Nepenthes mirabilis (Lour.) Druce

Nepenthaceae

Druce, G.C. (1917) Botany Exchange Club of the British Isles Report for 1916 : 637.

Tropical Pitcher Plant

A slender vine not exceeding a stem diameter of 2 cm.

Each leaf consists of a petiole, a blade, a coiled zone (tendril) and ends in a pitcher about 10-14 cm long with lid. Petioles about 3.5-8 cm long, sometimes winged, distinctly channelled on the upper surface. Blades about 12-25 x 3.5-6 cm. Both the upper and lower surfaces of the leaf blade clothed in small brownish 'glands' or excrescences.

Male flowers: Inflorescence about 45 cm long, each flower about 13-15 mm diam. Tepals about 7 x 4 mm, outer surface clothed in matted white hairs. Stamens fused into a column. Female flowers: Inflorescence about 22 cm long, each flower about 10 mm diam. Tepals about 4 x 2 mm, outer surface clothed in matted white hairs. Ovary about 7-10 mm long. Stigma sessile, 4-lobed. Ovules numerous, filiform.

Capsules usually 3 or 4-valved, splitting from the apex to the base. Capsules about 20 x 5-6 mm. Seeds very numerous. Seed including the two wings about 9-10 x 0.5 mm. Seeds about 1.2-0.3 mm. Embryo cylindrical, about 0.5-0.6 mm long. Cotyledons about as long and as wide as the radicle.

Features not available.

Occurs in CYP and NEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 300 m. Usually grows in swampy open forest or heath, occasionally found in or on the margins of swampy rain forest. Also occurs in Malesia.

Commonly cultivated in handing baskets and is usually grown in glasshouses because it requires warm conditions to do well.

Nepenthes phyllamphora Willd., Species Plantarum ed. 4, 4(2) : 874(1806). Phyllamphora mirabilis Lour., Fl. Cochinch. 2: 606(1790), Type: Habitat loca humida & agrestia Cochinchinae. Nepenthes rowanae F.M.Bailey, Queensland Agricultural Journal 1(3): 231(1897), Type: Somerset, Cape York Peninsula, Frank L. Jardine. Nepenthes pascoensis F.M.Bailey, Queensland Agricultural Journal 16(2): 190(1905), Type: Head of Pascoe River, R.W. Garraway. Nepenthes moorei F.M.Bailey, Queensland Agricultural Journal 3(5): 355(1898), Type: Cape York Peninsula, F.L. Jardine. Nepenthes kennedyi Benth., Flora Australiensis 6: 40(1873). Nepenthes kennedyana F.Muell., Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 5: 154(1865), Type: Ad oppidulum Somerset juxta promontorium Cape York. J. Jardine. Nepenthes jardinei F.M.Bailey, Queensland Agricultural Journal 1(3): 230(1897), Type: Somerset, Cape York Peninsula, Frank L. Jardine. Nepenthes garrawayae F.M.Bailey, Queensland Agricultural Journal 16(2): 191(1905), Type: Between York Downs and Weipa, R.W. Garraway. Nepenthes cholmondeleyi F.M.Bailey, Queensland Agricultural Journal 7(5): 441(1900), Type: Cape York Peninsula, 5 miles south of the Jardine River, Cholmondeley Jardine. Nepenthes bernaysii F.M.Bailey, Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 5: 186(1880), Type: Cape York, whence it was sent by a correspondent some few years ago to the Queensland Acclimatization Society. Nepenthes armbrustae F.M.Bailey, Queensland Agricultural Journal 16(2): 191(1905), Type: Coen, Miss F. Armbrust. Nepenthes alicae F.M.Bailey, Queensland Agricultural Journal 3(5): 356(1898), Type: Cape York Peninsula, F.L. Jardine. Nepenthes albolineata F.M.Bailey, Queensland Agricultural Journal 3(5): 355(1898), Type: Cape York Peninsula, F.L. Jardine.