''Nepenthes macrovulgaris'' (; from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

''macro-'' "large" and

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 ...

''vulgaris'' "common, usual"), or the serpentine pitcher-plant,Phillipps, A. & A. Lamb 1996. ''

Pitcher-Plants of Borneo ''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, ...

''. Natural History Publications (Borneo), Kota Kinabalu. 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 else ...

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 ea ...

. It is a lowland plant that typically grows at altitudes ranging from 300 to 1200 m in sub-

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial ...

clearings and

mossy forest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud c ...

. Its range is restricted to ultramafic habitats, including

Mount Kinabalu Mount Kinabalu ( ms, Gunung Kinabalu, Dusun: ''Gayo Ngaran or Nulu Nabalu'') is the highest mountain in Borneo and Malaysia. With an elevation of , it is third-highest peak of an island on Earth, and 20th most prominent mountain in the worl ...

, Mount Tambuyukon, the

Danum Valley Danum Valley Conservation Area is a 438 square kilometres tract of relatively undisturbed lowland dipterocarp forest in Sabah, Malaysia. It has an extensive diversity of tropical flora and fauna, including such species as the rare Bornean ...

, the Tawai Range, the Meliau Range and Mount Silam, all in

Sabah Sabah () is a state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indonesia to the south. The Federal Territory o ...

Malaysian Borneo East Malaysia (), or the Borneo States, also known as Malaysian Borneo, is the part of Malaysia on and near the island of Borneo, the world's third-largest island. Near the coast of Sabah is a small archipelago called Labuan. East Malaysia li ...

. Pitchers grow to around 25 cm high and range in colour from green to brown, with the speckled form being the most common.Clarke, C.M. 1997. ''

Nepenthes of Borneo ''Nepenthes of Borneo'' is a monograph by Charles Clarke on the tropical pitcher plants of Borneo.Clarke, C.M. 1997. ''Nepenthes of Borneo''. Natural History Publications (Borneo), Kota Kinabalu. It was first published in 1997 by Natural History ...

''. Natural History Publications (Borneo), Kota Kinabalu.Phillipps, A., A. Lamb & C.C. Lee 2008. ''

Pitcher Plants of Borneo ''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 ...

''. Second Edition. Natural History Publications (Borneo), Kota Kinabalu.

Taxonomy

''Nepenthes macrovulgaris'' is most closely related to '' N. hirsuta'' and '' N. hispida'', and may be difficult to distinguish from them. Botanists

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 '' ...

and

Martin Cheek Martin Roy Cheek (born 1960) is a botanist and taxonomist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.N. philippinensis'', a species

Palawan Palawan (), officially the Province of Palawan ( cyo, Probinsya i'ang Palawan; tl, Lalawigan ng 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 t ...

in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

.Schlauer, J. 2000. ''

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 ...

'' 29(2): 53.

Etymology

Turnbull and Middleton, who described the species in 1988, explain that they chose the specific epithet ''macrovulgaris'' to:

..indicate a relatively large plant and to indicate that no single characteristic uniquely distinguishes this taxon from all others. The suffix ''vulgaris'' does not indicate that this species is either common or ordinary. On the contrary, it is quite striking. The epithet is an irregular combination of Greek and Latin. The name was used in the field to identify living material which was distributed to growers and this informal name is now commonly used by collectors. We feel that to change the name now would create unnecessary confusion.

Natural hybrids

The following natural hybrids involving ''N. macrovulgaris'' have been recorded. *'' N. albomarginata'' × ''N. macrovulgaris''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 ...

''. 2 volumes. Redfern Natural History Productions, Poole. *''N. macrovulgaris'' × '' N. rajah'' *''N. macrovulgaris'' × '' N. reinwardtiana'' *''N. macrovulgaris'' × '' N. tentaculata''

References

* Adam, J.H., C.C. Wilcock & M.D. Swaine 1992. ''Journal of Tropical Forest Science'' 5(1): 13–25. * Adam, J.H. 1997. ''Pertanika Journal of Tropical Agricultural Science'' 20(2–3): 121–134. * Adam, J.H. & C.C. Wilcock 1999. ''Pertanika Journal of Tropical Agricultural Science'' 22(1): 1–7. * Bauer, U., C.J. Clemente, T. Renner & W. Federle 2012. Form follows function: morphological diversification and alternative trapping strategies in carnivorous ''Nepenthes'' pitcher plants. ''Journal of Evolutionary Biology'' 25(1): 90–102. * Beaman, J.H. & C. Anderson 2004. ''The Plants of Mount Kinabalu: 5. Dicotyledon Families Magnoliaceae to Winteraceae''. Natural History Publications (Borneo), Kota Kinabalu. * Chung, A.Y.C. 2006. ''Biodiversity and Conservation of The Meliau Range: A Rain Forest in Sabah's Ultramafic Belt''. Natural History Publications (Borneo), Kota Kinabalu. . * Fretwell, S. 2013. Back in Borneo for giant ''Nepenthes''. Part 1: Mesilau Nature Reserve, Ranau. '' Victorian Carnivorous Plant Society Journal'' 107: 6–13. * Kurata, S. 2002. ''Proceedings of the 4th International Carnivorous Plant Conference'': 111–116. * McPherson, S.R. & A. Robinson 2012. '' Field Guide to the Pitcher Plants of Borneo''. Redfern Natural History Productions, Poole. * Meimberg, H., A. Wistuba, P. Dittrich & G. Heubl 2001. Molecular phylogeny of Nepenthaceae based on cladistic analysis of plastid trnK intron sequence data. ''Plant Biology'' 3(2): 164–175. * Meimberg, H. 2002. Ph.D. thesis, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich. * Meimberg, H. & G. Heubl 2006. Introduction of a nuclear marker for phylogenetic analysis of Nepenthaceae. ''Plant Biology'' 8(6): 831–840. * Meimberg, H., S. Thalhammer, A. Brachmann & G. Heubl 2006. Comparative analysis of a translocated copy of the ''trnK'' intron in carnivorous family Nepenthaceae. ''Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution'' 39(2): 478–490. * Thong, J. 2006. '' Victorian Carnivorous Plant Society Journal'' 81: 12–17. * Turnbull, J.R. & A.T. Middleton 1981. ''A preliminary review of the Sabah species of Nepenthes, including a regional list and some selected localities''. Unpublished mimeograph report to the Sabah Parks Trustees. * Thorogood, C. 2010. '' The Malaysian Nepenthes: Evolutionary and Taxonomic Perspectives''. Nova Science Publishers, New York. {{Taxonbar, from=Q5460398 Carnivorous plants of Asia macrovulgaris Endemic flora of Borneo Plants described in 1988 Flora of Mount Kinabalu

Taxonomy

Etymology

Natural hybrids

References

Further reading