Drosera capensis, commonly known as the Cape sundew, is a perennial rosette-forming carnivorous plant in the family Droseraceae. It is endemic to the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. As in all sundews, the leaves are covered in stalked, mucilage-secreting glands (or 'tentacles') that attract, trap, and digest arthropod prey. When prey is captured, the tentacles bend inward and the leaves curl around it, preventing escape and enhancing digestion by increasing the surface area of the leaf in contact with the prey. This time-lapse video shows a D. capensis leaf curling up around a Mediterranean fruit fly over a period of approximately six hours.Video credit: Scott Schiller
