Nepenthes northiana
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 Lower pitcher of Nepenthes northiana. Bau, Borneo.
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| Nepenthes northiana Hook.f. (1881) |
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 Distribution of N. northiana.
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Nepenthes northiana (after Marianne North, who first illustrated the species) is a lowland species of pitcher plant from Borneo. It produces very large and attractive ovoid-shaped pitchers up to 40 cm high. It has an altitudinal range of 0 to 500 m a.s.l. and is only known from the Bau area, south of Kuching, in Sarawak. It is endemic to limestone substrates.[1]
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[edit] Description
The pitchers are large and can be up to 40 cm high and 15 cm wide. They are greenish-white in colour with many light-red blotches. Upper pitchers are generally light green to yellow, with a pink or red peristome. The seeds of N. northiana are distinctive, having relatively short appendages, a large embryo and being more woody than those of most other Nepenthes species.[1]
N. northiana is very similar to N. mapuluensis, a species known from only a handful of limestone peaks in Kalimantan Timur, on the other side of Borneo.[1]
The variety Nepenthes northiana var. pulchra Desloges (1909) is not considered valid today.
[edit] Discovery
The species was first brought to the attention of botanists when Marianne North illustrated plants brought to her from the Bau area. Harry Veitch recognised these as belonging to a new species and arranged for seeds to be collected and sent to Britain. The species was subsequently named after her.[1]
North wrote the following account of the discovery of N. northiana:[2]
Mr E. [Everett] went up a mountain near and brought me down some grand trailing specimens of the largest of all pitcher-plants, which I festooned round the balcony by its yards of trqailin stems. I painted a portrait of the largest, and my picture afterwards induced Mr Veitch to send a traveller to seek the seeds, from which he raised plants and Sir Joseph Hooker named the species Nepenthes northiana. These pitchers are often over a foot long, and richly covered with crimson blotches.
In 1896, The Gardeners' Chronicle reported:[3]
The specimen from which Miss North's drawing was made was procured by Mr Herbert Everett of the Borneo Company who 'traversed pathless forests amid snakes and leeches to find and bring it down to the artist.' 'Only those', writes Miss North, 'who have been in such places can understand the difficulties of progress there. The specimens grew on the branches of a tree about 1000 ft above the sea on the limestone mountains of Sarawak. When I received them I tied them in festoons all around the verandah and grumbled at having only one small half-sheet of paper left to paint them on.'
[edit] Natural hybrids
- N. albomarginata × N. northiana [=N. × cincta]
- N. gracilis × N. northiana [=N. × bauensis]
 Nepenthes × cincta |
 Nepenthes × bauensis |
[edit] References
- Schnell, D., Catling, P., Folkerts, G., Frost, C., Gardner, R., et al. (2000). Nepenthes northiana. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Listed as Vulnerable (VU B1+2e v2.3).
Miscellaneous: Nepenthes classification • Nepenthes infauna
