Trent, I agree very much in what you say. I know, it's now up to lumpers and splitters. But still I would like to reach a point where we know what these forms/species look like (their shape "extremes"), where they come from etc. I think I'll take as many infos as possible (compared to the last time that I went to Thailand, now I could go and clear up hundreds of obscure points, considering that
Nepenthes of Indochina was the fruit of my first trip, when I used to know more or less nothing) and then I'll go back to those jungles.
You see how it's more or less possible to group these forms/species, even if they're similar. No doubt that looking at those mirabilis-like or smilesii-like leaves, all these plants must derive from these two species. But it would be good if we could be sure that there's no thorelii giant, thorelii(D), thorelii kondo, "kuraburi" etc but just many forms of a N. sp. "A", from south of Thailand.
And not even thorelii tiger, red, thai thorelii, striped etc but just many forms of N. sp. "B", from Cambodia and Laos, etc.
What you think about the x-plant page I sent on WildJungle?
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Chanrit, it looks like you know more than you're saying!
please, give more precise informations. You speak about many forms growing on Aopanga. We need photos, at the moment we just have a photo of some upper pitchers of a plant from Aopanga that looks like N. smilesii. What you call "intermediate forms" are probably hybrids between the two species, but maybe the lower pitchers will show how this plants is the "giant thorelii" and not a smilesii. *
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Michael, I would be curious to know the name of your friend, as his notions about Thai Neps appear to be a little confused
The clear points, more or less generally accepted, are:
-N. viking derived from N. mirabilis
-N. smilesii (ex kampotiana, anamensis, geoffrayi) is the plant that grows on Phu Kradung, Thung Saleng Luang and probably many other places in Thailand (maybe also in the southern lowlands)
The not clear points are:
-how can we classify all the strange forms that are coming out in the last period, like for example the "giant thorelii" etc (including all the x-plants that you find on the WildJungle forum) ?
-what does the true "thorelii" look like?
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If you want to check the x-plants page, it's in the last message of this forum:
Nepenthes of Indochina
Marcello