Nepenthes deaniana

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Nepenthes deaniana

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Taxonomy

Nepenthes deaniana was described from Palawan but referred tentatively, on the basis of its short and incomplete description, to N. alata (). It may well yet represent a fourth species of Nepenthes for Palawan, but neither illustration nor original material has been traced. Nepenthes deaniana has characteristics in common with N. mira, but differs, for example, in being a much smaller, non-climbing plant, 20-30 cm tall, with glabrous stems (not strongly petiolate, 35-50 by 8-10.5 cm) and partial peduncles bracteate and 1-flowered (not ebracteate and 2-flowered).

The Manila herbarium was destroyed in 1945. We have searched the following herbaria without success for duplicates of the type specimen or for any other material that matches the original description: B, BM, BO, DBN, FHO, FI, K, KEP, L, OXF, P, S, SAR, TCD, U, US, W.

‘Nepenthes spec. Philippines I’ of Rischer & Nerz (at URL: http://www.joachim-nerz.de/), photographed in a grassland habitat, is a non-climbing, shrubby plant differing from N. mira in the smaller leaves with less conspicuous petioles and with the pitcher wings also running from peristome to tendril. It may represent N. deaniana. Alternatively, these differences could be attributable to differences in habitat and to infra-specific variation within N. mira. Without specimens it is difficult to be certain.