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Nepenthes maryae
A species that so far exists only on paper and in a herbarium cabinet. Nepenthes maryae was described in 2016 by Martin Cheek and Matthew Jebb in the journal Blumea, from a single herbarium specimen collected in Central Sulawesi in 2000. The name honours Mary Mendum (1945–2004), a botanist at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. The description shows how herbarium research can still yield new species: the specimen had lain in a collection for years before it was recognised as something new.
No photograph of this species under a Creative Commons licence or in the public domain is in the guide yet.
Identification
A small climber to about two metres, with terete stems and coriaceous, sessile, lanceolate-oblong leaves 14 to 21.5 cm long and about 3 cm wide. Stems and leaves carry short, spreading pale brown hairs and small, flattened glands. The known upper pitchers are cylindrical, 11 to 15 cm tall and 2 to 3 cm wide, green and slightly suffused with purplish red, with fringed wings along their whole length, which is unusual in upper pitchers. The mouth is rhombic and the peristome very narrow, less than a millimetre, with blade-like ridges. The lid is ovate-elliptic, raised at an angle of about 45 degrees and shortly hairy beneath. Lower pitchers are unknown.
Similar species
The authors place the species in section Tentaculatae, the group around Nepenthes tentaculata, which on Sulawesi also includes N. glabrata, N. hamata, N. nigra, N. pitopangii and N. undulatifolia. N. maryae differs among other things in the short hairs on the underside of the lid and in bracts on about three-quarters of the flowers. The type was collected at a site where N. eymae, N. nigra and N. tentaculata also grew; on any new visit the plants must therefore be compared carefully.
The trap and how it works
A pitfall with an unusually narrow peristome and a lid raised rather steeply. The blade-ridged peristome with its nectar glands turns slippery when wet; the underside of the lid is densely set with nectar glands that lure insects above the mouth. The fringed wings along the whole length of the upper pitcher may serve as a walkway for ants and other climbing animals. Since only herbarium material is known, there are no field observations of capture. Work on other species of the genus has shown that the peristome works by 'aquaplaning': a thin film of water on the finely ribbed surface makes it so slippery that the adhesive pads of insect feet can no longer grip. The trap therefore works best when it is damp, which in cloud forest is almost always the case.
Habitat and ecology
The only known specimen was collected at 2100 m in submontane mossy forest (B1), together with other pitcher plants. That points to the cool, damp cloud forest of the high mountains of Central Sulawesi, with thick moss and acid, nutrient-poor soil. Further habitat data are lacking. For a pitcher plant such a habitat is favourable: the constant humidity keeps the pitchers filled and the peristome slippery, while the poor soil supplies little nitrogen and phosphorus, so that the extra nutrition from prey is a real advantage.
Distribution and elevation
Endemic to Sulawesi and known only from the single site in the province of Central Sulawesi. This agrees with 'Sulawesi' in the guide's own species list, but the known range is in effect a single point. Whether the species occurs on other mountains is unknown. Sulawesi lies east of Wallace's Line, in the transition zone between the Asian and Australian floras and faunas, and holds far fewer pitcher plants than Borneo; all the more striking, then, that a large share of the island's species is endemic.
- Recorded (one-degree cells)
Forms and variation
Nothing can be said about variation in a species known from one herbarium specimen. No varieties or wild forms have been described and no natural hybrids reported. As the plant was collected alongside related species, later research may conceivably re-examine the status of the specimen. Like all pitcher plants the species is dioecious: there are male and female plants, and both must be in flower for seed to set. The small, inconspicuous flowers are borne in racemes or panicles and are pollinated by insects; the seeds are light and dispersed by wind.
Where and when to see it
As far as is known there are no published field observations of living plants. Anyone working in the high mountain forest of Central Sulawesi at around 2000 m can watch for small, cylindrical upper pitchers with fringed wings along their whole length, a very narrow peristome and a steeply raised lid hairy beneath. A well-documented find, with photographs and a voucher through an Indonesian institution, would be of great value.
Conservation status
There is no IUCN assessment of this species (Not Evaluated). What is known: it is recorded from one specimen and one site, and there is no information on population size or threats. A full assessment would only become possible if the plant were refound in the field. As a member of Nepenthes it is listed in CITES Appendix II.
Scientific name
Nepenthes maryae | Cheek & Jebb, 2016
Nepenthes maryae was described in 2016 by Martin Cheek and Matthew Jebb, in "A new section in Nepenthes (Nepenthaceae) and a new species from Sulawesi" (Blumea 61: 59-62), based on a single herbarium specimen collected in 2000 on an undisclosed mountain in Central Sulawesi, at 2,100 m elevation, where the species grew in submontane mossy forest. An undisclosed mountain in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, at 2,100 m elevation. The specific epithet commemorates Mary Mendum (née Bates) (1945-2004), a botanist at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP), via Plants of the World Online (POWO), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.