The Voynich Botanical Plants

Folio 56r, Sundews (Drosera species), are carnivorous plants, native to all continents except Antartica. VM folio 56r was identified as being a Sundew species by Denis Barthel (Wikipedia). These plants capture and digest insects using stalked, mucilaginous glands that cover their leaf surface. Their leaves are arranged in a rosette, generally flat on the ground, and the flower spike has white flowers (outlined with blue in folio 56r) that usually open one at a time. Sundews were used as medicinal herbs as early as the 12th century, when an Italian doctor, Matthaeus Platearius, described the plant as an herbal remedy for coughs under the name "herba sole." A good drawing of the plant can be found at the Aittakorpi school Web site.