Nepenthes malayensis (Nepenthaceae), a new species of carnivorous pitcher plant from Peninsular Malaysia
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ISSN: 0075-5974 (print) ISSN: 1874-933X (electronic)
Nepenthes malayensis (Nepenthaceae), a new species of carnivorous pitcher plant from Peninsular Malaysia Amin Asyraf Tamizi1 , Mohd Norfaizal Ghazalli2, Dome Nikong3, Edward Entalai Besi4, Muhamad Ikhwanuddin Mat-Esa4, Anuar Rasyidi Mohd-Nordin2, A. Latiff5 & Mohamad Alias Shakri6
Summary. Nepenthes malayensis A.Amin, M.N.Faizal & Dome is described as a new species discovered from a montane forest in the eastern part of Peninsular Malaysia. The species is considered highly threatened since only a few individuals have been discovered within a limited area and almost all of them grow on humus-covered boulders scattered in the summit region. Due to a slight resemblance to N. sanguinea Lindl., it was initially thought to be of an allied form; however, anatomy, morphological and molecular analyses have established N. malayensis as a distinct taxon. A diagnosis, description, figures and preliminary conservation status of the species are provided in this article.
Key Words. Insectivore, monkey cup, new taxon, phylogenetics, taxonomy, Terengganu.
Introduction An estimated 160 – 180 extant Nepenthes L. species have been recorded, of which the majority are found in south east Asia, especially in Malesia (McPherson 2009, 2011; Christenhusz & Byng 2016; Murphy et al. 2020), with the Philippines being the single country, or region, harbouring the most taxa, up to 51 extant species (Gronemeyer et al. 2016; Murphy et al. 2020). Malaysia is currently home to 40 accepted species of Nepenthes — 29 of which are only found in East Malaysia on the island of Borneo and six species in West Malaysia on the Malay Peninsula, while the remaining five species occur in both regions (Clarke 1997, 2001; Lee et al. 2011; Clarke & Lee 2012; McPherson & Robinson 2012; Scharmann & Grafe 2013; Robinson et al. 2019). Despite being sandwiched between two regions rich in Nepenthes (Sumatera and Borneo islands), Peninsular Malaysia holds only a handful of Nepenthes taxa (11 accepted species) compared to her Bornean counterpart and the most
recent peninsular species (N. benstonei C.Clarke) was described two decades ago by Clarke (Clarke 1999). Nepenthes sharifah-hapsahii J.H.Adam & Hafiza had been initially described as a new taxon (Adam & Hamid 2007) but later was revised as a natural hybrid by McPherson (2009). Since then, no new peninsular species had been reported mostly due to limited attempts by taxonomists in searching for new taxa in the mistaken belief that the entire peninsular Nepenthes flora has been fully recorded. Moreover, these carnivorous plants readily inter-hybridise with sympatric taxa — also with other nothotaxa — producing hybrids and intergrades that are sometimes puzzling and difficult to resolve making species discrimination often challenging (McPherson & Robinson 2012; Thorogood et al. 2017). Currently, there are about 12 natural hybrids or nothospecies that have been recorded from Peninsular Malaysia (Clarke 2001; McPherson 2009; Tamizi et al. 2020). In this work, we propose t
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