Easily mistaken for : Oblong-leaved Sundew

Hybridises only with : The commoner Round-Leaved Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) to produce Obovate Sundew, but unlike Round-leaved Sundew, it grows over a much smaller area, occupying mainly the North of Scotland.

No relation to : Sunflower, Perennial Sunflower, Sun Spurge or Dewberry [plants with similar names].

The clear liquid mucilage at the end of each hair is viscous, and traps the insect, which is attracted to the plant by the sugary scent coming from the glands. When small prey land on the hairs, the hairs are triggered into moving towards the insect, physically trapping it to prevent escape from the stick mucilage. This takes place over a few minutes. When the insect is thus trapped, the leaf blade bends over upon itself in order to secrete additional mucilage on the insect to first liquidise it and then absorb the nitrogenous fluids for the plants own use. Only the indigestible chitin exoskeleton of the insect is left over, when the plant un-furls ready to catch the next un-wary insect. Nitrogenous compounds are in short supply in the boggy peaty uplands that the plant grows upon. Digesting insects are not the only way the plant survives, it does actually also have roots with which it feeds itself. The insects are supplementary, but necessary.

The plant is normally lime-green, but some parts redden under strong sunlight as a protection from the suns rays.

The flowers are white, actinomorphic, with five petals, five sepals and five stamens. The flowers are seemingly shy to appear, the author has not seen any despite traipsing through miles of upland bogs over the decades he has been walking the mountains. But then bogs are not something walkers like to linger on for long for fear of sinking too far.