''Nepenthes glabrata'' is a tropical

pitcher plant 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 p ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Sulawesi Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Ar ...

. The species grows in open, high forest at elevations of 1600 to 2100 m. It produces dainty, colourful pitchers reaching only a few centimetres in height. These traps are red speckled on a yellowish background, giving them a "hand painted" appearance.D'Amato, P. 1998. '' The Savage Garden: Cultivating Carnivorous Plants''. Ten Speed Press, Berkeley. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''glabrata'' is derived from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

word ''glaber'', meaning "hairless", and refers to the mostly

glabrous Glabrousness (from the Latin ''glaber'' meaning "bald", "hairless", "shaved", "smooth") is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of ...

nature of this species.

Botanical history

As in the case of '' N. eymae'' and '' N. hamata'', two formal descriptions of this species were published almost concurrently. The first, by

Shigeo Kurata is a Japanese botanist and '' Nepenthes'' taxonomist whose work in the 1960s and 1970s contributed much to the current popularity of these plants.Clarke, C.M. & C.C. Lee 2004. ''Pitcher Plants of Sarawak''. Natural History Publications (Borneo), ...

under the name ''N. rubromaculata'', was published on February 6, 1984, in the ''

Journal of Insectivorous Plant Society is a quarterly Japanese-language periodical and the official publication of the Insectivorous Plant Society of Japan.Rice, B. 2010Carnivorous Plant Society Archives The Carnivorous Plant FAQ. rchived page from October 10, 2010/ref> The journal ...

''. The second, by John R. Turnbull and Anne T. Middleton as ''N. glabratus'', was published four days later on February 10, in ''Reinwardtia''.Cheek, M.R. & M.H.P. Jebb 2001.

Nepenthaceae ''Nepenthes'' () is a genus of carnivorous plants, also known as tropical pitcher plants, or monkey cups, in the monotypic family Nepenthaceae. The genus includes about 170 species, and numerous natural and many cultivated hybrids. They are mos ...

. ''Flora Malesiana'' 15: 1–157. Although Kurata's article was printed first, the name he used is a

later homonym In biology, a homonym is a name for a taxon that is identical in spelling to another such name, that belongs to a different taxon. The rule in the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature is that the first such name to be published is the se ...

of a horticultural hybrid published in 1891 (''N. × rubromaculata'') and is thus a ''

nomen illegitimum ''Nomen illegitimum'' (Latin for illegitimate name) is a technical term, used mainly in botany. It is usually abbreviated as ''nom. illeg.'' Although the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants uses Latin terms for other ki ...

'' (illegitimate name).Schlauer, J. N.d
''Nepenthes glabrata''
. Carnivorous Plant Database. ''Nepenthes glabrata'' (emended with a feminine

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...

)Schlauer, J. 1994
NEPENTHES comments for Flora Malesiana
Carnivorous Plant Mailing List, September 9, 1994. is therefore the correct name for this species.Jebb, M.H.P. & M.R. Cheek 1997. A skeletal revision of ''Nepenthes'' (Nepenthaceae). ''Blumea'' 42(1): 1–106. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

of ''N. glabrata'', ''J.R.Turnbull & A.T.Middleton 83113a'', was collected on August 31, 1983, from the Tri Tunggal Eboni Corp. logging concession () in

Central Sulawesi Central Sulawesi (Indonesian: ''Sulawesi Tengah'') is a province of Indonesia located at the centre of the island of Sulawesi. The administrative capital and largest city is located in Palu. The 2010 census recorded a population of 2,635,009 for ...

at an altitude of 1666 m. In their description of the species, Turnbull and Middleton wrote that the specimen was deposited at Herbarium Bogoriense (BO), the herbarium of the

Bogor Botanical Gardens The Bogor Botanical Gardens ( id, Kebun Raya Bogor) is a botanical garden located in Bogor, Indonesia, 60 km south of central Jakarta. It is currently operated by Indonesian Institute of Sciences (Indonesian: ''Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indo ...

, but

Matthew Jebb Matthew Hilary Peter Jebb (born 1958) is an Irish botanist and taxonomist specialising in the ant plant genera ''Squamellaria'', ''Myrmecodia'', ''Hydnophytum'', ''Myrmephytum'' and ''Anthorrhiza'', as well as the carnivorous plant genus ''Nepe ...

and

Martin Cheek Martin Roy Cheek (born 1960) is a botanist and taxonomist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The holotype of ''N. rubromaculata'' Sh.Kurata, ''Kurata, Atsumi & Komatsu 149a'', was collected on November 9, 1983, from the route from

Malei ''Litsea garciae'', also known as engkala, engkalak, kalangkala, kangkala, medang, pangalaban, ta'ang, malai, wuru lilin, kelimah, bua talal, kelime, kelimie, bua' vengolobon, wi lahal, kelima, mali, beva' mali, kayu mali, malei, pengalaban, peng ...

to Kajoga in Central Sulawesi. The type repository is not indicated in the description, but is likely to be the herbarium of the

Nippon Dental College Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

(NDC). Soon after these descriptions were published, the authors introduced the species into cultivation.D'Amato, P. 2000
Re: ''N. glabrata''
. Carnivorous Plant Mailing List, February 24, 2000. Hobbyists distinguished two forms: "Palo Alto", which produces more compact pitchers and narrow leaves that turn purple under high light levels; and "Forestville", which has somewhat larger pitchers, particularly aerial ones.

Description

''Nepenthes glabrata'' is a climbing plant growing to a height of 13 m.McPherson, S.R. 2009. ''

Pitcher Plants of the Old World ''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 kno ...

''. 2 volumes. Redfern Natural History Productions, Poole. The stem is

terete Terete is a term in botany used to describe a cross section that is circular, or like a distorted circle, with a single surface wrapping around it.Lichen Vocabulary, Lichens of North America Information, Sylvia and Stephen Sharnoff/ref> This is us ...

to slightly two-ridged and up to 3 mm in diameter. Internodes are up to 3 cm long. Nepglabrata6

Leaves are

chartaceous This glossary of botanical terms is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to botany and plants in general. Terms of plant morphology are included here as well as at the more specific Glossary of plant morphology and Glossary o ...

and

sessile Sessility, or sessile, may refer to: * Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about * Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant * Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...

. The

lamina Lamina may refer to: Science and technology * Planar lamina, a two-dimensional planar closed surface with mass and density, in mathematics * Laminar flow, (or streamline flow) occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers, with no disruption betwee ...

(leaf blade) of young rosette plants is linear, while that of rosettes on mature plants may be greatly reduced to the point of being almost absent. On climbing stems, the lamina is narrowly oblong-

ligulate A ligule (from "strap", variant of ''lingula'', from ''lingua'' "tongue") is a thin outgrowth at the junction of leaf and leafstalk of many grasses (Poaceae) and sedges. A ligule is also a strap-shaped extension of the corolla, such as that of a ...

to narrowly

oblanceolate The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular o ...

. It measures up to 12 cm in length by 3 cm in width. It has an acute apex with a slightly

peltate The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular o ...

tendril In botany, a tendril is a specialized stem, leaf or petiole with a threadlike shape used by climbing plants for support and attachment, as well as cellular invasion by parasitic plants such as ''Cuscuta''. There are many plants that have tendr ...

insertion. The lamina is shortly

attenuate In physics, attenuation (in some contexts, extinction) is the gradual loss of flux intensity through a medium. For instance, dark glasses attenuate sunlight, lead attenuates X-rays, and water and air attenuate both light and sound at variable a ...

at the base, clasping the stem by approximately one-third to one-half of its circumference and may or may not become decurrent as a pair of very low ridges. One to three longitudinal veins are present on either side of the

midrib This glossary of botanical terms is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to botany and plants in general. Terms of plant morphology are included here as well as at the more specific Glossary of plant morphology and Glossary o ...

Pinnate Pinnation (also called pennation) is the arrangement of feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis. Pinnation occurs in biological morphology, in crystals, such as some forms of ice or metal crystals, and in ...

veins are inconspicuous. Rosette and lower pitchers are small and

globose A sphere () is a geometrical object that is a three-dimensional analogue to a two-dimensional circle. A sphere is the set of points that are all at the same distance from a given point in three-dimensional space.. That given point is the ce ...

. Upper pitchers are shortly cylindrical to slightly

infundibular An infundibulum (Latin for ''funnel''; plural, ''infundibula'') is a funnel-shaped cavity or organ. Anatomy * Brain: the pituitary stalk, also known as the ''infundibulum'' and ''infundibular stalk'', is the connection between the hypothalamus and ...

. They grow to 14 cm in height by 3 cm in width. The wings found in aerial pitchers are distinctive in that they are well developed (≤10 mm wide) but lack fringe elements. The pitcher mouth has an oblique insertion. The

peristome Peristome (from the Greek ''peri'', meaning 'around' or 'about', and ''stoma'', 'mouth') is an anatomical feature that surrounds an opening to an organ or structure. Some plants, fungi, and shelled gastropods have peristomes. In mosses In mosses, ...

is cylindrical and narrow, measuring only up to 2.5 mm in width. It bears very fine ribs (0.1 mm high) spaced 0.25–0.5 mm apart. Unusually, the inner margin of the peristome lacks teeth. The pitcher lid, or operculum, is suborbicular in shape and measures up to 2.8 cm in length by 3.1 cm in width. It has a rounded to

truncate In mathematics and computer science, truncation is limiting the number of digits right of the decimal point. Truncation and floor function Truncation of positive real numbers can be done using the floor function. Given a number x \in \mathbb ...

apex and a truncate base. The underside of the lid lacks appendages but bears scattered

nectar Nectar is a sugar-rich liquid produced by plants in glands called nectaries or nectarines, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to animal mutualists ...

gland In animals, a gland is a group of cells in an animal's body that synthesizes substances (such as hormones) for release into the bloodstream (endocrine gland) or into cavities inside the body or its outer surface (exocrine gland). Structure De ...

s up to 0.2 mm in diameter. It shows unusual

palmate The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular o ...

nervation, with the midrib branching and connecting to the lateral veins around 1 cm below the apex. An unbranched

spur A spur is a metal tool designed to be worn in pairs on the heels of riding boots for the purpose of directing a horse or other animal to move forward or laterally while riding. It is usually used to refine the riding aids (commands) and to back ...

(≤5 mm long) is inserted near the base of the lid. ''Nepenthes glabrata'' has a

racemose A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

measuring up to 20 cm in length, of which the peduncle makes up 7 cm. It bears around 55 one-flowered partial peduncles lacking

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s. The reddish-green flowers have oblong

tepal A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of very ...

s up to 3 mm long and are borne on

pedicels In botany, a pedicel is a stem that attaches a single flower to the inflorescence. Such inflorescences are described as ''pedicellate''. Description Pedicel refers to a structure connecting a single flower to its inflorescence. In the absenc ...

measuring up to 8 mm. Most parts of the plant are

. The exceptions to this are the spur and the inflorescence, which bear an

indumentum In biology, an indumentum (Latin, literally: "garment") is a covering of trichomes (fine "hairs") on a plant Davis, Peter Hadland and Heywood, Vernon Hilton (1963) ''Principles of angiosperm taxonomy'' Van Nostrandpage, Princeton, New Jersey, pa ...

of simple white hairs around 0.2 mm long. Nepglabrata1

Ecology

''Nepenthes glabrata'' is

, where it grows terrestrially in open, high forest. It has an altitudinal distribution of 1600 to 2100 m

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

. At one location, ''N. glabrata'' has been found growing alongside '' N. maxima'' and ''

Drosera burmannii ''Drosera burmanni'', the tropical sundew,Erickson, Rica. 1968. ''Plants of Prey in Australia''. Lamb Paterson Pty. Ltd.: Osborne Park, Western Australia. is a small, compact species in the carnivorous plant genus ''Drosera''. Its natural geograp ...

'' at 1600 m.Evans, D.P. 2009
New Cultivars: ''Nepenthes maxima'' ‘Lake Poso’
''

Carnivorous Plant Newsletter The ''Carnivorous Plant Newsletter'' is the official publication of the International Carnivorous Plant Society (ICPS), the largest such organization in the world. It is headquartered in Walnut Creek, California. History and editorship The newsle ...

'' 38(1): 18–22. A putative

natural hybrid In biology, a hybrid is the offspring resulting from combining the qualities of two organisms of different breeds, varieties, species or genera through sexual reproduction. Hybrids are not always intermediates between their parents (such as in ...

with the former has been recorded. ''Nepenthes glabrata'' is classified as

Least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

on the

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biologi ...

, based on an assessment carried out in 2015.

Related species

''Nepenthes glabrata'' belongs to what has been called the "''N. tentaculata'' group" or "Hamata group",Meimberg, H. & G. Heubl 2006. Introduction of a nuclear marker for phylogenetic analysis of Nepenthaceae. ''Plant Biology'' 8(6): 831–840. which also includes four other closely related species from

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

and

: '' N. hamata'', '' N. muluensis'', '' N. murudensis'', and '' N. tentaculata''. More recently, '' N. nigra'' has joined this group of related taxa.Nerz, J., A. Wistuba, C.C. Lee, G. Bourke, U. Zimmermann & S. McPherson 2011. ''Nepenthes nigra'', a new pitcher plant from Central Sulawesi. In: McPherson, S.R. '' New Nepenthes: Volume One''. Redfern Natural History Productions, Poole. pp. 468–491. In their 2001 monograph, Cheek and Jebb considered ''N. glabrata'' to be most closely allied to ''N. muluensis'' based on its atypical lid nervation as well as the size, shape, and pigmentation of its upper pitchers. Currently, it appears that ''N. glabrata'' is most closely related to '' N. pitopangii'', a highland species also endemic to

. While the stem, laminae, and lower pitchers of these species are very similar, the markedly different upper pitcher morphology means that they are unlikely to be confused. The aerial pitchers of ''N. pitopangii'' are far less elongated than those of ''N. glabrata'' and completely lack wings.

Natural hybrids

Where their ranges overlap, ''N. glabrata'' is known to hybridise with '' N. hamata'',Lee, C.C. 2006
Sulawesi Photographs
. Carnivorous Plants in the tropics. '' N. maxima'', '' N. nigra'',McPherson, S.R. & A. Robinson 2012. ''

Field Guide to the Pitcher Plants of Sulawesi This list of ''Nepenthes'' literature is a listing of major published works dealing with the tropical pitcher plants of the genus '' Nepenthes''. It includes specialised standalone publications and taxonomic monographs released as part of larg ...

''. Redfern Natural History Productions, Poole. and '' N. tentaculata''. The hybrid plants are generally intermediate in appearance between their parent species.

References

External links

*
Photograph of the "Palo Alto" form
{{Taxonbar, from=Q4912159 Carnivorous plants of Asia glabrata Endemic flora of Sulawesi Plants described in 1984