The abaxial (underside) surface of the leaf is noticeably veined and sparsely covered with non-glandular white hairs.

[4] In the dry season the leaves die back and the plant survives by forming a bulb-like structure of tightly packed leaf bases just below the soil's surface.

Dormancy is typically broken with the first rains of the wet season and growth proceeds quickly.

[7] Hybridisation is rare in the wild, however, because the soil types specific to individual parent species do not converge often.

[5][9] It is found growing in the grey silty clay soils in the Palmerston and Berry Springs regions and on Melville Island.

Tsang then sent specimens on to Allen Lowrie and Bill Lavarack, a botanist with the Queensland National Parks.

Tsang also prepared a short announcement of this new species published in the June 1980 issue of the Carnivorous Plant Newsletter, giving a brief description and suggesting the specific epithet honour Mr Falconer as its discoverer.

It was not until 1984 that Katsuhiko Kondo provided the formal description required under the rules of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature in an article that described three new species in the D. petiolaris complex.

[5][12] The holotype specimen is Kondo 2227 held at the Herbarium of Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Hiroshima University.

[5] Its alliance with the D. petiolaris complex in subgenus Lasiocephala was suspected from its earliest description by Peter Tsang, who noted similarities in their dormant bud and root structures.

During its seasonal dormancy, D. falconeri produces a tight rosette of leaves that resembles a hibernating bud.

Lowrie also notes that these species produce deep red foliage in the wild, a characteristic that is lost in cultivation when plants retain a greener appearance presumably caused by lower light intensities.