Plant an English explorer found on Malta (8)
I believe the answer is:
mandrake
'plant' is the definition.
(mandrake is a kind of plant)
'an english explorer found on malta' is the wordplay.
'english explorer' becomes 'drake' (I've seen this in another clue).
'found on' says to put letters next to each other.
'malta' becomes 'm'.
'an'+'drake'='andrake'
'andrake' after 'm' is 'MANDRAKE'.
(Other definitions for mandrake that I've seen before include "Root used in medicine" , "Poisonous plant or cartoon magician" , "Eurasian plant with purplish flowers" , "A plant; mean, dark (anag.)" , "Naked arm (anag) - narcotic plant" .)