Round-leaved Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) is a carnivorous bog plant. What look like dewdrops on the tips of red, glandular hairs, are sweet, sticky-mucilage secretions to attract and hold insects. The hairs curl to further hold the prey which is then digested with enzymes to extract nitrogen and minerals. It's an adaption to supplement the nutrient-poor environment of acidic sphagnum bogs.
Multiple leaves, seven or so like the one pictured above, form a rosette around the base of the plant. The small flowers (not pictured) grow in a one-sided raceme at the top of a stalk rising above the leaves. The flowers usually have five white, rounded petals, although I've seen photos with only four.
The Round-leaved Sundew, sometimes referred to as the common sundew, is circumboreal in distribution. In the Western Hemisphere it is primarily a northern plant scattered across Alaska and Canada with disjointed coastal range extensions south to California in the West and down the Appalachians to the Gulf of Mexico in the East. It is more common around the Great Lakes and Northeast into Canada where it grows in sunny acidic bogs, but it also can grow in fens, marshes and wet sand. In New York, it's considered exploitably vulnerable on IUCN's red list.
iNaturalist: Round-leaved Sundew
USDA: range map [zoom in for counties]
(photo at top ref. # 806-25)
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