Drosera subtilis is an erect annual

Annual plant

An annual plant is a plant that usually germinates, flowers, and dies in a year or season. True annuals will only live longer than a year if they are prevented from setting seed...

 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 native to northern 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 a single site in the Northern Territory

Northern Territory

The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...

. In Western Australia, it has been collected from Beverley Springs Station, Bigge Island

Bigge Island

Bigge Island is an island off the coast of the Kimberley region in Western Australia.The island lies approximately from the mainland, from which it is separated by Scott Strait...

, and the Mitchell Plateau

Mitchell River National Park (Western Australia)

Mitchell River National Park is a national park in the Kimberley region of Western Australia , northeast of Perth. The park adjoins the northern boundary of the Prince Regent Nature Reserve. The nearest towns are Derby which is to the southwest and Wyndham which is to the southeast...

 area all in the vicinity of the Kimberley region. In the Northern Territory, it has been found near Little Nourlangie Rock. It grows over sandstone near seepage margins in skeletal sandstone sand and black humus mixed soils. D. subtilis is anchored to the soil by a system of thin, fleshy roots and it lacks a 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...

. It produces small carnivorous leaves along erect, reddish stems that can be 20 cm (8 in) high.

Drosera subtilis has white flowers with four petals on an inflorescence

Inflorescence

An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...

 that can produce 50 or more individual flowers. Each flower has four white stamen

Stamen

The stamen is the pollen producing reproductive organ of a flower...

s that are 1.3–1.5 mm long with yellow pollen. Each flower also has two styles. It flowers from February to March.

Drosera subtilis was first described by 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...

 in 1982 in the Flora of Australia

Flora of Australia (series)

The Flora of Australia is a 59 volume series describing the vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens present in Australia and its external territories...

series. He placed it into Drosera sect. Ergaleium

Drosera sect. Ergaleium

Drosera sect. Ergaleium is a section of 26 species that are erect or scrambling tuberous plants in the genus Drosera. This section represents a natural group and are taxonomically monophyletic....

 with the largely south-west Australian erect or climbing tuberous sundews

Drosera subg. Ergaleium

Drosera subg. Ergaleium, collectively known as the tuberous sundews, is a subgenus of three sections of tuberous species in the genus Drosera...

, even though it lacks a tuber. Consensus among experts is that this species is misplaced and belongs with the allied and similar D. banksii

Drosera banksii

Drosera banksii, commonly known as Banks' sundew, is a small annual species in the carnivorous plant genus Drosera. The reniform-shaped leaves are attached to petioles and arranged in a circular pattern around the stem. The 5 mm wide flowers are white...

, another annual currently placed, perhaps incorrectly, in Drosera sect. Lasiocephala, but this opinion has not yet been formally published.