"Nepenthaceae" is a monograph by Joseph Dalton Hooker on the tropical pitcher plants of the genus Nepenthes . [1] It was published in 1873 in the seventeenth and final volume of Augustin Pyramus de Candolle's Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis , which was edited by Augustin's son, Alphonse. [1] The monograph focused primarily on new discoveries from northern Borneo. [2] [3] Unlike most major works on Nepenthes, it included no illustrations. [1]
A monograph is a specialist work of writing on a single subject or an aspect of a subject, often by a single author, and usually on a scholarly subject.
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker was a British botanist and explorer in the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For twenty years he served as director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, succeeding his father, William Jackson Hooker, and was awarded the highest honours of British science.
Pitcher plants are several different carnivorous plants which have modified leaves known as pitfall traps—a prey-trapping mechanism featuring a deep cavity filled with digestive liquid. The traps of what are considered to be "true" pitcher plants are formed by specialized leaves. The plants attract and drown their prey with nectar.
Published only a year after Ernst Wunschmann's "Über die Gattung Nepenthes", Hooker's monograph expanded the number of known species considerably. [2] Hooker recognised 33 species, including 7 described for the first time: N. bicalcarata , N. celebica (later synonymised with N. maxima ), [2] N. echinostoma (later reduced to a variety of N. mirabilis ), [2] N. hirsuta , N. khasiana , N. tentaculata , and N. vieillardii . [1] Nepenthes blancoi and N. maxima were listed as "species non satis notæ" (little known species), while N. cristata was included under "species admodum dubia" (very doubtful species). [1] Hooker also described 5 varieties: N. albomarginata var. villosa, N. boschiana var. lowii (later described as N. stenophylla ), [2] N. phyllamphora var. macrantha (later synonymised with N. mirabilis ), [4] N. rafflesiana var. glaberrima, and N. rafflesiana var. nivea. [1] Most of these varieties are not considered to be of taxonomic value today. [2] Hooker's concept of N. rafflesiana encompassed both N. rafflesiana and N. × hookeriana (the natural hybrid between N. ampullaria and N. rafflesiana). [5]
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 alkaline pitcher fluid, the waxy zone of the pitcher interior, and possibly even functional digestive enzymes.
Nepenthes maxima, the great pitcher-plant, is a carnivorous pitcher plant species of the genus Nepenthes. It has a relatively wide distribution covering New Guinea, Sulawesi, and the Maluku Islands. It may also be present on Wowoni Island.
In botanical nomenclature, variety is a taxonomic rank below that of species and subspecies, but above that of form. As such, it gets a three-part infraspecific name. It is sometimes recommended that the subspecies rank should be used to recognize geographic distinctiveness, whereas the variety rank is appropriate if the taxon is seen throughout the geographic range of the species.
The manuscript of Hooker's monograph formed the basis for an article by Maxwell T. Masters published in the April 20, 1872 issue of The Gardeners' Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette . [6] A number of Hooker's names appeared there for the first time, including the two varieties of N. rafflesiana and one of N. albomarginata; the as yet undescribed N. khasiana was included under the spelling N. khasyana. [6]
Maxwell Tylden Masters FRS was an English botanist and taxonomist. He was the son of William Masters, the nurseryman and botanist of Canterbury and author of Hortus duroverni.
The following taxa are covered in the monograph, with 33 recognised as valid species (including two little known ones).
Hooker attempted the first infrageneric classification of the genus, dividing it into two sections. He placed N. pervillei in the monotypic Anourosperma, distinguishing it on the basis of its round seeds. All other species were subsumed in the second section, Eunepenthes. [1] This classification would be expanded upon in the 1895 monograph of Günther Beck von Mannagetta und Lerchenau, "Die Gattung Nepenthes", [7] and the 1936 work of Hermann Harms, "Nepenthaceae". [8]
In botany, a section is a taxonomic rank below the genus, but above the species. The subgenus, if present, is higher than the section, and the rank of series, if present, is below the section. Sections may in turn be divided into subsections.
Nepenthes pervillei is the only pitcher plant found in the Seychelles, where it is endemic to the islands of Mahé and Silhouette. It grows in rocky areas near granitic mountain summits, its roots reaching deep into rock fissures. The species has an altitudinal range of 350–750 m above sea level. Like all members of the genus, N. pervillei is dioecious, having separate male and female plants.
Günther Ritter Beck von Mannagetta und Lerchenau was a prominent Austrian botanist.
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 tentaculata, or the fringed pitcher-plant, is a tropical pitcher plant with a wide distribution across Borneo and Sulawesi. It grows at altitudes of 400–2550 m.
Nepenthes mirabilis, or the common swamp pitcher-plant, is a carnivorous plant species. By far the most widespread of all Nepenthes, its range covers continental Southeast Asia and all major islands of the Malay Archipelago, stretching from China in the north to Australia in the south. The species exhibits great variability throughout its range. One of the more notable varieties, N. mirabilis var. echinostoma, is endemic to Brunei and Sarawak and possesses an extremely wide peristome.
Nepenthes lowii, or Low's pitcher-plant, is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to Borneo. It is named after Hugh Low, who discovered it on Mount Kinabalu. This species is perhaps the most unusual in the genus, being characterised by its strongly constricted upper pitchers, which bear a greatly reduced peristome and a reflexed lid with numerous bristles on its lower surface.
Nepenthes boschiana, or Bosch's pitcher-plant, is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to Borneo. It is most closely allied to N. faizaliana. Nepenthes borneensis is considered a synonym of this species. Nepenthes boschiana has no known natural hybrids. No valid forms or varieties have been described. Nepenthes boschiana belongs to the loosely defined "N. maxima complex", which also includes, among other species, N. chaniana, N. epiphytica, N. eymae, N. faizaliana, N. fusca, N. klossii, N. maxima, N. platychila, N. stenophylla, and N. vogelii.
Nepenthes chaniana is a tropical pitcher plant species belonging to the genus Nepenthes. It is characterised by a dense indumentum of long, white hairs. Pitchers are cylindrical and mostly white to yellow in colouration. Nepenthes chaniana belongs to the loosely defined "N. maxima complex", which also includes, among other species, N. boschiana, N. epiphytica, N. eymae, N. faizaliana, N. fusca, N. klossii, N. maxima, N. platychila, N. stenophylla, and N. vogelii.
"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.
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".
"Nepenthaceae" is a monograph by Martin Cheek and Matthew Jebb on the tropical pitcher plants of Malesia, which encompasses Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, and Singapore. It was published in 2001 by the National Herbarium of the Netherlands as the fifteenth volume of the Flora Malesiana series. The species descriptions presented in the monograph are based on the authors' field observations in Borneo, New Guinea, and Peninsular Malaysia, as well as the examination of plant material deposited at 20 herbaria.
Pitcher Plants of the Old World is a two-volume monograph by Stewart McPherson on the pitcher plants of the genera Nepenthes and Cephalotus. It was published in May 2009 by Redfern Natural History Productions and covers all species known at the time. The work was edited by Alastair Robinson and Andreas Fleischmann.
Pitcher-Plants of Borneo is a monograph by Anthea Phillipps and Anthony Lamb on the tropical pitcher plants of Borneo. It was first published in 1996 by Natural History Publications (Borneo), in association with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Malaysian Nature Society. An updated and much expanded second edition was published in 2008 as Pitcher Plants of Borneo, with Ch'ien Lee as co-author.
"Nepenthaceae" is a monograph by John Muirhead Macfarlane on the tropical pitcher plants of the genus Nepenthes. It was published in 1908 in Adolf Engler's Das Pflanzenreich. It was the most exhaustive revision of the genus up to that point, covering all known species, and included detailed accounts of the structure, anatomy, and development of Nepenthes.
Nepenthes of Mount Kinabalu is a monograph by Shigeo Kurata on the tropical pitcher plants of Mount Kinabalu and the surrounding area of Kinabalu National Park in Sabah, Borneo. It was published in 1976 by Sabah National Parks Trustees as the second booklet of the Sabah National Parks series. The monograph is Kurata's most important work on Nepenthes and significantly contributed to popular interest in these plants. It is noted for its high quality colour photographs of plants in habitat. In the book's preface, Kurata writes:
While Nepenthes were often enumerated as an important component of the flora of this mountain, a book on this genus—relating exclusively to Kinabalu had never been published to this date. With such a situation and the interest shown by visitors to the Kinabalu National Park in the genus, Mr. D.V. Jenkins, Assistant Director, Sabah National Parks was prompted to publish a guide book on the species found within the park and I was delighted to be asked to write the text.
"Die Gattung Nepenthes: Eine monographische Skizze" is a German-language monograph by Günther Beck von Mannagetta und Lerchenau on the tropical pitcher plants of the genus Nepenthes. It was published in 1895 in four parts, spread over the March, April, May and June issues of Wiener Illustrirte Garten-Zeitung.
Nepenthes hemsleyana is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to Borneo, where it grows in peat swamp forest and heath forest below 200 m above sea level.