A nature photographer has rediscovered a plant species whose last known sighting was when it was collected by Western Australia's first government botanist 170 years ago.
Daniel Anderson, from Jurien Bay, stumbled across a flower he had never seen before while out searching for orchids to photograph.
So he took a photo of the unusual bloom and shared it on the Wildflower Society of Western Australia's Facebook page.
"I wanted to learn and see if someone could tell me a bit more about it," he said.
No-one seemed to know for sure what the flower actually was, so one user tagged Thilo Krueger, a PhD student at Curtin University's School of Molecular and Life Sciences.
"Thilo told me that this [flower] is possibly something new and asked if I would like to be involved in finding out more about it," Mr Anderson said.
Further research revealed that the species had actually been discovered about 170 years ago.
It turned out Mr Anderson had rediscovered a type of carnivorous sundew, Drosera rubricalyx, not seen since WA's first government botanist, James Drummond, collected a sample of the species in the 1850s.
"[Mr Drummond] collected the plants and dried specimens, sending them over to Europe," Mr Krueger said.
"No-one has ever photographed or collected this particular species again, until citizen scientists with a smartphone came across them and posted pictures on the internet, which I think is quite an amazing story."
Recently released research says Mr Anderson's discovery is just one of six new species of carnivorous sundew found which have never been described before.
Four of those plant species were discovered by citizen scientists, proving the crucial contribution to science everyday people can make.
"Basically just normal enthusiasts who were out in the bush with a smartphone and uploaded these images online," Mr Krueger said.
"We found these pictures … contacted the citizen scientists and confirmed they indeed have discovered, or rediscovered, four new species."
The sundew plants produce sticky drops of glue on their tentacled leaves to trap their prey, and are at their most diverse in Australia.
Approximately 115 of the 260 species known worldwide are endemic to the south-west of WA alone.
Many of the species survive the harsh summer by retreating underground as dormant plants before emerging to trap insects, flower and set seed during their autumn-to-spring growing season.
Peter Luscombe, a farmer in Woogenellup, discovered another species of sundew, Drosera koikyennuruff, on his property.
"It is pretty special," he said.
"This particular one, you see it once in a blue moon, it only pops up in the right season."
