew chapter, especially when interpreting a poor response after transport or a change of growing position.
Maintaining an annual collection
Watch for flowering and developing capsules while the plant remains healthy. Label deliberate pollinations and separate seed batches from different accessions. Record germination of the next generation as its own milestone rather than assuming that every apparent seed harvest is viable.
A declining adult at the end of an annual cycle is a different situation from a perennial forming a seasonal resting bud. That distinction is more useful for this species than copying a dormancy calendar from a woolly tropical rosette or a winter-growing tuberous sundew.
What a reliable profile preserves
Keep the original supplier label, locality and any subsequent identification evidence together. An accession with a documented flower and leaf underside is more informative than one whose name has been repeatedly copied between collections.
D. cucullata illustrates why a genus-wide encyclopedia needs individual profiles: the same broad arrangement of long sticky leaves can conceal meaningful differences in flowers, surface structures and life history.
Nano Nursery Drosera Encyclopedia — species profile. Related core chapters: 11 and 29. Reviewed 23 September 2026. Cultivation guidance concerns established plants.
