Dr. Charles M. Clarke (born in Melbourne, Australia) is an ecologist and botanist specialising in the carnivorous plant genus Nepenthes , for which he is regarded as a world authority. [1] Clarke has an honours degree in Botany from Monash University in Melbourne, and a Ph.D. in Ecosystem management at the University of New England, in Armidale, New South Wales.
Clarke first travelled to Borneo in search of pitcher plants in 1987. In 1989 and 1990 he lived in Brunei, studying the ecology of Nepenthes. In between travels, Clarke has taught Ecology and Biometrics at James Cook University in Queensland, and worked as a horticultural consultant in Hong Kong.
He now works at the Cairn's Botanic Garden. [1] Clarke has written five books and guides on Nepenthes, which present a synthesis of the research performed on his travels around the Malay Archipelago. The most significant of these works are the monographs Nepenthes of Borneo (1997) and Nepenthes of Sumatra and Peninsular Malaysia (2001). [2]
Clarke has described six species of Nepenthes: N. baramensis (now known as N. hemsleyana [3] ), N. benstonei , N. chaniana , N. izumiae , N. jacquelineae , and N. tenax .
Nepenthes albomarginata is a tropical pitcher plant native to Borneo, Peninsular Malaysia, and Sumatra.
Nepenthes rafflesiana, or Raffles' pitcher-plant, is a species of tropical pitcher plant. It has a very wide distribution covering Borneo, Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia, and Singapore. Nepenthes rafflesiana is extremely variable, with numerous forms and varieties described. In Borneo alone, there are at least three distinct varieties. The giant form of this species produces enormous pitchers rivalling those of N. rajah in size.
Nepenthes ampullaria is a very distinctive and widespread species of tropical pitcher plant, present in Borneo, the Maluku Islands, New Guinea, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Sumatra, and Thailand.
Nepenthes reinwardtiana is a tropical pitcher plant native to Borneo and Sumatra and to a number of smaller surrounding islands including Bangka, Natuna, Nias, and Siberut. Although some sources have included Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore within the range of this species, these records appear to be erroneous.
Nepenthes bicalcarata, also known as the fanged pitcher-plant, is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to northwestern Borneo, Indonesia. It is a myrmecophyte noted for its mutualistic association with a species of ant, Camponotus schmitzi. As an ant-fed plant it lacks many of the features that characterise the carnivorous syndrome in Nepenthes, including viscoelastic and highly acidic pitcher fluid, the waxy zone of the pitcher interior, and possibly even functional digestive enzymes.
Nepenthes stenophylla, or the narrow-leaved pitcher-plant, is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to Borneo. The species produces attractive funnel-shaped pitchers up to 25 cm high. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. Nepenthes stenophylla belongs to the loosely defined "N. maxima complex", which also includes, among other species, N. boschiana, N. chaniana, N. epiphytica, N. eymae, N. faizaliana, N. fusca, N. klossii, N. maxima, N. platychila, and N. vogelii.
Nepenthes ephippiata, or the saddle-leaved pitcher-plant, is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to Borneo. It occurs in the Hose Mountains of central Sarawak, as well as Mount Raya and Bukit Lesung in Kalimantan. It grows in montane forest from 1,000 to 1,900 meters elevation.
Nepenthes pilosa is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to Borneo. It is characterised by a dense indumentum of long yellow-brown hairs. Pitchers have a distinctive hook-shaped appendage on the underside of the lid. The specific epithet derives from the Latin word pilosus, meaning "hairy".
Nepenthes vogelii is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to Borneo. It is thought to be most closely related to N. fusca.
Nepenthes gracillima is a highland Nepenthes pitcher plant species, native to Peninsular Malaysia.
Nepenthes diatas is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to Sumatra, where it grows at an altitude of 2,000–2,900 metres (6,600–9,500 ft) above sea level.
Nepenthes densiflora is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to Sumatra, where it grows at an altitude of between 1700 and 3200 m above sea level.
Ch'ien C. Lee is a photographer and botanist specialising in the carnivorous plant genus Nepenthes. Lee has described several new Nepenthes species, including N. baramensis, N. chaniana, N. gantungensis, N. glandulifera, N. jamban, N. lingulata, N. palawanensis, N. pitopangii, N. platychila, and N. harauensis. Lee also described the natural hybrid N. × bauensis.
"The Nepenthaceae of the Netherlands Indies" is a seminal monograph by B. H. Danser on the tropical pitcher plants of the Dutch East Indies and surrounding regions. It was originally published in the Bulletin du Jardin Botanique de Buitenzorg in 1928, and reprinted by Natural History Publications (Borneo) in 2006.
Colobopsis schmitzi, synonym Camponotus schmitzi, is a species of ant native to Borneo, which is commonly known as the diving ant, swimming ant or pitcher-plant ant, due to their habit of diving into the digestive fluids of their plant host Nepenthes bicalcarata. They are endemic to the island of Borneo.
Nepenthes of Sumatra and Peninsular Malaysia is a monograph by Charles Clarke on the tropical pitcher plants of Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia, and their minor surrounding islands. It was published in 2001 by Natural History Publications (Borneo). Clarke described it as "intermediate between an ecological monograph and a taxonomic one".
"A skeletal revision of Nepenthes (Nepenthaceae)" is a monograph by Matthew Jebb and Martin Cheek on the tropical pitcher plants of the genus Nepenthes. It was published in the May 1997 issue of the botanical journal Blumea. The work represented the first revision of the entire genus since John Muirhead Macfarlane's 1908 monograph. Jebb and Cheek's revision was based on "collaborative work by both authors since 1984, largely on herbarium specimens, but including fieldwork in New Guinea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Madagascar". It was a precursor to their more exhaustive 2001 monograph, "Nepenthaceae".
Nepenthes of Borneo is a monograph by Charles Clarke on the tropical pitcher plants of Borneo. It was first published in 1997 by Natural History Publications (Borneo), and reprinted in 2006. Clarke describes it as "primarily an ecological monograph".