Nepenthes: Species

Summary: How many species of Nepenthes are there and where are they found? Join Kiersten as she takes you on a trip to discover the Nepenthes species.

 

For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean

 

Show Notes: 

Nepenthes. Wikipedia (This page is well referenced).

“Caught in a Trap,” The Biologist 62(2) p12-14.

Tropical Pitcher Plant-Nepenthes. Carnivorous Plant Resource. https://www.carnivorousplantresourcs.com

Nepenthes Phylogeny, International Carnivorous Plant Society. https://www.carnivorousplants.org

Music written and performed by Katherine Camp

 

Transcript

(Piano music plays)

Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife.

(Piano music stops)

Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I’m Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we’ll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating. 

This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won’t regret it.

The second episode of Nepenthes is all about species and where they are found. They do prefer areas similar to Rafflesia but they are more widespread. 

Let’s start from the beginning with the classification of Nepenthes. We have talked about scientific classification before but as a quick refresher this classification method is used to help determine the number of species within a group of living things. It helps scientists and researchers  determine who is related to whom. It is constantly evolving as classification methods are continually changing. It began with visual similarities between living creatures, then behaviors were incorporated, and with the advent of DNA testing classification has jumped forward and some things have been turned on its ear.

Classification for Nepenthes is a follows:

Kingdom - Planta (Plants)

Subkingdom - Tracheobionta (Vascular Plants)

Superdivision - Spematophyta (Seed Plants)

Division - Magnoliophyta (Flowering plants)

Class - Magnoliopsida (Dicotyledons)

Subclass - Dilleniidae

Order - Nepenthales

Family - Nepenthaceae

Genus - Nepenthes

Species names will follow genus.

So how many species of Nepenthes are there? To tell you the truth, I’m not totally sure. My research for this episode lead me to sources that said 30 to 35, 140, and as many as 170. The International Carnivore Plant Society says Nepenthes species numbers are in excess of 100. I think we’ll go with that number because it gives a bit of wiggle room. I’m inclined to believe this site because they get crazy scientific when discussing the origins of modern day Nepenthes.

One of the most interesting things I could decipher from this blog is that the modern day Nepenthes genus has no close relatives. So when digging into the evolutionary history of this genus, there are no transitional species that can lead us back to an ancestral beginning. Maybe these wicked cool pitcher plants are so perfect they’ve never evolved from their original template. 

Let’s take a closer look at a few Nepenthes species. One of the largest species of Nepenthes is Nepenthes rajah that grows pitchers large enough to hold 3.5 liters or 1 US gallon of liquid. That’s a pretty big pitcher plant. Nepenthes rajah traps are large enough to drown rats. They are known as the “king of the pitcher plants”. As an aside Nepenthes rajah is also the largest carnivorous plant in the world. 

Nepenthes argentii is considered to be the smallest species of pitcher plants with a pitcher opening of 2-4 millimeters and a pitcher size of 30 cm. That’s a pretty tiny pitcher plant. 

The rarest species of known Nepenthes is Nepenthes clipeata. Only 15 individual plants were known to exist in the wild in 1997. It’s found only on the granite cliff faces of Mount Kelam in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. It may very well be extinct today. 

Nepenthes mirabilis is the most widely distributed species of Nepenthes. It is found in Indochina throughout the Malay Archipelago, it is found in China and also Australia. This species varies greatly in color throughout its vast range.

So where are these plants found in the wild? They are mainly found in the Old World Tropics, ranging from South China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. There are two species found in Madagascar and one species found in the Seychelles. Nepenthes are also found in Australia and New Caledonia. India and Sri Lanka also host a few Nepenthes species. The greatest diversity of Nepenthes are found in Borneo, Sumatra, and the Philippines.

What kind of habitats do Nepenthes favor? Like Rafflesia, many pitcher plants of this species are found in hot, humid lowland rainforests but some are found in other habitats. Many are tropical montane plants found on the side of mountains where they experience warm days and cool to cold, humid nights. Some are tropical alpine species that grow in areas that have cool days and near freezing nights. 

The majority of species are restricted to small ranges within these different habitats. Some of them may only be found on one mountain and no where else, like Nepenthes clipeata. 

Nepenthes species are often classified as lowland species or highland species based on the altitudes at which they grow. Those that grow below 1200 meters or 3900 feet above sea level are considered lowland and thrive with warmer climates that vary little temperature-wise from day to night. Highland species that grow above 1200 meters prefer warm days that bleed into much cooler nights. Nepenthes lamii grows at the highest altitude of any other Nepenthes species, 3520 meters or 11,500 feet above sea level.

Most Nepenthes species tend to be found in environments with high humidity, a lot of precipitation, and moderate to high light levels. Some species have evolved to thrive in dense, shaded forests. Many species do well on the margins of tree and shrub communities or clearings. Some species such as Nepenthes mirabilis have been seen growing in clear-cut forest areas, roadsides, and disturbed fields. There are even species that have adapted to grow in savanna-like grass habitats.

These amazing plants tend to grow in acidic soils that boast little nutrients and often contain peat, white sand, sandstone, or volcanic soils. Some species can grow in soils with high heavy metal content, such as Nepenthes rajah, some can grow on sandy beaches in the sea spray zone such as Nepenthes albomarginata. Soil isn’t always necessary for pitcher plants to grow as some have evolved into lithophytes that can grow in or on rocks while others are epiphytes that grow on other plants, like trees.

We’ve taken quite a ride in the second epidote of Nepenthes and my second favorite thing about them, is where they are found.

If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform you’re listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change. 

Join me next week for another episode about Nepenthes.    

 

(Piano Music plays) 

This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.