Nepenthes faizaliana
Description
Terrestrial shrub or climber to 4 m tall.
Leaves coriaceous, petiolate;
Fruit with bract persisting, valves 24 mm long.
Seed unknown.
Distribution
Asia-Tropical: Borneo present (Sarawak present), Mulu National Park present
Borneo: Sarawak (Mulu National Park).
Taxonomy
2. Apart from the inflorescence, N. faizaliana shows a similar degree of variation to that seen in N. stenophylla, particularly in peristome diameter and lobing, lid nectar gland size and distribution, in whether the leaf base is sheathing or decurrent, and to a lesser extent, in indumentum length. Generally, N. faizaliana has a shorter and darker indumentum than that of N. stenophylla, but there is overlap. Nepenthes faizaliana is still a poorly known species, with only incomplete female inflorescence and infructescence available. The description of lower pitchers and rosette leaves is taken from S 30900 (Anderson), which appears not full grown.
1 Although N. faizaliana was held by its authors to be closely related to N. fusca (their only specimen of N. faizaliana lacked a lid), it seems much closer to N. stenophylla, being distinguishable only in the inflorescences. Indeed, we formerly united N. faizaliana with N. stenophylla (). We are grateful to Charles Clarke (pers. comm., 1997) for suggesting the reassessment that leads us to resurrect this species here. Nepenthes faizaliana always has 1-flowered partial peduncles with bracts (vs. bractless, 2-flowered partial peduncles in N. stenophylla), on inflorescences twice as long, and with male partial peduncles also twice as long as those in N. stenophylla. Moreover, N. faizaliana is only known from three limestone peaks in the Mulu National Park of N Sarawak, whereas N. stenophylla is widespread on sandstone (rarely ultramafic) throughout N Borneo, including the Mulu National Park. It has been suggested that several vegetative characters can be used to distinguish the two species (). However, after lengthy examination of the eleven herbarium sheets available of N. faizaliana, we have found this not to be the case, nor have we found any other characters, besides those of the inflorescence and substrate, that allow us to recognise N. faizaliana. This is the only case that we know of in the genus of a species that is maintained purely on inflorescence characters.