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.
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Situated in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of about 7,641 islands that are categorized broadly under three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The capital city of the Philippines is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City, both part of Metro Manila. Bounded by the South China Sea on the west, the Philippine Sea on the east and the Celebes Sea on the southwest, the Philippines shares maritime borders with Taiwan to the north, Vietnam to the west, Palau to the east, and Malaysia and Indonesia to the south.
Palawan, officially the Province of Palawan is an archipelagic province of the Philippines that is located in the region of MIMAROPA. It is the largest province in the country in terms of total area of jurisdiction. Its capital is the city of Puerto Princesa, but the city is governed independently from the province as a highly urbanized city.
The species was discovered in early 2010 by Jehson Cervancia, Mark Jaunzems, Ch'ien Lee, and Stewart McPherson.[3] The find was announced on the internet on February 28, 2010, under the placeholder name "Nepenthes sp. G".[4] At this point McPherson was uncertain whether the taxon represented a new species or merely a variant of N.mira, and asked for input from carnivorous plant hobbyists who had cultivated the latter.[4]
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, and N. platychila. Lee also described the natural hybrid N. × bauensis.
Stewart Robin McPherson is a British geographer, field biologist, nature photographer, and writer.
Placeholder names are words that can refer to objects or people whose names are temporarily forgotten, irrelevant, or unknown in the context in which they are being discussed.
Nepenthes gantungensis was formally described by McPherson, Cervancia, Lee, Jaunzems, François Mey, and Alastair Robinson, in the second volume of McPherson's Carnivorous Plants and their Habitats, published in July 2010.[2][5] The specific epithetgantungensis refers to Mount Gantung, the only locality from which it is known.[2] The description was accompanied by nine figures, consisting of eight habitat photographs and a pencil drawing by François Mey showing the species's major anatomical features.[2]
A species description is a formal description of a newly discovered species, usually in the form of a scientific paper. Its purpose is to give a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differs from species which have been described previously or are related. The species description often contains photographs or other illustrations of the type material and states in which museums it has been deposited. The publication in which the species is described gives the new species a formal scientific name. Some 1.9 million species have been identified and described, out of some 8.7 million that may actually exist. Millions more have become extinct.
Alastair S. Robinson is an Australia-based British taxonomist and field botanist specialising in the carnivorous plant genus Nepenthes, for which he is regarded as a world authority. Robinson published the first paleogeographical evidence for the radiative speciation of an enigmatic group of ultramafic Philippine and Malaysian Nepenthes from a common ancestor on the island of Borneo.
The herbarium specimen S.McPherson SRM 4 is the designated holotype, and is deposited at the herbarium of Palawan State University (PPC) in Puerto Princesa City.[2] It was collected on January 25, 2010, from the summit area of Mount Gantung at 1754m altitude.[2][5] In preparing the species description, the describing authors also examined herbarium material of a number of closely allied species, including N.attenboroughii (specimens A.Robinson AR001 and AR002), N.mantalingajanensis (G.C.G.Argent & E.M.Romero 92114), N.mira (G.C.G.Argent et al. 25438), and N.rajah (Low s.n.).[2]
A herbarium is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study..
A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described. It is either the single such physical example or one of several such, but explicitly designated as the holotype. Under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), a holotype is one of several kinds of name-bearing types. In the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN) and ICZN the definitions of types are similar in intent but not identical in terminology or underlying concept.
The Palawan State University (PSU) is a government-funded university in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Philippines.
Description
Nepenthes gantungensis is an upright, climbing or scrambling plant. The stem, which may be branched in vining plants,[6] reaches a maximum length of around 4m. It is cylindrical and varies in diameter from 2.5 to 3.5cm. Internodes are typically 2–20cm long, becoming elongated in climbing specimens.[2]
A stem is one of two main structural axes of a vascular plant, the other being the root. The stem is normally divided into nodes and internodes:
Nepenthes gantungensis growing near the summit of Mount Gantung
Leaves are petiolate to subpetiolate and coriaceous in texture. The lamina (leaf blade) is narrowly oblong and measures 20–40cm in length by 6–12cm in width. The laminar apex is acute or rounded. The base may be shortly attenuate or obtuse, and encircles the stem for two-thirds to the entirety of its circumference. Tendrils are up to 40cm long, with those supporting upper pitchers being coiled.[2]
In botany, a tendril is a specialized stem, leaves or petiole with a threadlike shape that is used by climbing plants for support, attachment and cellular invasion by parasitic plants, generally by twining around suitable hosts found by touch. They do not have a lamina or blade, but they can photosynthesize. They can be formed from modified shoots, modified leaves, or auxiliary branches and are sensitive to chemicals, often determining the direction of growth, as in species of Cuscuta.
Rosette and lower pitchers are wholly ovate to urceolate. They grow up to 20cm high by 7cm wide. A pair of wings up to 12mm wide runs down the ventral surface of the pitcher cup. These wings bear filiform fringe elements up to 10mm long. The pitcher mouth is oval to circular and up to 6cm across. It has an oblique insertion and rises at the rear to form a conspicuous neck. The peristome is cylindrical to slightly flattened and up to 2cm wide for most of its length, becoming broader towards the neck (≤3cm wide). It bears ribs up to 2mm high and spaced up to 2mm apart, which terminate in teeth (≤4mm long) on the peristome's inner margin. The digestive zone usually covers the entirety of the pitcher's inner surface. The pitcher lid or operculum is elliptic and measures up to 6cm in length by 4.5cm in width. It lacks appendages or a keel. A spur is inserted near the base of the lid. It measures up to 9mm in length, with a basal diameter of up to 2mm, although it may be much smaller.[2]
Upper pitchers are frequently produced. They are variably funnel-shaped, ranging from wholly infundibular to infundibular only in the basal two-thirds and cylindrical above. They may be somewhat larger than their terrestrial counterparts, reaching 25cm in height by 7cm in width, though they rarely reach these maximum dimensions. The wings are commonly reduced to a pair of ribs. Aerial traps resemble terrestrial ones in other respects.[2]
Nepenthes gantungensis is known to flower both in the rosette stage and as a vining plant. The species has a racemoseinflorescence. Male inflorescences can reach a height of 60cm, of which the rachis constitutes up to 30cm. Female inflorescences are similar in size, growing to 50cm in length. Peduncles of both sexes have a basal diameter of approximately 1cm. Female inflorescences hold up to around 150 closely packed flowers that are usually restricted to the distal quarter of their length. Flowers are most commonly borne entirely on one-flowered pedicels, but some plants may have a combination of these and two-flowered partial peduncles. Fruits are up to 8mm long. As in most Nepenthes species, the seeds are filiform. They are pale brown and measure around 7mm in length.[2]
A dense indumentum of simple, reddish-brown hairs (≤3mm long) is present on the undersides of the tendrils. These hairs are caducous, being lost with age. Shorter hairs of up to 2mm are sparsely distributed on laminar margins and the outer surfaces of developing pitchers. These hairs turn silvery with age.[2]
Colouration of the vegetative parts is variable. The laminae and petioles are often green throughout when produced in shaded conditions and red to purple in plants exposed to direct sunlight. Both lower and upper pitchers are predominantly green to yellow on their outer surfaces, often flecked with red to purple markings on the interior. Wholly red or purple lower pitchers have not been recorded. The peristome is often red, purple or brown in lower pitchers and orange to red in uppers. The lid is yellow to orange, sometimes tinged red.[2]
Ecology
Nepenthes gantungensis is endemic to the Philippine island of Palawan. It has only been recorded from the upper slopes of Mount Gantung in Brooke's Point municipality, where it has an altitudinal distribution of 1600–1784m above sea level.[2][7] The only known population comprises several hundred individuals.[2]
The species grows terrestrially. It is most abundant above 1650m, where it is found among stunted montane scrub vegetation on the summit and summit ridge, and forms a frequently-flowering, compact rosette. The most vigorous populations are said to grow in "sheltered scrub, amongst boulders just below the summit".[2][3]Etiolated vining plants of N.gantungensis have been found above 1600m in "shrubby montane forest".[2][3] Specimens growing in such shaded conditions climb to the height of the canopy. Like its close relatives,[note a]N.gantungensis is apparently outcompeted by bamboo.[8] It is not sympatric with other Nepenthes species and no natural hybrids involving it have been recorded.[2]
The conservation status of N.gantungensis has not been formally assessed for the IUCN Red List, but the describing authors suggested it be considered Critically Endangered based on the IUCN criteria, due to its localised distribution and small population size. The natural habitat of this species remains, for the most part, untouched by human activity, although a radio repeater tower and a small building are present near the summit. Mount Gantung lies within the Mount Mantalingajan protected area, but "large scale commercial mining operations" have nonetheless continued on a nearby summit.[2]
Related species
Nepenthes deaniana (left), N.mantalingajanensis (centre), and N.mira (right) are among the closest relatives of N.gantungensis. All three are endemic to the island of Palawan, where they have only been recorded from individual, isolated peaks.
The describing authors of N.gantungensis identified N.deaniana and N.mira as its closest relatives.[2] All three species are only known from isolated Palawan peaks. Nepenthes gantungensis can be distinguished from both on the basis of its typically shorter and narrower laminae, which have a more acute apex and base, as well as on the structure of the inflorescence, in which all flowers may be borne singly on pedicels. Compared to N.deaniana, the inflorescence of N.gantungensis is usually considerably longer.[2] There are also differences in pitcher morphology,[9] including a more pronounced peristome in N.gantungensis.[3] Whereas the lower pitchers of N.deaniana and N.mira may be reddish-purple throughout, those of N.gantungensis are not known to exhibit such dark pigmentation. Unlike its close relatives, N.gantungensis frequently produces upper pitchers.[2]
Nepenthes leonardoi, described in 2011, is another closely allied taxon. This species cannot be reliably distinguished from N.gantungensis on the basis of pitcher morphology, but may produce much darker traps, some appearing almost completely black. It also differs in having more distinctly petiolate laminae and a shorter inflorescence, with flowers that produce a characteristic musty scent.[8] Being the sole Nepenthes species native to the upper parts of Mount Gantung, N.gantungensis can be easily identified in the field.[2][3]
Nepenthes hurrelliana is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to Borneo, where it has been recorded from northern Sarawak, southwestern Sabah, and Brunei. It is of putative hybrid origin; its two original parent species are thought to be N. fusca and N. veitchii. A thick indumentum of rusty-brown hairs covers the entire plant, a characteristic presumably inherited from the latter.
Nepenthes faizaliana is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to the limestone cliffs of Gunung Mulu National Park in Sarawak, Borneo. It is thought to be most closely related to N. boschiana.
Nepenthes mapuluensis, the Mapulu pitcher-plant, is a species of tropical pitcher plant native to East Kalimantan, Borneo. It is known only from a restricted geographical range and is listed as Near Threatened on the 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Nepenthes benstonei is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to Peninsular Malaysia, where it grows at elevations of 150–1350 m above sea level. The specific epithet benstonei honours botanist Benjamin Clemens Stone, who was one of the first to collect the species.
Nepenthes eymae is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to Sulawesi, where it grows at elevations of 1000–2000 m above sea level. It is very closely related to N. maxima, from which it differs in its wine glass-shaped upper pitchers.
Nepenthes philippinensis is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to the Philippines. It is known from Palawan and the neighbouring Calamian Islands and Linapacan, where it grows at 0–600 metres (2,000 ft) above sea level.
Nepenthes mira is a highland pitcher plant endemic to Palawan in the Philippines. It grows at elevations of 1550–1605 m above sea level.
Nepenthes deaniana is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to the Philippines, where it grows at an altitude of 1180–1296 m above sea level. The species is known only from the summit region of Thumb Peak, a relatively small, ultramafic mountain in Puerto Princesa Province, Palawan.
Nepenthes mantalingajanensis is a tropical pitcher plant known only from the summit region of Mount Mantalingajan, the highest point on the Philippine island of Palawan, after which it is named.
Nepenthes peltata is a tropical pitcher plant known only from the upper slopes of Mount Hamiguitan on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. It is characterised by a peltate tendril attachment and conspicuous indumentum. The species typically produces ovoid pitchers with a prominent basal crest and large nectar glands on the lower surface of the lid.
Nepenthes attenboroughii, or Attenborough's pitcher plant, is a montane species of carnivorous pitcher plant of the genus Nepenthes. It is named after the celebrated broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough, who is a keen enthusiast of the genus. The species is characterised by its large and distinctive bell-shaped lower and upper pitchers and narrow, upright lid. The type specimen of N. attenboroughii was collected on the summit of Mount Victoria, an ultramafic mountain in central Palawan, the Philippines.
Volker B. Heinrich is a German naturalist.
Nepenthes palawanensis is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to Sultan Peak on the island of Palawan in the Philippines, where it grows at elevations of 1100–1236 m above sea level. It was discovered in February 2010 by Jehson Cervancia and Stewart McPherson.
Carniflora Australis was a biannual English-language periodical and the official publication of the Australasian Carnivorous Plant Society. Typical articles included matters of horticultural interest, field reports, and scientific studies.
Nepenthes leonardoi is a tropical pitcher plant known from a single locality in central Palawan, the Philippines. It is closely allied to several other Palawan endemics, including N. deaniana, N. gantungensis, and N. mira. The traps of this species reach at least 24 cm in height. Some specimens are noted for producing very dark, almost black, upper pitchers.
Nepenthes sp. Anipahan is an undescribed tropical pitcher plant known only from Mount Anipahan in central Palawan, the Philippines, where it grows in upper montane forest at 1200–1400 m above sea level. It is very closely allied to N. leonardoi and may be conspecific with it.
New Nepenthes: Volume One is a reference work by Stewart McPherson on the pitcher plants of the genus Nepenthes. It was published in 2011 by Redfern Natural History Productions and focuses on discoveries made since the release of McPherson's 2009 monograph, Pitcher Plants of the Old World. The book was edited by Alastair Robinson.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 McPherson, S., J. Cervancia, C. Lee, M. Jaunzems, A. Fleischmann, F. Mey, E. Gironella & A. Robinson 2010. Nepenthes gantungensis (Nepenthaceae), a new pitcher plant species from Mount Gantung, Palawan, Philippines. In: S.R. McPherson Carnivorous Plants and their Habitats. Volume 2. Redfern Natural History Productions, Poole. pp. 1286–1295.
1 2 3 McPherson, S., G. Bourke, J. Cervancia, M. Jaunzems, E. Gironella, A. Robinson & A. Fleischmann 2011. Nepenthes leonardoi (Nepenthaceae), a new pitcher plant species from Palawan, Philippines. Carniflora Australis8(1): 4–19.
Co, L. & W. Suarez 2012. Nepenthaceae. Co's Digital Flora of the Philippines.
McPherson, S.R. 2011. Comparison of the highland Palaweño Nepenthes. In: New Nepenthes: Volume One. Redfern Natural History Productions, Poole. pp.364–381.
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