''Nepenthes mirabilis'' (; from

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 ...

''mirabilis'' "wonderful"), or the common swamp pitcher-plantPhillipps, 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, Ke ...

''. Natural History Publications (Borneo), Kota Kinabalu. and tropical pitcher plant, is a

carnivorous plant Carnivorous plants are plants that derive some or most of their nutrients from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans Protozoa (singular: protozoan or protozoon; alternative plural: protozoans) are a group of single-celled eukaryot ...

species. By far the most widespread of all ''

Nepenthes ''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 ...

'', its range covers continental

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

and all major islands of the

Malay Archipelago The Malay Archipelago (Indonesian/Malay: , tgl, Kapuluang Malay) is the archipelago between mainland Indochina and Australia. It has also been called the " Malay world," "Nusantara", "East Indies", Indo-Australian Archipelago, Spices Archipe ...

(minus the

Lesser Sunda Islands The Lesser Sunda Islands or nowadays known as Nusa Tenggara Islands ( id, Kepulauan Nusa Tenggara, formerly ) are an archipelago in Maritime Southeast Asia, north of Australia. Together with the Greater Sunda Islands to the west they make up t ...

and northern

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 ...

), stretching from China in the north to Australia in the south. The species exhibits great variability throughout its range. One of the more notable varieties, ''N. mirabilis'' var. ''echinostoma'', is

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 ...

Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely sur ...

and

Sarawak Sarawak (; ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the M ...

and possesses an extremely wide

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, ...

.Clarke, C.M. 1997. ''

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

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

conservation status The conservation status of a group of organisms (for instance, a species) indicates whether the group still exists and how likely the group is to become extinct in the near future. Many factors are taken into account when assessing conservation ...

of ''N. mirabilis'' is listed 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 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 biol ...

. In

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

, it is a protected species under

Forestry Regulations Cap. 96A The Forests and Countryside Ordinance is a Hong Kong ordinance "to consolidate and amend the law relating to forests and plants, and to provide for the protection of the countryside".

. According to

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.phallocrypt The koteka, also referred to as a horim or penis gourd, is a penis sheath traditionally worn by native male inhabitants of some (mainly highland) ethnic groups in New Guinea, Indonesia to cover their penises. The koteka is normally made from a ...

s in New Guinea.

Distribution

''Nepenthes mirabilis'' has by far the widest distribution of any ''Nepenthes'' species and is known from the following countries and regions: Australia (

Cape York Peninsula Cape York Peninsula is a large peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest unspoiled wilderness in northern Australia.Mittermeier, R.E. et al. (2002). Wilderness: Earth’s last wild places. Mexico City: Agrupación ...

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 ...

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...

Caroline Islands The Caroline Islands (or the Carolines) are a widely scattered archipelago of tiny islands in the western Pacific Ocean, to the north of New Guinea. Politically, they are divided between the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) in the centra ...

(

Palau Palau,, officially the Republic of Palau and historically ''Belau'', ''Palaos'' or ''Pelew'', is an island country and microstate in the western Pacific. The nation has approximately 340 islands and connects the western chain of the Caro ...

and

Yap Yap ( yap, Waqaab) traditionally refers to an island group located in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, a part of Yap State. The name "Yap" in recent years has come to also refer to the state within the Federated States of Micro ...

), China (

Guangdong Province Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

Hainan Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...

, and

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

D'Entrecasteaux Islands D'Entrecasteaux Islands () are situated near the eastern tip of New Guinea in the Solomon Sea in Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. The group spans a distance of , has a total land area of approximately and is separated from the Papua New G ...

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...

Louisiade Archipelago The Louisiade Archipelago is a string of ten larger volcanic islands frequently fringed by coral reefs, and 90 smaller coral islands in Papua New Guinea. It is located 200 km southeast of New Guinea, stretching over more than and spread ...

Maluku Islands The Maluku Islands (; Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Maluku'') or the Moluccas () are an archipelago in the east of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located eas ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

Peninsular Malaysia Peninsular Malaysia ( ms, Semenanjung Malaysia; Jawi: سمننجڠ مليسيا), or the States of Malaya ( ms, Negeri-negeri Tanah Melayu; Jawi: نڬري-نڬري تانه ملايو), also known as West Malaysia or the Malaysian Peninsula, ...

( Dinagat and

Mindanao Mindanao ( ) ( Jawi: مينداناو) is the second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the island is part of an island group of ...

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 ...

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

, and

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

. It has also been recorded from many smaller islands, including Babi, Bangka,

Banyak Islands The Banyak Islands (sometimes spelled Banjak Islands) are a group of inhabited islands located between Simeulue and Nias off the western coast of Sumatra in Indonesia's Aceh Province. Surveys of the area approximate around 71 islands and additi ...

Batu Islands The Batu Islands are an archipelago of Indonesia located in the Indian Ocean, off the west coast of Sumatra, between Nias and Siberut. The three primary islands, of approximately equal size, are Pini, Tanahmasa, and Tanahbala. There are seventy ...

Bengkalis Bengkalis (''Kota Bengkalis'') was the seat (capital) of Bengkalis Regency in the Riau province of Indonesia until 8 July 2013, when it became an independent city. It is located on Bengkalis Island. The city had a population of 66,211. Bengkalis ha ...

Enggano Enggano Island is about 100 km (60 mi) southwest of Sumatra, Indonesia. It is one of the 92 officially listed outlying islands of Indonesia, though it can also be considered a barrier island of Sumatra. Enggano is about long from e ...

Ko Lanta Ko Lanta ( th, เกาะลันตา, ) is a district (''Districts of Thailand, amphoe'') in Krabi province, Thailand. History The district was established in December 1901. It consists of four island groups: Mu Ko Lanta National Park, M ...

Ko Tarutao Ko Tarutao island ( th, เกาะตะรุเตา) is the largest island of Tarutao National Marine Park in Satun Province of southern Thailand. The island is long and wide. It is one of the most unspoiled islands in Andaman Sea and in ...

Langkawi Langkawi, officially known by its sobriquet Langkawi, the Jewel of Kedah ( ms, Langkawi Permata Kedah ), is a duty-free island and an archipelago of 99 islands (plus five small islands visible only at low tide in the Strait of Malacca) locate ...

, Mendol,

Mentawai Islands Mentawai may refer to: * Mentawai Islands * Mentawai Strait * Mentawai people * Mentawai language The Mentawai language is an Austronesian language, spoken by the Mentawai people of the Mentawai Islands, West Sumatra, Indonesia. Dialects Acco ...

(

North Pagai North Pagai (Indonesian: ''Pagai Utara'') is the smallest of the four principal Mentawai Islands off the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. It is south of Sipora and north of South Pagai (or Pagai Selatan) Island. The population figure given f ...

Siberut Siberut is the largest and northernmost of the Mentawai Islands, located 150 kilometres west of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. It covers an area of 3,838.25 km2 including smaller offshore islands, and had a population of 35,091 at the 2010 Cens ...

Sipura Sipora (Indonesian: ''Sipora'' or sometimes spelled ''Sipura'') located off Sumatra in the West Sumatra Province of Indonesia, is the second-smallest and most developed of the four Mentawai Islands at only 651.55 km2. It had a population of ...

, and

South Pagai South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...

Meranti Islands Meranti Islands is a regency (''kabupaten'') of Riau Province, and lies off the eastern coast of the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. The regency comprises the islands of Tebing Tinggi, Rangsang, Padang and Merbau, together with minor offshore islands ...

(

Padang Padang () is the capital and largest city of the Indonesian province of West Sumatra. With a Census population of 1,015,000 as of 2022, it is the 16th most populous city in Indonesia and the most populous city on the west coast of Sumatra. Th ...

Rangsang Rangsang is an island of the Meranti Islands Regency of Riau Province in the Strait of Malacca, Sumatra, Indonesia. The island had a population of 51,452 at the 2010 Census. It is just north of Tebing Tinggi Island, about south-west of Great Ka ...

, and

Tebing Tinggi Tebing Tinggi Deli or more commonly simply ''Tebing Tinggi'' ( Jawi: ) is a city near the eastern coast of Northern Sumatra, Indonesia. It has an area of 38.44 km2 and a population at the 2010 Census of 145,180, which grew to 172,838 at the ...

Nias Nias ( id, Pulau Nias, Nias language: ''Tanö Niha'') (sometimes called Little Sumatra in English) is an island located off the western coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. Nias is also the name of the archipelago () of which the island is the centre, ...

Penang Penang ( ms, Pulau Pinang, is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia, by the Malacca Strait. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay ...

Phuket Phuket (; th, ภูเก็ต, , ms, Bukit or ''Tongkah''; Hokkien:普吉; ) is one of the southern provinces (''changwat'') of Thailand. It consists of the island of Phuket, the country's largest island, and another 32 smaller islands of ...

Riau Islands The Riau Islands ( id, Kepulauan Riau) is a province of Indonesia. It comprises a total of 1,796 islands scattered between Sumatra, Malay Peninsula, and Borneo including the Riau Archipelago. Situated on one of the world's busiest shipping la ...

(

Lingga Islands The Lingga Regency ( id, Kabupaten Lingga) is a group of islands in Indonesia, located south of Singapore, along both sides of the equator, off the eastern coast of Riau Province on Sumatra island. They are south of the populated Riau Archipela ...

and

Riau Archipelago The Riau Archipelago is a ''geographic'' term (as opposed to administrative region) for the core group of islands within the Riau Islands Province in Indonesia, and located south of Singapore and east of Riau on Sumatra. Before the province of Ri ...

Rupat Rupat is an island in the Strait of Malacca, and forms part of Bengkalis Regency within Riau Province of Indonesia. It lies just off the eastern coast of Sumatra, across from Dumai city, from which it is separated by the Rupat Strait ( id, Sela ...

,Clarke, C.M. 2001. Appendix C: Distribution Maps. In: ''

Nepenthes of Sumatra and Peninsular Malaysia ''Nepenthes of Sumatra and Peninsular Malaysia'' is a monograph by Charles Clarke on the tropical pitcher plants of Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia, and their minor surrounding islands. It was published in 2001 by Natural History Publications (Borneo ...

''. Natural History Publications (Borneo), Kota Kinabalu. pp. 299–307.

Tawi-Tawi Tawi-Tawi, officially the Province of Tawi-Tawi ( tl, Lalawigan ng Tawi-Tawi; Tausug: ''Wilaya' sin Tawi-Tawi''; Sinama: ''Jawi Jawi/Jauih Jauih''), is an island province in the Philippines located in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim M ...

,Cheek, M. & M. Jebb 2013. Recircumscription of the ''Nepenthes alata'' group (Caryophyllales: Nepenthaceae), in the Philippines, with four new species. ''European Journal of Taxonomy'' 69: 1–23. and possibly

Wowoni Wawonii (formerly called Wowoni) is an island in the Banda Sea, Indonesia, off the south east coast of Sulawesi. Its area is 867.58 km2 and at the 2020 Census it had a population of 37,050; the official estimate as at mid 2021 was 37,639.Bada ...

. Sunarti, S., A. Hidayat & Rugayah 2008
Keanekaragaman tumbuhan di hutan Pegunungan Waworete, Kecamatan Wawonii Timur, Pulau Wawonii, Sulawesi Tenggara.
lants diversity at the mountain forest of Waworete, East Wawonii District, Wawonii Island, Southeast Sulawesi.''Biodiversitas'' 9(3): 194–198.

Taxonomy

''Nepenthes mirabilis'' is closely related to '' N. rowaniae'', '' N. tenax'' and '' N. parvula'', the only three ''

'' species

to Australia. In his Carnivorous Plant Database, taxonomist

Jan Schlauer Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Numb ...

treats '' N. kongkandana'' as a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

of ''N. mirabilis''.

Infraspecific taxa

Across its range, ''N. mirabilis'' exhibits great variability in terms of pitcher morphology and colour, and it has the most

synonyms A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

of all ''Nepenthes'' species. The following forms and varieties of ''N. mirabilis'' have been described. With the exception of ''N. mirabilis'' var. ''echinostoma'' and ''N. mirabilis'' var. ''globosa'', these

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

are not considered valid today. *''Nepenthes mirabilis'' f. ''anamensis'' (Hort.Weiner) Hort.Westphal (1991) *''Nepenthes mirabilis'' var. ''anamensis'' Hort.Weiner ''in sched.'' (1985) '' nom.nud.'' *''Nepenthes mirabilis'' var. ''biflora'' J.H.Adam &

Wilcock Wilcock is a Norman surname. It may refer to the following: *C. C. Wilcock (born 1946), American taxonomist * Clifford Wilcock (1898–1962), British engineer, company director and politician * Dennis Wilcock, second singer for the band Iron Maide ...

(1992) *''Nepenthes mirabilis'' var. ''echinostoma'' (Hook.f.) Hort. Slack ''ex'' J.H.Adam &

(1992) *''Nepenthes mirabilis'' var. ''globosa'' M.Catal. (2010)Catalano, M. 2010. In: '' Nepenthes della Thailandia: Diario di viaggio''. Prague. p. 40. *''Nepenthes mirabilis'' f. ''simensis'' (Hort.Weiner) Hort.Westphal (1991) *''Nepenthes mirabilis'' var. ''simensis'' Hort.Weiner ''in sched.'' (1985) '' nom.nud.'' *''Nepenthes mirabilis'' f. ''smilesii'' (Hemsl.) Hort.Westphal (2000) *''Nepenthes mirabilis'' var. ''smilesii'' (Hemsl.) Hort.Weiner ''in sched.'' (1985)

''N. mirabilis'' var. ''echinostoma''

''Nepenthes mirabilis'' var. ''echinostoma'' was discovered by

Odoardo Beccari Odoardo Beccari (16 November 1843 – 25 October 1920) was an Italian botanist famous for his discoveries in Indonesia, particularly New Guinea, and Australia. He has been called the greatest botanist to ever study Malesia. His author abbreviat ...

in 1865 and described as a species, ''N. echinostoma'', by

Joseph Dalton Hooker Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (30 June 1817 – 10 December 1911) was a British botanist and explorer in the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For twenty years he served as director of t ...

in 1873. In 1882,

Frederick William Burbidge Frederick William Thomas Burbidge (1847–1905) was a British explorer who collected many rare tropical plants for the famous Veitch Nurseries. Biography Burbidge was born at Wymeswold, Leicestershire, on 21 March 1847, was son of Thomas Burbid ...

described this unusual variety in ''

The Gardeners' Chronicle ''The Gardeners' Chronicle'' was a British horticulture periodical. It lasted as a title in its own right for nearly 150 years and is still extant as part of the magazine ''Horticulture Week''. History Founded in 1841 by the horticulturists Josep ...

'' as follows:

Beccari's singular N. echinostoma (''vide'' Herb. Kew) is a wonderful thing, as yet unintroduced—indeed, I suppose unseen by any save Beccari ! The mouths of the urns remind one of the deflexed teeth of some gigantic moss of the Hypnoid section.

''Nepenthes mirabilis'' var. ''echinostoma'' is the only form of this species that occurs in Brunei. It has also been recorded from parts of Sarawak, but appears to be completely absent from Sabah.

''N. mirabilis'' var. ''globosa''

''Nepenthes mirabilis'' var. ''globosa'' has been recorded from a single undisclosed

Andaman Sea The Andaman Sea (historically also known as the Burma Sea) is a marginal sea of the northeastern Indian Ocean bounded by the coastlines of Myanmar and Thailand along the Gulf of Martaban and west side of the Malay Peninsula, and separated from ...

island off

Phang Nga Phang Nga ( th, พังงา, , ) is a town (''thesaban mueang'') in southern Thailand, capital of Phang Nga Province. The town covers the whole ''tambon'' Thai Chang of Mueang Phang Nga district. As of 2005 it had a population of 9,559 and ...

and from the

Thai Thai or THAI may refer to: * Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia ** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand ** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand *** Thai script *** Thai (Unicode block ...

mainland near the city of Trang.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. This variety was featured on the cover of the January 2006 issue of 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 ...

'', identified as "''Nepenthes'' sp. from Thailand". The name ''Nepenthes globosa'' appeared in print in an article 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), ...

in the July 2007 issue of the ''Journal of Insectivorous Plant Society''. The same issue also featured an article by Masahiro Tada that referred to the plant as "''Nepenthes'' Viking". Prior to its description by Marcello Catalano in 2010, this taxon was also published under the informal name ''Nepenthes'' sp. Phanga Nga in Stewart McPherson's 2009 book, ''

''. In the horticultural trade, this variety is popularly known as both ''Nepenthes globosa'' (; from

: ''globosus'', "globular") and ''Nepenthes'' sp. Viking, after the resemblance the pitchers bear to the

prow The bow () is the forward part of the hull of a ship or boat, the point that is usually most forward when the vessel is underway. The aft end of the boat is the stern. Prow may be used as a synonym for bow or it may mean the forward-most part ...

of a

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

ship.

Pitcher infauna

A great number of infaunal organisms have been found in the pitchers of this species. These include the

sarcophagid Sarcophagidae () are a family of flies commonly known as flesh flies. They differ from most flies in that they are ovoviviparous, opportunistically depositing hatched or hatching maggots instead of eggs on carrion, dung, decaying material, or op ...

fly Flies are insects of the Order (biology), order Diptera, the name being derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwing ...

Sarcophaga papuensis ''Sarcophaga'' is a genus of true flies and the type genus of the flesh-fly family (Sarcophagidae). The members of this cosmopolitan genus are frequently known as common flesh flies. This genus occurs essentially worldwide. These flies are gene ...

'' and the

mite Mites are small arachnids (eight-legged arthropods). Mites span two large orders of arachnids, the Acariformes and the Parasitiformes, which were historically grouped together in the subclass Acari, but genetic analysis does not show clear evid ...

'' Nepenthacarus warreni'', which have both been found in Australian populations of the plant. Similarly, the

mosquito Mosquitoes (or mosquitos) are members of a group of almost 3,600 species of small flies within the family Culicidae (from the Latin ''culex'' meaning " gnat"). The word "mosquito" (formed by ''mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish for "li ...

es ''

Aedes dybasi ''Aedes'' is a genus of mosquitoes originally found in tropical and subtropical zones, but now found on all continents except perhaps Antarctica. Some species have been spread by human activity: ''Aedes albopictus'', a particularly invasive spe ...

'' and ''

Aedes maehleri ''Aedes'' is a genus of mosquitoes originally found in tropical and subtropics, subtropical zones, but now found on all continents except perhaps Antarctica. Some species have been spread by human activity: ''Aedes albopictus'', a particularly i ...

'' reside in the pitchers of ''N. mirabilis'' on the islands of

and

, respectively. Both have unusual life histories and morphological traits associated with this habit. The

nematode The nematodes ( or grc-gre, Νηματώδη; la, Nematoda) or roundworms constitute the phylum Nematoda (also called Nemathelminthes), with plant-Parasitism, parasitic nematodes also known as eelworms. They are a diverse animal phylum inhab ...

'' Baujardia mirabilis'' has been described from ''N. mirabilis'' in

. It is not thought to be an accidental; the pitchers of this species appear to be the nematode's natural habitat. The microecosystems in these pitchers were found to be dominated by mosquito larvae, midges, and ''B. mirabilis''. It is speculated that this nematode might have a

phoretic Phoresis or phoresy is a non-permanent, commensalistic interaction in which one organism (a phoront or phoretic) attaches itself to another (the host) solely for the purpose of travel. Phoresis has been observed directly in ticks and mites s ...

relationship with one or more infaunal insect species. In southern China,

tree frog A tree frog (or treefrog) is any species of frog that spends a major portion of its lifespan in trees, known as an arboreal state. Several lineages of frogs among the Neobatrachia have given rise to treefrogs, although they are not closely relat ...

s have been observed in the pitchers of ''N. mirabilis''. The amphibians do not fall prey to the plant, but rather feed on insects that are caught by the pitchers. They are not affected by the

acid In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a sequ ...

ic digestive juices (which may have a pH as low as 2), likely due to the

mucilaginous Mucilage is a thick, gluey substance produced by nearly all plants and some microorganisms. These microorganisms include protists which use it for their locomotion. The direction of their movement is always opposite to that of the secretion of m ...

outer layer of their skin. The first record of an aquatic

fungus A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from th ...

living in the pitcher organ of a

came from a specimen of ''N. mirabilis'' growing along the

Jardine River The Jardine River is the largest river of the Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland, Australia. Course The headwaters of the river rise southwest of Helby Hill in the Great Dividing Range and flow in a north westerly direction parallel ...

in Australia. The

mycelial Mycelium (plural mycelia) is a root-like structure of a fungus consisting of a mass of branching, thread-like hyphae. Fungal colonies composed of mycelium are found in and on soil and many other substrate (biology), substrates. A typical single ...

fungus was observerd as both free-living in the trap's fluid and attached to

chitin Chitin ( C8 H13 O5 N)n ( ) is a long-chain polymer of ''N''-acetylglucosamine, an amide derivative of glucose. Chitin is probably the second most abundant polysaccharide in nature (behind only cellulose); an estimated 1 billion tons of chit ...

ous insect remains. The pitchers of ''N. mirabilis'' have also been found to harbour a complex community of

bacteria Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were among ...

. These bacterial communities appear to be more diverse than those found in the pitcher fluid of '' N. ampullaria'' and sympatric '' N. gracilis'' in

.Chou, L.Y., C.M. Clarke & G.A. Dykes 2014. Bacterial communities associated with the pitcher fluids of three ''Nepenthes'' (Nepenthaceae) pitcher plant species growing in the wild. ''Archives of Microbiology'' 196(10): 709–717. In ''N. mirabilis'' their composition can also differ significantly according to pitcher type, something not seen in the other two species.

Natural hybrids

''Nepenthes mirabilis'' has the greatest number of known

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 ...

s of any species in the genus. *? ('' N. alata'' × '' N. merrilliana'') × ''N. mirabilis'' N. × tsangoya''">Nepenthes_x_tsangoya.html" ;"title="''Nepenthes x tsangoya">N. × tsangoya''ref name=hybrid>Lauffenburger, A. 1995
''Guide to Nepenthes Hybrids''
OmnisTerra. *'' N. alata'' × ''N. mirabilis'' N. × mirabilata''">''Nepenthes x mirabilata">N. × mirabilata''ref name=globamphora>Kurata, S. & M. Toyoshima 1972. Philippine species of ''Nepenthes''. ''The Gardens' Bulletin Singapore'' 26(1): 155–158
Abstract
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 ...

Distribution

Taxonomy

Infraspecific taxa

''N. mirabilis'' var. ''echinostoma''

''N. mirabilis'' var. ''globosa''

Pitcher infauna

Natural hybrids

Notes

References

Further reading

External links