N. distillatoria, really?

[Dave Evans]

Hello CP'ers,

In Pitcher-Plants of Borneo by Anthea Phillips and Anthony Lamb, Figure #3 on page 4 shows a drawing of what is supposed to be Nepenthes distillatoria. The drawing includes a stem with two full leaves and pitchers along with two flower stalks. This is supposed to be one of the earliest drawings of any Nepenthes and was originally titled Utricaria vegetabilis zeylanenium from Plukenet's Almagestum, 1696.

The reason I'm bring this up, is I have personally flowered N. distillatoria and the inflorescence was a male raceme (individual flowers with small scales beneath each stalk), not a panicle as shown in the drawing. Also, the pitchers do not look right either. Could this drawing represent a different species (N. pervillei or N. madagascariensis?)? Do the male and female flowers in N. d. take on completely different appearances? Or was the original author just really sloppy?

Dave Evans
www.dangerousplants.com

[stevestewart]

Dave,

I don't have the book you refer to, but I have seen a drawing of N. madagascariensis from near the same time period you mention in your post.
Interestingly, while looking for the reference where I saw N. madagascariensis, I looked in "The Savage Garden" by Peter D' Amato, and realized that the drawing of Nepenthes khasiana on page 237, shows the plant in flower, with a panicle, rather than the raceme that this species should have. Maybe the picture in Peters' book is really a Utricaria vegetabilis zeylanenium?
Mistakes happen!

Take care,
Steven Stewart

[Hikenyura]

In my savage garden there is a picture of a poster that says nepenthes distillatoria and the caption says Nepenthes khasiana, so i think distillatoria might have been the name before they changed it into khasina.

[stevestewart]

hikenyura said:

In my savage garden there is a picture of a poster that says nepenthes distillatoria and the caption says Nepenthes khasiana, so i think distillatoria might have been the name before they changed it into khasina.

hikenyura,
You are correct. There has been a great deal of confusion about certain Nepenthes species for a long time.
A large part of the problem is that artistic renditions were used by some to indicate what each species looks like. It is easy to come to incorrect conclusions when using these renditions to determine which species is which. Or which came first.
Even with high quality modern day photography, and easy to use tools, like Bob Z's photofinder, there is still disagreement, and an incomplete record, of several species of Nepenthes.

Take care,
Steven Stewart

[Dave Evans]

Hello Steve and all,

I have found at least one species in which the male and female inflorescence do not match: N. tommoriana has a female raceme (individual flowers) and a male panicle (clusters of three or more flowers). Apparently, Nepenthes can have rather extreme differences in the flowers based on the sex of the individual plant... So those odd-ball drawings from history might be correct, just our knowledge of the species still incomplete.

Are there any photographs of N. khasiana in habitat?

[shartmeyer]

Here are video screenshots of N. distillatoria (yellow form and red form), made at the Borneo Exotics nursery in Sri Lanka.



For comparison also a photo (by Robert Gieseler) of N. khasiana at our greenhouse. The smaller red pitcher belongs to our N. albomarginata.

[stevestewart]

Dave & all,

hikenyura said:

In my savage garden there is a picture of a poster that says nepenthes distillatoria and the caption says Nepenthes khasiana, so i think distillatoria might have been the name before they changed it into khasina.

My previous post should have said, you are correct about the picture in "The Savage Garden" having a title of Nepenthes distillatoria and the caption saying Nepenthes khasiana.

I think the artistic rendition may be a combination of two different species, or it could be as Dave is suggesting a poor rendition of N. distillatoria. What it "could" or "may" be is nothing more than speculation. The picture in Peters book looks to me like a pitcher of N. khasiana, and a Nepenthes plant of the same species that has an incorrect form of inflorescence.

Take care,
Steven Stewart