Drosera neesii, the jewel rainbow is an erect or twining perennial

Perennial plant

A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...

 tuber

Tuber

Tubers are various types of modified plant structures that are enlarged to store nutrients. They are used by plants to survive the winter or dry months and provide energy and nutrients for regrowth during the next growing season and they are a means of asexual reproduction...

ous species in the carnivorous plant

Carnivorous plant

Carnivorous plants are plants that derive some or most of their nutrients from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans, typically insects and other arthropods. Carnivorous plants appear adapted to grow in places where the soil is thin or poor in nutrients, especially nitrogen, such as acidic...

 genus Drosera. It is endemic to Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

 and grows near swamps or granite outcrops

Granite outcrops of Western Australia

Granite outcrops of Western Australia are inselbergs and monoliths made from granite that are found across much of Western Australia. Rising abruptly from the surrounding landscape they create a variety of microhabitats for plants, and provide seasonal resources and refuge for a range of animals....

 in sand, clay, or laterite

Laterite

Laterites are soil types rich in iron and aluminium, formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are rusty-red because of iron oxides. They develop by intensive and long-lasting weathering of the underlying parent rock...

. D. neesii produces small, cup-shaped carnivorous leaves in groups of three along stems that can be 15–60 cm (5.9–23.6 in) high. Pink flowers bloom from August to December.

Drosera neesii was first described by Johann Georg Christian Lehmann

Johann Georg Christian Lehmann

Johann Georg Christian Lehmann was a German botanist.Born at Haselau, near Uetersen, Holstein, Lehmann studied medicine in Copenhagen and Göttingen, obtained a doctorate in medicine in 1813 and a doctorate in philosophy from he University of Jena in 1814...

 in 1844. The first infraspecific taxon

Taxon

|thumb|270px|[[African elephants]] form a widely-accepted taxon, the [[genus]] LoxodontaA taxon is a group of organisms, which a taxonomist adjudges to be a unit. Usually a taxon is given a name and a rank, although neither is a requirement...

 was described when George Bentham

George Bentham

George Bentham CMG FRS was an English botanist, characterized by Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century".- Formative years :...

 reduced D. sulphurea

Drosera sulphurea

Drosera sulphurea, the sulphur-flowered sundew, is a scrambling perennial tuberous species in the carnivorous plant genus Drosera. It is endemic to Western Australia and is found in coastal areas in sandy loam, often among Cephalotus. D. sulphurea produces small, shield-shaped carnivorous...

to a variety, a decision which was later reversed. Then in 1982, N. G. Marchant

N. G. Marchant

Neville Graeme Marchant is a retired Western Australian botanist. He was formerly the Director of the Western Australian Herbarium.Marchant began working for the Western Australian Herbarium at the age of 15, as a laboratory assistant to Government Botanist Charles Gardner. Later he attended the...

described a new subspecies, D. neesii subsp. borealis, which is only found in the species' northern range.