Nepenthes densiflora 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 grows at an altitude of between 1700 and 3200 m above sea level.

No forms or varieties of N. densiflora have been described.

Taxonomy

In 2001, Charles Clarke

Charles Clarke (botanist)

Dr. Charles M. Clarke is a botanist and taxonomist specialising in the carnivorous plant genus Nepenthes. Clarke has an honours degree in Botany from Monash University in Melbourne, and a Ph.D. in Ecosystem Management at the University of New England, in Armidale, New South Wales.Clarke first...

 performed a cladistic analysis of the Nepenthes species of Sumatra and Peninsular Malaysia

Peninsular Malaysia

Peninsular Malaysia , also known as West Malaysia , is the part of Malaysia which lies on the Malay Peninsula. Its area is . It shares a land border with Thailand in the north. To the south is the island of Singapore. Across the Strait of Malacca to the west lies the island of Sumatra...

 using 70 morphological characteristics of each taxon. The following is part of the resultant cladogram

Cladogram

A cladogram is a diagram used in cladistics which shows ancestral relations between organisms, to represent the evolutionary tree of life. Although traditionally such cladograms were generated largely on the basis of morphological characters, DNA and RNA sequencing data and computational...

, showing "Clade 3", which comprises N. densiflora and three other related species.

Natural hybrids

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

• N. angasanensis
  Nepenthes angasanensis
  Nepenthes angasanensis is a highland Nepenthes pitcher plant species, native to Sumatra, where it grows at an altitude of 2200 to 2800 m. The status of this taxon is controversial as it is similar in morphology to N. mikei and N. tobaica.The specific epithet refers to Mount Puncak...
  
  × N. densiflora

External links

• Photographs of N. densiflora at the Carnivorous Plant Photofinder