Australia is the main diversity center of Drosera, with roughly half of its known species. Drosera, commonly called sundews, contains at least 194 species and occurs across much of the world except Antarctica.
Australia’s exceptional richness includes about 40 pygmy sundews and nearly 50 tuberous sundews. Many grow in nutrient-poor soils, where their glistening, sticky leaf glands capture insects and supplement the minerals they cannot obtain easily from the ground.
South America and southern Africa are also important centers, each with more than 20 species, while Europe and North America have comparatively few. This distribution is not simply a leftover pattern from the breakup of Gondwana; modern accounts emphasize later long-distance dispersal and diversification.
A common mix-up is confusing a diversity center with the genus’s entire range. Australia contains the greatest concentration of Drosera species, but sundews also grow from Alaska to New Zealand and in parts of Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas.