The orange fur on the underside of Nepenthes pongoides leaves is why the pitcher plant was named after orangutans
Alviana Damit
A newly described species of pitcher plant, one of the largest and furriest ever found, has been identified on a wild mountain in Borneo, Malaysia.
The underside of the leaves of Nepenthes pongoides are covered in thick, rust-coloured fur, inspiring the team who found the plant in May 2023 to name it after the local Borneo orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) who share the Meliau range in central Sabah.
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“Admittedly it’s not quite as hairy as an orangutan, it’s more like a really hairy-chested man,” says Alastair Robinson at the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. “But the colour is almost the same as orangutan fur.”
He is proposing that the plants have the common name of orangutan pitcher plants. Robinson and his colleagues found just 39 plants over two expeditions, making it extremely vulnerable to extinction if it isn’t protected from poaching by collectors.
Robinson says even before they reached the site, there was evidence that poachers had been into the area and stolen specimens because plants had been posted online for sale.
Nepenthes is a genus of carnivorous pitcher plants, found throughout the tropics of South-East Asia and in parts of the Pacific, comprising over 160 species. They are highly sought after by the black-market horticultural industry because their leaves form spectacular containers of water. In the wild, animals fall into these pitchers and drown before being consumed by digestive enzymes produced by the plants.
Robinson says the mountain is “essentially a pile of boulders” so there is no running water above 300 metres, which means the pitcher plants are often the only source of water for local wildlife.
Their pitchers can reach lengths of 45 centimetres and hold well over 2 litres of water. They are “like a little ecosystem of their own”, says Robinson.
The new species had first been photographed in 2004, but was misidentified as a known variety. “I have been studying Nepenthes in Borneo for years and this particular species is the hairiest I have ever encountered,” says team member Alviana Damit at the Forest Research Centre in Sandakan, Malaysia. “Naming it after the orangutan is a perfect tribute.”
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