MUNICH.- A quiet rediscovery in a Munich herbarium has led to an unexpected botanical milestone: the official recognition of a new carnivorous plant native to Bavaria.

Announced on December 16, 2025, by the Botanical State Collection Munich, the plant has been formally named Drosera ×bavarica, or the Bavarian sundew. What makes the discovery remarkable is not only the rarity of finding a “new” plant in Central Europe, but the fact that it was hiding in plain sight—pressed, labeled, and carefully preserved for decades.

The plant was identified by botanist Andreas Fleischmann, a specialist in carnivorous plants at the Bavarian State Natural History Collections (SNSB). While reviewing the estate of Munich plant collector and carnivorous plant expert Paul Debbert (1934–2022), Fleischmann came across several unusual sundew specimens collected from a small bog in southern Bavaria more than 30 years ago. Debbert, who had once worked as a scientific assistant at LMU Munich, had already suspected their significance and labeled them with a provisional name: Drosera ×bavarica.

What Debbert had found was not a new species in the strict sense, but a rare natural hybrid—a spontaneous cross between two known carnivorous plants: the great sundew (Drosera anglica) and the oblong-leaved sundew (Drosera intermedia). While scientists had demonstrated in laboratory conditions as early as 1973 that these two species could hybridize, no confirmed examples from the wild had ever been documented. Until now.

“In a region like Bavaria, discoveries like this are exceptionally rare,” Fleischmann explains. “Outside of a few highly specialized micro-species, we usually assume that the flora of Central Europe is thoroughly known.”

That assumption makes the find all the more striking. The hybrid had never been recorded in herbaria, photographs, or field observations—despite decades of botanical research. Its rediscovery underscores the continued scientific value of historical collections, where unanswered questions can linger for generations.

Debbert, who passed away in 2022, never had the opportunity to formally describe the plant he had identified. Fleischmann has now completed that task, officially publishing the hybrid in the latest volume of the Bavarian Botanical Society’s report, which focuses on the genus Drosera in Bavaria. In doing so, he honored Debbert’s original insight by adopting the name his predecessor had already chosen.

The Bavarian sundew joins a select group of carnivorous plants native to Europe. Its presence also adds to the significance of the Botanical State Collection Munich, which houses the type specimens for three of the six sundew taxa found on the continent.

Beyond its scientific importance, the story of Drosera ×bavarica is also a reminder of how botanical knowledge advances—not always through dramatic expeditions or high-tech laboratories, but sometimes through patient observation, careful preservation, and the willingness to look again at what we think we already know.

As Fleischmann notes, “This discovery shows that even in well-studied regions, nature can still surprise us. Sometimes, the next chapter of science is already written—it just hasn’t been read yet.”