''Nepenthes bellii'' is a tropical pitcher plant

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 ...

to the

Philippine 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 ...

islands of

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 ...

and Dinagat, where it grows at elevations of 0–800 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''. Th ...

.McPherson, S.R. 2009. '' Pitcher Plants of the Old World''. 2 volumes. Redfern Natural History Productions, Poole. 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, bo ...

''bellii'' honours American botanist Clyde Ritchie Bell.

Botanical history

''Nepenthes bellii'' was formally described by Katsuhiko Kondo in the November–December 1969 issue of the ''

Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club Torrey Botanical Society (formerly Torrey Botanical Club) was started in the 1860s by colleagues of John Torrey. It is the oldest botanical society in the Americas. The Society promotes the exploration and study of plant life, with particular ...

''.''Nepenthes bellii'' K.Kondo
International Plant Names Index (IPNI). The designated

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 seve ...

, ''Kondo 11514'', was collected on April 14, 1968, from a " imming pool between Hayangobon & Carrascar"Schlauer, J.
''Nepenthes bellii''
Carnivorous Plant Database. in

Surigao Province Surigao was a province of the Philippines. Originally a Spanish-era district, became a chartered province on May 15, 1901 ('' Philippine Commission Act 127''). The province was dissolved on 1960. History Rajah Siawi and Rajah Kulambo, members ...

, at an altitude of 800 m.Cheek, M.R. & M.H.P. Jebb 2001. Nepenthaceae. ''Flora Malesiana'' 15: 1–157.Jebb, M.H.P. & M.R. Cheek 1997. A skeletal revision of ''Nepenthes'' (Nepenthaceae). ''Blumea'' 42(1): 1–106. It was collected by Kondo as part of a 1968 trip to 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 ...

alongside J. V. Pancho. The holotype is deposited at the

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (calle ...

of the North Carolina Botanical Garden (NCU); isotypes are held at the KC and

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most po ...

herbaria. ''Nepenthes globamphora'', which is now considered to be a

heterotypic synonym The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. * In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linnae ...

of ''N. bellii'', was described 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), K ...

and Masami Toyoshima in a 1972 issue of '' The Gardens' Bulletin Singapore''. The holotype of this taxon, designated as ''Kurata & Toyoshima 1128'', was collected on August 22, 1965, from Mount Legaspi in

Surigao del Sur Surigao del Sur ( Surigaonon: ''Probinsya nan Surigao del Sur''; ceb, Habagatang Surigao; tl, Timog Surigao), officially the Province of Surigao del Sur, is a province in the Philippines located in the Caraga region in Mindanao. Its capital is T ...

, at an elevation of 270 m. It is deposited at the herbarium of the Nippon Dental College (NDC). A very early mention of ''N. globamphora'' (at the time a ''

nomen nudum In taxonomy, a ''nomen nudum'' ('naked name'; plural ''nomina nuda'') is a designation which looks exactly like a scientific name of an organism, and may have originally been intended to be one, but it has not been published with an adequate desc ...

'' as the taxon was undescribed) appeared in a 1966 issue (volume 36, page 15) of ''

The Journal of Insectivorous Plant Society is a quarterly Japanese language, Japanese-language Periodical publication, periodical and the official publication of the Insectivorous Plant Society of Japan.Rice, B. 2010Carnivorous Plant Society Archives The Carnivorous Plant FAQ. rchived p ...

''. The next detailed treatments of ''N. bellii'' appeared in Matthew Jebb and Martin Cheek's 1997 monograph, " A skeletal revision of ''Nepenthes'' (Nepenthaceae)", and their 2001 revision, " Nepenthaceae". In the latter publication, Cheek and Jebb noted that little ecological data was known about the species and that it was represented in herbaria by only the two type collections (''Kondo 11514'' and ''Kurata & Toyoshima 1128'') at the time. Stewart McPherson's 2009 monograph, '' Pitcher Plants of the Old World'', presented an updated description and colour habitat photographs of ''N. bellii''.

Description

''Nepenthes bellii'' is a climbing plant growing to a height of 2.5 m and occasionally even 10 m. The stem, which may be branched, often scrambles through vegetation but may also grow

prostrate Prostrate may refer to:- *Prostration, a position of submission in religion etc. *Prone position, a face-down orientation of the body *Prostrate shrub A prostrate shrub is a woody plant, most of the branches of which lie upon or just above the ...

along the ground. It 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 u ...

or slightly angular and up to 5 mm in diameter, with internodes up to 2 cm long. Leaves are

coriaceous 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. The lamina (leaf blade) is linear to slightly

lanceolate The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf plant morphology, morphology in the description and taxonomy (biology), taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflet (bo ...

or narrowly elliptic and measures up to 18 cm in length by 3 cm in width. Its apex is acute or obtuse, whereas the base is slightly

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 vari ...

and clasps the stem for half to three-quarters of its circumference. It is also slightly

auriculate 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 ...

and has an oblique attachment to the stem. The laminar base may be

decurrent ''Decurrent'' (sometimes decurring) is a term used in botany and mycology to describe plant or fungal parts that extend downward. In botany, the term is most often applied to leaf blades that partly wrap or have wings around the stem or petio ...

down the stem to varying degrees or not decurrent at all. 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 ...

and restricted to the distal third of the lamina.

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, an ...

veins are abundant and run obliquely to the laminar margin. The

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 tend ...

s are proportionately very long, especially those bearing lower pitchers, which may be more than 30 cm long. Nepenthes bellii rosette

Rosette and lower pitchers are usually cylindrical or ellipsoidal throughout, but may also be

urceolate 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 ...

subglobose 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 ...

. They are small, reaching only 9 cm in height by 5 cm in width. The basal half of the pitcher cup may be somewhat swollen, forming a slight hip around the middle. A pair of wings (≤12 mm wide) runs down the

ventral Standard anatomical terms of location are used to unambiguously describe the anatomy of animals, including humans. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position prov ...

surface of the pitcher cup. These wings are densely fringed with filaments up to 9 mm long, which may be grouped in clusters of two or three (the clusters spaced up to 1.3 mm apart), but are often borne singly (particularly in young plants). The pitcher mouth ranges in shape from suborbicular to broadly ovate and is more or less straight, being only slightly oblique. 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 mosse ...

is bulbous and cylindrical,

subcylindrical {{Short pages monitor * Meimberg, H. & G. Heubl 2006. Introduction of a nuclear marker for phylogenetic analysis of Nepenthaceae. ''Plant Biology'' 8(6): 831–840.

External links

at the Carnivorous Plant Photofinder
Videos of ''N. bellii''
at Redfern Natural History Productions {{Nepenthes bellii Endemic flora of the Philippines Flora of Mindanao Carnivorous plants of Asia Plants described in 1969