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Slender-flowered Pitcher Plant
Nepenthes graciliflora
14.3643, 121.031
Field Notes
Description:
Nepenthes graciliflora is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to the Philippines. Long considered a synonym of N. alata, it was restored as a separate species in 2013 by Martin Cheek and Matthew Jebb. It has been recorded from the islands of Bohol, Leyte, Luzon, Mindanao, Mindoro, Panay, Samar, and Sibuyan, and following the redelimitation of N. alata is the most widespread Nepenthes species of the Philippines.
Nepenthes graciliflora belongs to the informal N. alata group. These species are united by a number of morphological characters, including winged petioles, lids with basal ridges on the lower surface (often elaborated into appendages), and upper pitchers that are usually broadest near the base.
Habitat:
It is known from mossy, submontane forest, generally at 800–1280 m altitude, though the type specimen from Sibuyan was collected at only 300 m.
Notes:
It was sold to me as Nepenthes alata. However, upon consulting some local carnivorous plant experts who I know, I have confirmed that this is a N. graciliflora (still a part of the N. alata alliance).
The seller told me that all pitcher plants in his nursery (only one species) came from a single mother plant obtained from Mt. Makiling—an info which also helped us on pinpointing the exact name of the species.
Pictured above are the upper pitchers. My plant's lower pitchers, which are more reddish in color and has more obvious wings, have long wilted and gone together with the basal leaves.
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