Drosera rotundifolia, the round-leaved sundew, roundleaf sundew, or common sundew, is a carnivorous species of flowering plant that grows in bogs, marshes and fens. One of the most widespread sundew species, it has a circumboreal distribution, being found in all of northern Europe, much of Siberia, large parts of northern North America, Korea and Japan but is also found as far south as California, Mississippi and Alabama in the United States of America and in New Guinea. Description The leaves of the common sundew are arranged in a basal rosette. The narrow, hairy, long petioles support round laminae. The upper surface of the lamina is densely covered with red glandular hairs that secrete a sticky mucilage. A typical plant has a diameter of around , with a tall inflorescence. The flowers grow on one side of a single slender, hairless stalk that emanates from the centre of the leaf rosette. White or pink in colour, the five-petalled flowers produce , light brown, slender, tapered seeds. In the winter, D. rotundifolia produces a hibernaculum to survive the cold conditions. This consists of a bud of tightly curled leaves at ground level. Carnivory The plant feeds on insects, which are attracted to the glistening drops of mucilage, loaded with a sugary substance, covering its leaves. It has evolved this carnivorous behaviour in response to its habitat, which is usually poor in nutrients or is so acidic that nutrient availability is severely decreased. The plant uses enzymes to dissolve the insects – which become stuck to the glandular tentacles – and extract ammonia (from proteins) and other nutrients from their bodies. The ammonia replaces the nitrogen that other plants absorb from the soil, and plants that are placed in a high-nitrogen environment rely less upon nitrogen from captured insects. It has been assumed that insects were also attracted to the bright red color of the common sundew, but studies using artificial traps have suggested that color does not affect prey attraction. New climates have been discovered with new plant growth but don’t have the food associated with the requirements for growth. In areas that lack this food associated for growth, new studies have been conducted to determine how these plants are able to grow in these diverse climates where these plants area able to flourish. In a study by L.M. Thoren et al. posted in New Phytologist, the carnivory of the Drosera rotundifolia