Nepenthes rowanae is a species of pitcher plant

Pitcher plant

Pitcher plants are carnivorous plants whose prey-trapping mechanism features a deep cavity filled with liquid known as a pitfall trap. It has been widely assumed that the various sorts of pitfall trap evolved from rolled leaves, with selection pressure favouring more deeply cupped leaves over...

 endemic

Endemic (ecology)

Endemism is the ecological state of being unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island, nation or other defined zone, or habitat type; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, all species of lemur are endemic to the...

 to Cape York

Cape York Peninsula

Cape York Peninsula is a large remote peninsula located in Far North Queensland at the tip of the state of Queensland, Australia, the largest unspoilt wilderness in northern Australia and one of the last remaining wilderness areas on Earth...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. It is closely related to N. mirabilis

Nepenthes mirabilis

Nepenthes mirabilis , or the Common Swamp Pitcher-Plant, is a tropical carnivorous plant species of the pitfall trap variety. It has by far the widest distribution of any Nepenthes species and is known from the following countries and regions: Borneo, Sumatra, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia,...

and was once considered an extreme form of this species.

Taxonomy

Between 1881 and 1905, Frederick Manson Bailey

Frederick Manson Bailey

Frederick Manson Bailey CMG was a botanist active in Australia, who made valuable contributions to the characterisation of the flora of Queensland.-Early life:...

 described 11 species of Nepenthes

Nepenthes

The Nepenthes , popularly known as tropical pitcher plants or monkey cups, are a genus of carnivorous plants in the monotypic family Nepenthaceae. The genus comprises roughly 130 species, numerous natural and many cultivated hybrids...

from northern Australia, all of which were placed in synonymy with N. mirabilis by B. H. Danser

B. H. Danser

Benedictus Hubertus Danser , often abbreviated B. H. Danser, was a Dutch taxonomist and botanist...

 in 1928. The only taxon

Taxon

|thumb|270px|[[African elephants]] form a widely-accepted taxon, the [[genus]] LoxodontaA taxon is a group of organisms, which a taxonomist adjudges to be a unit. Usually a taxon is given a name and a rank, although neither is a requirement...

 which Danser considered to possess morphological characters atypical of N. mirabilis was N. rowanae. He wrote:

Of all these I have seen the type or at least authentic specimens, but they are nearly all mere growth forms of N. mirabilis. Only N. rowanae shows a character not yet met with in N. mirabilis, viz. campanulate-infundibuliform upper pitchers. A similar aberration, however, is often met with in several allied species and is certainly insufficient for specific distinction.

However, field observations carried out between 2001 and 2003 "showed that N. rowanae possesses several stable, significant morphological and ecological characteristics that are not exhibited by N. mirabilis", and the taxon was subsequently elevated to a species in 2005.

Differences between N. mirabilis and N. rowanae (Clarke & Kruger, 2005)

Character	N. mirabilis	N. rowanae
Morphology of leaf blade	Acute to rounded	Contracted towards the apex, then continuing along the tendril as a narrow, acute, extension
Insertion of tendril to leaf blade	Simple	Peltate
Pitcher wings	Simple, bearing multicellular fringe elements	Often flattened at front, forming a T-shape in XS, multicellular fringe elements often present
Leaf blade texture	Usually chartaceous	Strongly coriaceous
Leaf blade attachment to stem	Simple, or rarely decurrent for ⅓ the length of the internode	Decurrent for at least ½ the length of the internode, usually more
Gland density in lower portion of pitcher	1600-2500 / cm²	Approximately 3600 / cm²
Position of pitcher hip in upper pitchers	Mid-way, to lower half	Upper quarter
Position of pitcher hip in lower pitchers	Lower third to quarter	Immediately beneath peristome

Spelling

According to the ICBN, the correct spelling of this taxon's name is Nepenthes rowaniae, as the epithet is based on the personal name Rowan. There is only one correct way to form this epithet (in the genitive: Rec 60C.1.b.) and the resulting correct spelling is mandatory; any usage of the spelling rowanae is to be corrected to rowaniae (Art 60.11). However, the literature tends to use Nepenthes rowanae, instead.

Natural hybrids

• N. mirabilis
  Nepenthes mirabilis
  Nepenthes mirabilis , or the Common Swamp Pitcher-Plant, is a tropical carnivorous plant species of the pitfall trap variety. It has by far the widest distribution of any Nepenthes species and is known from the following countries and regions: Borneo, Sumatra, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia,...
  
  × N. rowanae
• N. rowanae × N. tenax
  Nepenthes tenax
  Nepenthes tenax is a lowland species of tropical pitcher plant native to northern Queensland, Australia. It is the third Nepenthes species recorded from the continent and its second endemic species...