Nepenthes sibuyanensis
Encyclopedia
Nepenthes sibuyanensis (icon) is a tropical 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 to Sibuyan Island
Sibuyan Island
Sibuyan is a crescent-shaped island of Romblon Province, Philippines. It has an area of 445 km². The island has two prominent peaks, Mount Guiting-Guiting with a height of 2,058 m and Mount Nailog with a height of 789 m...

 in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

, after which it is named.

Botanical history

Nepenthes sibuyanensis was discovered during an expedition to the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

 beginning in September 1996. The team comprised Thomas Alt, Phill Mann, Trent Smith, and Alfred Öhm. The species was formally described
Species description
A species description or type description is a formal description of a newly discovered species, usually in the form of a scientific paper. Its purpose is to give a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differs from species which have been described previously, or are...

by Joachim Nerz
Joachim Nerz
Dr. Joachim Nerz is a taxonomist and botanist specialising in the carnivorous plant genera Heliamphora and Nepenthes. Nerz has described several new species, mostly with Andreas Wistuba.-Publications:...

 in the March 1998 issue of the Carnivorous Plant Newsletter
Carnivorous Plant Newsletter
The Carnivorous Plant Newsletter is the official publication of the International Carnivorous Plant Society , the largest such organization in the world.-History and editorship:...

.
The holotype
Holotype
A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described. It is either the single such physical example or one of several such, but explicitly designated as the holotype...

 of N. sibuyanensis, sheet 051001, was collected on October 5, 1996, by Phill Mann and Trent Smith on Mount Guiting-Guiting
Mount Guiting-Guiting
Mount Guiting-Guiting is a mountain located in the heart of Sibuyan Island, one of the seven islands of Romblon Province in the Philippines. Guiting-Guiting, in the local dialect, means "jagged"...

 at an elevation of 1300 m above sea level. The plant was growing on an open slope amongst high grasses and fern
Fern
A fern is any one of a group of about 12,000 species of plants belonging to the botanical group known as Pteridophyta. Unlike mosses, they have xylem and phloem . They have stems, leaves, and roots like other vascular plants...

s of the genus Dipteris. The specimen includes a typical pitcher and was chosen as the holotype because the pitchers of this species are its most characteristic feature. Mann and Smith made three further collections of N. sibuyanensis on the same day and at the same altitude. These were sheet 051002, which includes vegetative parts without pitchers, sheet 051003, which consists of fruits, and sheet 051004, which includes male flowers. All four specimens are deposited at the National Herbarium of the Netherlands
National Herbarium of the Netherlands
The National Herbarium of the Netherlands was established in 1999 through a decentralized merger of the major university herbaria of Leiden , Utrecht and Wageningen...

 in Leiden.

It was initially suggested, based on early field observations, that N. sibuyanensis did not produce true upper pitchers and that lower pitchers were almost exclusively produced under a covering of moss
Moss
Mosses are small, soft plants that are typically 1–10 cm tall, though some species are much larger. They commonly grow close together in clumps or mats in damp or shady locations. They do not have flowers or seeds, and their simple leaves cover the thin wiry stems...

 (the authors of the describing paper mention finding only a single pitcher growing in sunlight). Cultivated plants and subsequent field studies disproved both of these hypotheses.

The first use of the name N. sibuyanensis greatly predates the formal description of this species. A certain "Nepenthes sibuyanensis Elm." appears in the December 29, 1911 issue of Leaflets of Philippine Botany, in an article by Adolph Daniel Edward Elmer
Adolph Daniel Edward Elmer
Adolph Daniel Edward Elmer was an American botanist and plant collector.Elmer was born in 1870 in Van Dyne, Wisconsin, United States. He was educated at the Washington Agricultural College, and earned a M.Sc. from Stanford University in 1903. He made extensive plant collections in the Philippines...

 on the figs
Ficus
Ficus is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes, and hemiepiphyte in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone. The Common Fig Ficus is a genus of...

 of Sibuyan. Elmer wrote that this Nepenthes formed part of the summit vegetation of Mount Guiting-Guiting
Mount Guiting-Guiting
Mount Guiting-Guiting is a mountain located in the heart of Sibuyan Island, one of the seven islands of Romblon Province in the Philippines. Guiting-Guiting, in the local dialect, means "jagged"...

, which was "washed down and disseminated as botanical floats" along the Pauala River, where he observed it.

Description

Nepenthes sibuyanensis is a weak climber. The stem can attain a length of 1.5 m and is up to 8 mm in diameter. Internode
Plant stem
A stem is one of two main structural axes of a vascular plant. The stem is normally divided into nodes and internodes, the nodes hold buds which grow into one or more leaves, inflorescence , conifer cones, roots, other stems etc. The internodes distance one node from another...

s are up to 1.5 cm long and cylindrical in cross section.

Leaves are thin-coriaceous and sessile. The lamina is linear-lanceolate to slightly spathulate in shape. It may be up to 18 cm long and 5 cm wide. The lamina has an acute apex and is gradually attenuate towards the base. It is decurrent into a pair of margins that extend for over two-thirds of the internode. Five to six longitudinal veins are present on either side of the midrib. Tendril
Tendril
In botany, a tendril is a specialized stem, leaf or petiole with a threadlike shape that is used by climbing plants for support, attachment and cellular invasion by parasitic plants, generally by twining around suitable hosts. They do not have a lamina or blade, but they can photosynthesize...

s are usually one to two times as long as the pitchers and up to 9 mm wide near the pitcher.

Pitchers arise from the end of the tendril, forming a tightly appressed curve. Lower pitchers are ovate to infundibuliform in shape and may be up to 26 cm high and 15 cm wide. Upper pitchers are very rarely produced. They are smaller and lighter-coloured than their terrestrial counterparts. A pair of ribs runs down the front of the pitcher, sometimes bearing fringe elements (≤3 mm wide) near the peristome. The pitcher mouth is oval and has an almost horizontal to slightly oblique insertion. The peristome
Peristome
The word peristome is derived from the Greek peri, meaning 'around' or 'about', and stoma, 'mouth'. It is a term used to describe various anatomical features that surround an opening to an organ or structure. The term is used in plants and invertebrate animals, such as in describing the shells of...

 is cylindrical, usually elongated into a short neck, and up to 20 mm wide. It bears a series of ribs (≤1 mm high) spaced 2 mm apart. The teeth lining the inner margin of the peristome are up to 4 mm long. The gland
Gland
A gland is an organ in an animal's body that synthesizes a substance for release of substances such as hormones or breast milk, often into the bloodstream or into cavities inside the body or its outer surface .- Types :...

ular region covers the entire inner surface of the pitchers. The glands are up to 0.8 mm in diameter and occur at a density of 200 to 500 per square centimetre. The lid or operculum
Operculum (botany)
An operculum, in botany, is a term generally used to describe a structure within a plant, moss, or fungus acting as a cap, flap, or lid. In plants, it may also be called a bud cap.Examples of structures identified as opercula include:...

 is broadly ovate-cordate and up to 8 cm long and 6.5 cm wide. It has a rounded apex and lacks appendages. A number of ovate glands (≤1 mm in diameter) are concentrated near the centre of the lid's lower surface. A filiform spur
Spur (biology)
A spur in botany is a spike, usually part of a flower.In certain plants, part of a sepal or petal develops into an elongated hollow spike extending behind the flower, containing nectar which is sucked by long-tongued animals . Plants with such structures include Delphinium, Aquilegia, Piperia, and...

 (≤3 mm long) is inserted near the base of the lid.

Nepenthes sibuyanensis has a racemose
Raceme
A raceme is a type of inflorescence that is unbranched and indeterminate and bears pedicellate flowers — flowers having short floral stalks called pedicels — along the axis. In botany, axis means a shoot, in this case one bearing the flowers. In a raceme, the oldest flowers are borne...

 inflorescence
Inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...

. In male inflorescences, the peduncle
Peduncle (botany)
In botany, a peduncle is a stem supporting an inflorescence, or after fecundation, an infructescence.The peduncle is a stem, usually green and without leaves, though sometimes colored or supporting small leaves...

 reaches a length of at least 18 cm, whereas the rachis
Rachis
Rachis is a biological term for a main axis or "shaft".-In zoology:In vertebrates a rachis can refer to the series of articulated vertebrae, which encase the spinal cord. In this case the rachis usually form the supporting axis of the body and is then called the spine or vertebral column...

 is up to 15 cm long. Pedicels
Pedicel (botany)
A pedicel is a stem that attaches single flowers to the main stem of the inflorescence. It is the branches or stalks that hold each flower in an inflorescence that contains more than one flower....

 are one-flowered, up to 14 mm long, and usually lack bract
Bract
In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis, or cone scale. Bracts are often different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of a different color, shape, or texture...

s. Tepal
Tepal
Tepals are elements of the perianth, or outer part of a flower, which include the petals or sepals. The term tepal is more often applied specifically when all segments of the perianth are of similar shape and color, or undifferentiated, which is called perigone...

s are oblong, obtuse, and approximately 3 mm long. Stamen
Stamen
The stamen is the pollen producing reproductive organ of a flower...

s are around 5 mm long including the uniseriate anthers. Fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

s are up to 22 mm long and bear lanceolate valves (≤4 mm wide). Seed
Seed
A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...

s are up to 8 mm long and filiform, although they lack the papery ends typical of most Nepenthes species.

The inflorescence bears a very dense indumentum
Indumentum
The indumentum is a covering of fine hairs or bristles on a plant or insect.In plants, the indumentum types are:*pubescent*hirsute*pilose*villous*tomentose*stellate*scabrous*scurfy...

 of adpressed, stellate hairs. The staminal column
Stamen
The stamen is the pollen producing reproductive organ of a flower...

 is covered in short hairs. Vegetative parts of the plant are virtually glabrous.

Leaves are yellowish to dark green with a light green midrib. The stem and leaf margins may have reddish highlights. Lower pitchers are yellowish to red, often with scattered red blotches (≤10 mm in diameter) below the peristome. The peristome is usually darker than the rest of the pitcher, being dark red to almost black. The lid is yellowish to orange. Upper pitchers are lighter-coloured and usually whitish throughout. Herbarium specimens range in colour from light brown to red.

Ecology

Nepenthes sibuyanensis is endemic to Sibuyan Island
Sibuyan Island
Sibuyan is a crescent-shaped island of Romblon Province, Philippines. It has an area of 445 km². The island has two prominent peaks, Mount Guiting-Guiting with a height of 2,058 m and Mount Nailog with a height of 789 m...

 in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

, where it grows on Mount Guiting-Guiting
Mount Guiting-Guiting
Mount Guiting-Guiting is a mountain located in the heart of Sibuyan Island, one of the seven islands of Romblon Province in the Philippines. Guiting-Guiting, in the local dialect, means "jagged"...

, neighbouring Mount Mayo, as well as the ridge that connects these two mountains. The altitudinal distribution given for this species varies considerably between sources: Vlastik Rybka, Romana Rybková and Rob Cantley
Rob Cantley
Robert Cantley is a conservationist and Managing Director of Borneo Exotics, a Sri Lankan-based plant nursery specialising in tissue-cultured and seed-grown Nepenthes species and hybrids. Cantley has contributed to a number of papers on Nepenthes...

 give a range of 1200–1800 m above sea level, while the authors of the describing paper and Stewart McPherson
Stewart McPherson (geographer)
Stewart R. McPherson is a British geographer.He studied at the University of Durham in England, the University of Tübingen in Germany and Yale University in the United States....

 give narrower ranges of 1500–1800 m and 1250–1500 m, respectively. According to Rybka, Rybková and Cantley, the species is sympatric with the tiny N. argentii
Nepenthes argentii
Nepenthes argentii is a highland Nepenthes pitcher plant native to Mount Guiting-Guiting on Sibuyan Island in the Philippines. It is possibly the smallest species in the genus and does not appear to have a climbing stage....

at around 1600–1770 m. A species resembling N. alata
Nepenthes alata
Nepenthes alata is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to the Philippines. It is found on all the major islands of the archipelago, with the possible exception of Palawan. It is one of the easiest and most popular Nepenthes species in cultivation....

grows on Mount Guiting-Guiting at lower elevations of 800–1000 m. Other plant species endemic to the mountain include Lobelia proctorii and Rhododendron rousei. Nepenthes sibuyanensis has no known natural hybrids, although it may hybridise with N. argentii.

Nepenthes sibuyanensis occurs relatively sparsely on open slopes dominated by high grasses, small shrubs, and the fern Dipteris conjugata. Pitchers usually develop embedded in the substrate and are rarely exposed to direct sunlight. Nepenthes sibuyanensis exhibits modified seed morphology owing to its exposed, isolated habitat. The absence of seed wings in this species prevents strong winds carrying them away from suitable habitats and allows for dispersion by water (particularly rainfall and small streams).

Due to its localised distribution, the conservation status
Conservation status
The conservation status of a group of organisms indicates whether the group is still extant and how likely the group is to become extinct in the near future...

 of N. sibuyanensis is listed as Vulnerable
Vulnerable species
On 30 January 2010, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species identified 9694 Vulnerable species, subspecies and varieties, stocks and sub-populations.-References:...

 on the 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
IUCN Red List
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , founded in 1963, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biological species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature is the world's main authority on the conservation status of species...

. Logging
Logging
Logging is the cutting, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks.In forestry, the term logging is sometimes used in a narrow sense concerning the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard...

 and mining
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

 operations are increasingly threatening Mount Guiting-Guiting and its national park.

Related species

Nepenthes sibuyanensis belongs to B. H. Danser
B. H. Danser
Benedictus Hubertus Danser , often abbreviated B. H. Danser, was a Dutch taxonomist and botanist...

's Insignes
Nepenthes classification
The taxonomy of Nepenthes has been revised several times during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.-Nineteenth century:The first subgeneric division of the Nepenthes was made by Joseph Dalton Hooker in his 1873 monograph, "Nepenthaceae"...

group, which also includes the closely related Philippine species N. burkei
Nepenthes burkei
Nepenthes burkei |David Burke]], British plant collector) is a tropical pitcher plant native to the island of Mindoro in the Philippines, where it grows at an elevation of 1100–2000 m. It is very closely related to N. sibuyanensis and N. ventricosa...

, N. merrilliana
Nepenthes merrilliana
Nepenthes merrilliana is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to the Philippines. It produces some of the largest pitchers in the genus, rivalling those of N. rajah....

, and N. ventricosa
Nepenthes ventricosa
Nepenthes ventricosa is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to the Philippines, where it is a highland species, growing at an elevation of 1000–2000 m above sea level. It has been recorded from the islands of Luzon, Panay, and Sibuyan...

, as well as N. insignis
Nepenthes insignis
Nepenthes insignis is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to New Guinea and surrounding islands. The specific epithet insignis is Latin for "distinguished" or "remarkable".-Botanical history:...

from New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...

. It appears to be intermediate between N. merrilliana and N. ventricosa in terms of both morphology and geographical distribution.

The species can be distinguished from both N. burkei and N. ventricosa on the basis of its pitcher shape; the traps of N. sibuyanensis are ovate to slightly infundibulate, whereas those of the latter species are ventricose in the lower part and constricted in the middle. In addition, the pitchers of N. burkei and N. ventricosa are smaller, rarely exceeding 20 cm in height.

Nepenthes merrilliana produces the largest pitchers in the Insignes group and, unlike N. sibuyanensis, has two-flowered pedicels
Pedicel (botany)
A pedicel is a stem that attaches single flowers to the main stem of the inflorescence. It is the branches or stalks that hold each flower in an inflorescence that contains more than one flower....

. Furthermore, its pitchers bear a pair of well developed fringed wings.

Nepenthes sibuyanensis has also been compared to N. insignis. The former produces one-flowered pedicels, whereas those of N. insignis are two-flowered. The pitcher mouth of N. sibuyanensis is almost horizontal, compared to oblique in the latter. In addition, the peristome of N. sibuyanensis forms a short neck, while N. insignis lacks a neck completely. Furthermore, N. insignis has shorter peristome teeth than N. sibuyanensis (1 mm versus 5 mm). The pitchers of N. sibuyanensis also differ in shape, being ovate or slightly infundibulate.

External links

  • Nepenthes sibuyanensis at NPGS/GRIN
    Germplasm Resources Information Network
    Germplasm Resources Information Network or GRIN is an online software project of National Genetic Resources Program of USDA to provide germplasm information about plants, animals, microbes and invertebrates.-Sub-Projects:...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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