Nepenthes stenophylla
Description
Terrestrial climber (sometimes epiphytic?) to 10 m tall.
Leaves coriaceous, petiolate (indistinctly so in rosette leaves);
Fruit valves 18-35 mm long.
Seed fusiform, 8-18 mm long, central body tuberculate.
Distribution
Asia-Tropical: Borneo present (Brunei present, Kalimantan present, Sabah present, Sarawak present)
Borneo: Sarawak, Brunei, Sabah, and Kalimantan.
Taxonomy
1 Nepenthes stenophylla is distinguishable from other Bornean allies of N. maxima by the lid which is more or less orbicular, with a cordate base, and the semi-circular crest near the base of the lid. The majority of the lid glands are small (0.1-0.15 mm) and dispersed throughout the underside of the lid, but scattered among these are a few larger (0.2-0.4 mm), prominently lipped glands, which are present near the margin and on the basal crest, and often in a small aggregation near the apex. The peristome lacks teeth along its inner margin, although a conspicuous gland is present between each rib. Nepenthes pilosa is apparently closely related to N. stenophylla (for differences see there) but is especially similar to N. faizaliana (see there also).
2. At Kew there is a specimen from Veitch & Sons annotated in Masters handwriting “N. stenophylla Masters Type specimen! Presented 1890.” It can be argued that since this, the type specimen, has only intermediate and not upper pitchers, there is ambiguity as to the species involved. However, a plate published a few years later of older plants of the same origin showed the distinctive upper pitchers, removing this doubt, as far as we are concerned. Not all agree, and imply that the type of N. stenophylla is specifically different from the taxon usually referred to under this name, since they cite N. stenophylla sensu Danser in Bull. Jard. Bot. Buitenzorg III, 9 (1928) as a synonym of their newly described N. sandakanensis. Clearly, it is undesirable to change the name of this well-known and common montane species. In order to buttress the application of the name N. stenophylla to this species, we therefore here propose the epitype nominated above which has the virtue of being available in several herbaria, fertile, and representative of this common ridge-top species in northern Sarawak and Sabah.