Nepenthes bongso is a tropical pitcher plant

Pitcher plant

Pitcher plants are carnivorous plants whose prey-trapping mechanism features a deep cavity filled with liquid known as a pitfall trap. It has been widely assumed that the various sorts of pitfall trap evolved from rolled leaves, with selection pressure favouring more deeply cupped leaves over...

 endemic to Sumatra

Sumatra

Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...

, where it has an altitudinal distribution of 1000–2700 m above sea level. The specific epithet bongso refers to the Indonesian

Indonesian language

Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....

 legend of Putri Bungsu (literally "youngest daughter"), the spirit guardian of Mount Marapi

Mount Marapi

Marapi is a complex volcano in West Sumatra, Indonesia. Its name means Mountain of Fire, and it is the most active volcano in Sumatra. Its elevation is...

.

The species was formally described

Species description

A species description or type description is a formal description of a newly discovered species, usually in the form of a scientific paper. Its purpose is to give a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differs from species which have been described previously, or are...

 by Pieter Willem Korthals

Pieter Willem Korthals

Pieter Willem Korthals was a Dutch botanist. Korthals was the official botanist with the Dutch East India Service from 1831 to 1836....

 in his 1839 monograph, "Over het geslacht Nepenthes

Over het geslacht Nepenthes

"Over het geslacht Nepenthes" is a monograph by Pieter Willem Korthals on the tropical pitcher plants of the genus Nepenthes. It was published in 1839 in Coenraad Jacob Temminck's Verhandelingen over de Natuurlijke Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche overzeesche bezittingen...

".

Nepenthes carunculata is considered a heterotypic synonym of N. bongso by most authorities. The infraspecific taxon Nepenthes carunculata var. robusta was described in 1994 by Joachim Nerz

Joachim Nerz

Dr. Joachim Nerz is a taxonomist and botanist specialising in the carnivorous plant genera Heliamphora and Nepenthes. Nerz has described several new species, mostly with Andreas Wistuba.-Publications:...

 and Andreas Wistuba

Andreas Wistuba

Dr. Andreas Wistuba is a German taxonomist and botanist specialising in the carnivorous plant genera Heliamphora and Nepenthes. More than half of all known Heliamphora species have been described by Wistuba.-Publications:...

. It is an extreme variety of this taxon

Taxon

|thumb|270px|[[African elephants]] form a widely-accepted taxon, the [[genus]] LoxodontaA taxon is a group of organisms, which a taxonomist adjudges to be a unit. Usually a taxon is given a name and a rank, although neither is a requirement...

 with a large, flared peristome

Peristome

The word peristome is derived from the Greek peri, meaning 'around' or 'about', and stoma, 'mouth'. It is a term used to describe various anatomical features that surround an opening to an organ or structure. The term is used in plants and invertebrate animals, such as in describing the shells of...

.

Related species

Morphological differences between N. bongso, N. dubia, N. talangensis and N. tenuis (Nerz & Wistuba, 1994)

Character	N. bongso	N. dubia	N. talangensis	N. tenuis
Shape of upper pitchers	tubulate - infundibulate	tubulous in the lower part, infundibulate above the middle	tubulous to narrow infundibuliform in the lower half, ovate in the upper half	wide infundibulate, contracted below the mouth
Lid	orbiculate	narrow cuneate	broad-ovate	very narrow elliptical
Length/width ratio of upper pitchers	3,3	1,9	2,3	1,75

Natural hybrids

The following natural hybrids involving N. bongso have been recorded.

• N. bongso × N. gymnamphora
  Nepenthes gymnamphora
  Nepenthes gymnamphora is a tropical pitcher plant native to the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra. There is much debate surrounding the taxonomic status of this species and the taxa N. pectinata and N. xiphioides....
  
  
• N. bongso × N. singalana
  Nepenthes singalana
  Nepenthes singalana is a highland Nepenthes pitcher plant species native to the island of Sumatra. It is most closely related to N. diatas and N. spathulata.-Taxonomy:...
  
  
• N. bongso × N. talangensis
  Nepenthes talangensis
  Nepenthes talangensis is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to Sumatra, where it grows in upper montane forest at elevations of 1800–2500 m above sea level....
  
  

In his 1928 monograph "The Nepenthaceae of the Netherlands Indies

The Nepenthaceae of the Netherlands Indies

"The Nepenthaceae of the Netherlands Indies" is a seminal monograph by B. H. Danser on the tropical pitcher plants of the Dutch East Indies, North Borneo, the Malay Peninsula, and eastern New Guinea...

", B. H. Danser

B. H. Danser

Benedictus Hubertus Danser , often abbreviated B. H. Danser, was a Dutch taxonomist and botanist...

 mentioned what he thought was the hybrid N. bongso × N. pectinata; however, this plant material is now known to represent N. densiflora

Nepenthes densiflora

Nepenthes densiflora is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to Sumatra, where it grows at an altitude of between 1700 and 3200 m above sea level.No forms or varieties of N. densiflora have been described.-Taxonomy:...

, a species described by Danser 12 years later.

External links

• Photographs of N. bongso at the Carnivorous Plant Photofinder