Nepenthes spathulata
Description
Terrestrial or epiphytic shrub or climber to 1-2 m tall.
Leaves coriaceous, sessile or petiolate;
Fruit with valves 20-24 by 3-3.5 mm.
Seed 11-15 by 0.5-0.75 mm.
Taxonomy
2. Nepenthes spathulata shows one of the more extreme examples of leaf dimorphy in the genus. The leaf blades of the rosettes/short stems are strikingly broad and spathulate with a distinct petiole and sheathing base around the terete stem, whereas the leaves of the longer stems are sessile and almost ligulate, auriculate at the base and clasping the markedly quadrangular stem.
1 Although closely related to N. singalana, N. spathulata can be distinguished by the sharply angular stems (although collections of N. singalana overlap in this character), the greatly expanded peristome, in which the ribs are not as tall and papery as those in N. singalana, in the lid which is ovate (vs. orbicular-cordate in N. singalana), and the lid glands which are fewer, and generally densest and largest near the midline of the lid (vs. evenly distributed in N. singalana) in a manner similar to those of N. gymnamphora and N. pectinata. Danser considered these latter two species as the most closely allied species to N. spathulata, but we see a closer affinity with N. ovata.