New carnivorous plant discovered in Ky.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WTVQ) — A new carnivorous plant native to Kentucky was recently discovered in the state during a rare plant monitoring for another species.

The Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves made the announcement Tuesday, saying the plant is called a Round-leaved Sundew or Drosera rotundifolia.

OKNP botanists Devin Rodgers and Toby Shaya discovered the first known population of this species in Kentucky in a remote gorge in the Cumberland Plateau on a cliff.

“This nutrient-poor environment with virtually no soil is a harsh environment, but the sundew has an advantage of being able to acquire nutrients from insects that become trapped on the sticky glands covering the leaves. The glands are covered in sticky secretions that trap prey, dissolve them, and allow nutrients to be absorbed by the leaves,” OKNP described the plant.

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.

With only one known population, the plant was ranked as S1 with a status of endangered at the state level.