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| Nepenthes erucoides A.S.Rob. & S.G.Zamudio, in Robinson, Zamudio et Caballero, 2019. |
Abstract
A new species of Nepenthes—Nepenthes erucoides—is described and illustrated from a single ultramafic peak in the Dinagat Islands Province of northeastern Mindanao. It is a distinctive component of a relatively low-elevation, highly biodiverse montane elfin forest that has evolved in association with a particularly thin and extremely hostile substrate. Plant habit, and leaf, inflorescence, indumentum and peristome-column morphology appear superficially similar to those of the ultramaficolous montane species of Palawan, implicating an environmental basis for a syndrome of shared characteristics.
Keywords: Philippines, Malesia, new species, non-core Caryophyllales, taxonomy, ultramafic, Eudicots
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| Nepenthes erucoides A.S.Rob. & S.G.Zamudio. A) the indumentum of juvenile stem and leaf parts is abruptly caducous. B) the largely persistent indumentum of the tendril. C) the extremely dense indumentum of a senescent male inflorescence; note the large bracts on the rachis and partial peduncles. D) sequential anthesis and development of tepal colouration in the male inflorescence. E) detail of male flowers at anthesis. F) a female rosette in fruit. G) transverse section of fruit with seeds; note the relatively short, broad form of the seeds. H) the natural hybrid Nepenthes erucoides × mindanaoensis. I) the elfin ‘forest’ at the summit of Mt. Redondo, formed in response to the inorganic, granular, ultramafic substrate and associated conditions. Photograph A by P. Pelser; B–H by A. Robinson. |
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| Nepenthes erucoides A.S.Rob. & S.G.Zamudio. A) mature rosette emergent from elfin vegetation. B) lower pitcher. C) upper pitcher. D) the limited waxy zone. E) transverse sections of (left) lower and (right) upper pitchers showing the almost entirely glandular interior. F) detail of the superficially caterpillarlike (erucoid) developing leaf emergent from the petiolar-laminar groove of the preceding leaf. G) a recently unfurled leaf; the dense adaxial indumentum has already begun to be shed towards the leaf base. Photographs A, C by P. Pelser; B, D–G by A. Robinson. |
Taxonomy
Nepenthes erucoides A.S.Rob. & S.G.Zamudio, sp. nov.
Etymology:— The specific epithet erucoides is derived from the Latin eruca (caterpillar) and the Greek suffix – oides (resembling), in reference to the densely hairy developing leaves which, when still appressed within the petiolarlaminar groove of the preceding leaf, resemble the exuberantly hairy caterpillars of certain erebid macromoths from the subfamily Arctiinae, such as those of the genus Arctia Schrank (1802: 152) [e.g. Arctia opulenta Edwards (1881: 38)].
Alastair S. Robinson, Sarah Grace Zamudio and Rolly Balagon Caballero. 2019. Nepenthes erucoides (Nepenthaceae), an ultramaficolous micro-endemic from Dinagat Islands Province, northern Mindanao, Philippines. Phytotaxa. 423(1); 21–32. DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.423.1.3
