This plant is not vegan-friendly

Nidderdale Moorland Group

Always a favourite with children when we host moorland education visits for schools and various groups, the carnivorous, insect eating Sundews are small, colourful inhabitants of the blanket bogs found on our managed moorlands.

One of the specialist bog-loving plant species that make up our blanket bogs, Sundews, like Sphagnum mosses, Cotton grasses and rushes, have adapted to live in the acidic, low nutrient conditions found in these areas. Instead of drawing their nutrients from the ground, the sticky, dewdrop-like droplets at the end of each spike attract and trap passing insects.

Sundews can be found throughout the British Isles where suitable habitats occur and have thrived on our managed moorlands, so it is great to read in the Richmondshire Today that they are now returning to other areas of moorland under restoration by the Yorkshire Peat Partnership.

Although still a common sight in the blanket bogs found on our managed moorlands, helped by the blocking of old agricultural grips and the rewetting of the moors, work which was started back in the 1980's by our upland sporting estates, hopefully the work by the Yorkshire Peat Partnership in other moorland areas will in time see Sundews reappearing in areas they have been lost from over the years, giving more children the opportunity to see our very own native 'venus fly traps' in the UK.

Round-leaved Sundew - Drosera rotundiflora