How a New Study Unveiled the Symbiotic Secrets of Darwin’s Favorite Plant

Charles Darwin’s love affair with the genus Drosera, known in English as the Sundew, is well documented. Even his wife noted his obsession, with even the genus name Drosera meaning “dewy” in Latin.

Darwin drew the Sundew numerous times over the years, as well as keeping and maintaining his own Sundew plants to research and study them. He first started to study them extensively while he was researching the movement of plants; how they opened and closed, curled around objects, and moved towards light. And then he found carnivorous plants, and the rest was, as they say, history.

But now researchers from England, Taiwan, and the USA have discovered that the Drosera owes its success to another organism with which it forms a symbiotic relationship—the fungus Acrodontium crateriform.

The leaves of Drosera secrete an acidic mucus that the fungus thrives on. In return, the fungus traps prey insects, allowing them to be digested faster and easier than in sundews, which do not have the fungus present. 

During the study, they studied Drosera species from around the world and discovered that Acrodontium crateriform is present and often dominant. This suggests that the two evolved side-by-side, driving each other’s adaptations into becoming the plants that they are today. They even discovered that the plant and the fungus might share nutrients, adding to the symbiotic relationship developing.

The role of fungi in symbiotic relationships in plants as a whole has often been overlooked, but this recent study hopes to change that. Understanding symbiosis may help us understand the evolution of plants, and allow us to drive evolution in the future in plants that are beneficial to humanity.