1. Are the sepals hairy or smooth?

2. Are the seeds long or round?

3. Are the petals two-coloured or single-coloured?

4. Is the inflorescence long with spaced-out flower buds far from the last leaves, or short with crowded flower buds close to the last leaves?

5. Are the seeds oval shaped, or long with a tapering appendage?

6. Is the style structure bright orange and highly divided into 30-60 segments, or white/brown with few divisions?

7. Is the plant bright green, shorter and heavily branched from the base of the main stem; or olive, taller with moderately branched/unbranched main stem?*

*Drosera hookeri can be less branched and taller in NSW. Rare, anthocyanin-free forms of D. gunniana can have the same bright green colour as D. hookeri. Also refer to seed shape below.

Note that the taxonomy of the Drosera peltata complex is somewhat contentious and constantly evolving. The species in this key represent my personal understanding of the plants. This key serves as an identification guide at a very basic level; members of this complex are often morphologically variable and might not fit into this key exactly. For more comprehensive descriptions and discussions of distinguishing features, visit the page for each species.

There are undescribed taxa related to D. gunniana in NSW and southern QLD.

See also: Seed comparison of the Drosera peltata complex