Q: what does this post, the previous post, and the next several posts in this series all have in common?
A: all of their “stars” eat meat. If you look closely at the featured image, you should be able to see some “victims” being devoured, slowly.
The overwhelming majority of this forest’s carnivorous individuals have neither fur nor feathers.
If all appropriately qualified individuals were to join “The Deep Creek Terrestrial Carnivores Club”, its insect, amphibian and reptile members would dominate it.
Although a relatively small minority within the club, its carnivorous plants would outnumber the remainder of its (primarily, mammalian + avian) fauna membership.
You are looking at one of the Drosera – a genus whose members are commonly known as “sundews”.
Drosera live on every continent, bar Antarctica.
However, a deal more than half of all identified species call Australia home, exclusively.
Much more than half of that subset live only in Western Australia.
More than half of the WA-endemic species exist only in WA’s southwestern corner…or, more accurately, only in certain parts of it.
That said, even to a southwest WA resident’s eyes, the stringybark forest at the bottom of South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula is prodigiously well endowed with Drosera, of at least several different species.
Photo ©️ Doug Spencer, taken at 11. 54 am on 20 June 2023.