New Nepenthes from Indonesian New Guinea

Nepenthes species (lower pitcher)
Ch'ien Lee

In October 2013, Ch'ien Lee and Charles Clarke discovered another new Nepenthes species in Indonesian New Guinea. Currently, no herbarium specimens have been taken (nor have seeds, etc.), so it is not expected to enter cultivation in the foreseeable future.

I thought it was quite an interesting plant. The lower pitchers are largely brown with short, dense "hair" covering the whole of their globose bodies. It appears from the photographs that these pitchers are small and sit among the mosses of the forest floor, almost entirely blending in with their surroundings. In many ways, they remind me of northern, bog-bound variants of Sarracenia purpurea, which, similarly, sits nestled among the mosses, blending in, a fluid-filled pitfall trap for small, unwary creatures.

Nepenthes species (upper pitcher)
Ch'ien Lee

The upper pitchers, in contrast, are a happy yellow with a very mirabilis or khansiana style lid. Curiously, the peristome of the upper pitcher retains the stripped coloration of the lower pitchers. I would be curious to know more about this species, and certainly hope Ch'ien and Charles soon get permits to go back and collect some samples.

As mentioned previously, New Guinea is one of the least visited islands on which Nepenthes grow, and only 11 species are known from the island. I have no doubt that, in time, we will come to discover that there are a number of species native to the island, and hope that such discovery will prompt another book by Ch'ien and Charles.