''Nepenthes macrovulgaris'' (; from

Greek Greek may refer to: 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 of all kno ...

''macro-'' "large" and

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

''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 carnivorous plants known as pitfall traps—a prey-trapping mechanism featuring a deep cavity filled with digestive liquid. The traps of pitcher plant are considered to be "true" pitcher plants and are formed by specialized ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

. It is a lowland plant that typically grows at altitudes ranging from 300 to 1,200 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 lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...

clearings and mossy forest. Its range is restricted to ultramafic habitats, including

Mount Kinabalu Mount Kinabalu ( Dusun: ''Gayo Ngaran'' or ''Nulu Nabalu'', ) is the highest mountain in Malaysia and Borneo. With a height of , it is the third-highest peak of an island on Earth, the 28th highest peak in Southeast Asia, and 20th most prom ...

Mount Tambuyukon Mount Tambuyukon or Tamboyukon (, Dusun: ''Nulu Tambuyukon'') is a mountain located at the West Coast and Kudat divisions of Sabah, Malaysia (located on the tripoints of three districts namely Ranau, Kota Belud as well as Kota Marudu). It ...

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

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...

, Malaysian Borneo. 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, ...

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

Taxonomy and Phylogeny

Before modern molecular phylogenies, it was thought that ''Nepenthes macrovulgaris'' is most closely related to '' N. hirsuta'' and '' N. hispida'', and may have been difficult to distinguish from them. Botanists

Matthew Jebb Matthew Hilary Peter Jebb (born 1958) is an Irish people, Irish botany, botanist and taxonomy (biology), taxonomist specialising in the ant plant genus, genera ''Squamellaria'', ''Myrmecodia'', ''Hydnophytum'', ''Myrmephytum'' and ''Anthorrhiza' ...

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 (; ), is an archipelagic province of the Philippines that is located in the region of Mimaropa. It is the largest province in the country in terms of total area of . The capital and largest c ...

in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. Molecular phylogenies, however, show that ''N. macrovulgaris'' is in fact sister to '' Nepenthes reinwardtiana'', and it is not a close relative of ''

Nepenthes hispida ''Nepenthes hispida'' (; from Latin: ''hispidus'' "bristly") is a tropical pitcher plant species native to Borneo. It grows at elevations of 100 to 800 m in ''kerangas'' forest.Clarke, C.M. 1997. ''Nepenthes of Borneo''. Natural History Publica ...

'' and '' Nepenthes hirsuta'', nor close to '' Nepenthes philippinensis''. The striking similarity in morphology and habitat preference between ''N. macrovulgaris'' and '' Nepenthes philippinensis'' could be because they represent an ancestral phenotype, or parallel/convergent evolution.

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 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 larger ...

''. 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 and Phylogeny

Etymology

Natural hybrids

References

Further reading