N rowanae in thailand?

[kltower]

Hi,

Guys, do check out this Thai website:

http://www.neofarmthailand.com/index.p....Ntype=6

It has a good pictorial description of N. thorelii.

And it also showed a N. mirablis hybrid that looks like N. rowanae.

http://www.exoticaplants.com.au/welcome....wsid=19

According to the author, they could be hybrid between N. rafflesiana and N. mirablis.

What do you think?

Choong

[The Griffin]

Well, According to Dr. Jan Schlauer(when I spoke with him in 2000), nobody has the real N. thorelii in cultivation. The herberium specimen collected ages ago supposedly looks more like N. rafflesiana than what the current plant circulating as N. thorelii does.
So....this might be the true N. thorelii, or a hybrid like this piece suggests, or possibly a new species, I guess. More ijnvestigation will have to be done, but it's a neat discovery no matter what it turns out to be.
And you are right about what it looks like, because I thought "How can N. rowanae be in Thailand?" when I first saw it.

Cheers,

Joe

[SydneyNeps]

I have to agree with you guys, it does bear a striking resemblance to rowanae. Maybe some rafflesiana influence as apparently this particular variety was found in southern Thailand.

[pond boy]

Its like a mouth with no pitcher!!!! I mean seriously this things mouth is HUGE but theres like no pitcher to go with it! What purpose does this serve.

[Trent]

Very interesting stuff, both the rediscovery of N. rowanae and the different forms of mirabilis in Queensland, as well as the Nepenthes from Thailand. The plant called 'Viking', which looks like rowanae at first glance, also shows interesting variation within the form. Personally, I doubt if its a natural hybrid between raff and mirabilis, as I have seen many plants of mirabilis x rafflesiana, and none of them looked anything like this. It is most likely a radical new form of mirabilis, or a new species. It's similarity to rowanae seems purely coincidental- I know that Thailand, even southern Thailand, experiences seasonal changes, a dry winter season and a summer monsoon season. I believe such conditions also exist on Cape York?? Perhaps we are seeing similar pitcher form because both rowanae and 'Viking" come from similar habitats?
My intuition (because I have no scientific data to back me up) leads me to think that both the Australian and Thailand Nepenthes are undergoing speciation, with N. thorelii, anamensis, smilesii, mirabilis and 'Viking' all related, and in Australia, all the wild looking forms of mirabilis and rowanae recently found by Rod Kruger and Geoff Mansell doing something similar-all are related...but different.
Trent

[The Griffin]

So the moral of the story is...
Don't go looking for new species in Sumatra and New Guinea-they may be closer than you think...

[Trent]

Yea! It's as simple as trudging around in crocodile infested swamps.

It would be interesting to see a more detailed account of where the Nepenthes 'Viking' grow-what the habitats are like. All I've heard is that its found on some islands off the southwest coast, and in some cases, there are no other Nepenthes growing along with it. This surely contrasts with the descriptions of several vastly different Nepenthes growing almost side by side in the Cape York swamps.
Fascinating

Trent

[agustinfranco]

Hi all:

This is a very interesting topic for discussion. There is a striking resemblance, but at the same time, i'd also like to say that i am not surprised either.

Whether N. Rowanae is a species or simply a variation of N. mirabilis according to some is still debatable. However, species or not, there is no doubt that this plant's ancestor is N. Mirabilis. Therefore, it is possible that what we are seeing here is a case of divergent evolution as mentioned by Trent. Plants carrying similar genes developed and survived under similar environments thousands of kilometers away from each other and you'll get the same results: N. viking and N. rowanae. Although i doubt whether they are identical, but they look very similar such as N. ramispina and gracillima.


It'd be great to put pictures side by side of leaves and pitchers to make an appropriate comparison.

Gus