Nepenthes argentii
Content
Description
Terrestrial, monopodial shrub c. 30 cm tall.
Leaves thickly coriaceous, more or less petiolate;
Inflorescence axis with whitish hairs c. 0.6 mm long, particularly at base and apex;
Fruit (mature) unknown.
Seed unknown.
Distribution
Asia-Tropical: Philippines (Philippines present), Romblon Province present, Sibuyan present
Philippines: Sibuyan, Romblon Province
Notes
2. Nepenthes bellii of Surigao Province, Mindanao is the only other Philippine species with subglobose lower pitchers, with upper pitchers absent or rare and with grouped fringed elements of the pitcher wings. Nepenthes argentii differs in the lack of climbing habit and the subpetiolate oblanceolate leaves with truncate apices. Nepenthes argentii is unique in the peristome being adnate to the underside of the lid.
3. Nepenthes argentii commemorates one of the collectors of the only known specimen, George Argent, a botanist of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh, well known for his fieldwork in Borneo, Philippines, and New Guinea, and for his research on the species of Musa and Rhododendron.
1 Nepenthes argentii is unusual in that it has a long, vertical, subterranean rhizome. It seems that the stem may grow slowly upwards, keeping pace with the accumulation of organic matter on the surface which continually buries the lower portion of the stem as with Drosera rotundifolia in a Sphagnum bog. More field studies are needed to verify this hypothesis. The diminutive stature, lack of upper pitchers and lack of climbing habit are also unusual in the genus and this species must contend as the smallest at maturity of all. Argent (pers. comm.) reports that the plants he collected were completely concealed below the low (c. 30 cm high), wind-clipped shrubbery and that the pitchers were buried in the substrate amongst grasses or sedges. Plants were only detected by the inflorescences emerging above the shrub canopy. Several other species of Nepenthes known from ultramafic derived soils (e.g. N. rajah, N. burbidgeae and N. macrovulgaris, all from Sabah and unrelated) are entirely restricted, as far as known, to such soils and this may be the case with N. argentii.