Nepenthes maxima
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Nepenthes maxima is a carnivorous plant from the genus of pitcher plants ( Nepenthes ). It is native to parts of Indonesia and New Guinea.
description
Nepenthes maxima are epiphytic or terrestrial, shrubby or climbing, perennial plants that reach a height of up to 4 meters. The cross-section cylindrical to triangular, 3 to 10 millimeters thick, densely fluffy red-brown haired stem often has two, occasionally four winged angles that are up to 2.5 millimeters wide. The internodes are 5 to 12 centimeters long, the clearly visible axillary buds are prickly.
The leaf stalks of Nepenthes maxima , with their dense fluffy reddish brown hair, are channel-shaped and narrowly winged, up to 7 centimeters long, the wings are widened at the base to form a sheath. The blade (actually a reshaped leaf base, strictly speaking, the jug is the blade) is leathery, 15 to 30 centimeters long and 2.5 to 7 centimeters wide and inversely egg-shaped to lanceolate, rounded to tapering at the outer end. Parallel to the dense, fluffy red-brown hairy central rib , one to three weakly pronounced longitudinal ribs run on each half of the blade in its outer third to fourth, not to be confused with the strongly pronounced, regularly spaced grooves on the upper leaf surface. The numerous, non-parallel side ribs are often branched and only weakly pronounced. The leaf margin is hairy densely downy red-brown.
As is often the case with pitcher plants, the pitchers of Nepenthes maxima show a clear dimorphism , the lower pitchers growing close to the ground and the higher pitchers, so-called air pitchers, differ in shape and size. Nepenthes maxima is considered to be a very variable species, in particular the shape of the upper pitchers ranges from narrow cylindrical to strongly trumpet-shaped, in some populations they are winged over their entire length, similar to the lower pitchers.
The lower pitchers are either narrowly egg-shaped, becoming cylindrical towards the top and occasionally waisted, or almost completely cylindrical to cylindrical-ellipsoidal, they reach a length of 8 to 20 centimeters and a diameter of 2.2 to 5 centimeters. Its two wings are up to 8 millimeters wide and have up to 6 millimeters long fringes that are 1 to 4 millimeters apart. The jug opening is egg-shaped and concave, the peristome at the front almost cylindrical and 2 to 5 millimeters wide, flattening towards the base of the lid and widening to up to 15 millimeters. The outer edge is wavy to weakly, the inner one serrated; the clearly pronounced ribs are 0.25 to 1 millimeter apart. The jug lid is egg-shaped, around 2.5 centimeters long and just as wide, at the outer end it is rounded, at the base it is heart-shaped, on the underside it has two appendages, the one facing the base is laterally flattened and hook-shaped curved towards the base The appendage closer to the outer end is usually thread-shaped and up to 12 millimeters long, but can rarely be reduced to an inconspicuous thickening. Nectar glands are found here sporadically or densely, mostly around the midrib, occasionally up to the appendages. The entire spur is thread-like and up to 6 millimeters long.
Like all representatives of the genus, Nepenthes maxima is dioecious, separate sexes ( diocesan ), so a plant has either only male or only female flowers. The male inflorescences, which are densely fluffy reddish brown haired from the base to the underside of the bracts, are 16 to 19, rarely up to 40 centimeters long, the flower stalk 5.5 to 8, rarely up to 14 centimeters long and have a diameter of 1.25 to at the base 1.5 centimeters. From this point on, around 85 2 to 4, rarely up to 5 millimeter long partial inflorescences go, which usually have two flowers. The linear bracts are bent back, around 2.5 millimeters long and set 0 to 2 millimeters below the partial inflorescences. The actual flower stalks are 6 to 9, rarely up to 16 millimeters long. The bracts are elliptical, dark red, 3 to 4.5 millimeters long and 1.5 to 2.5, rarely up to 3.5 millimeters wide. The downy hairy androphor is 2.5 to 4 millimeters long.
distribution
Nepenthes maxima occurs in Sulawesi , on the Moluccas to New Guinea at altitudes between 600 and 2500 meters (occasionally also at lower altitudes up to 40 meters). The plants settle as epiphytes in mossy forests, terrestrially in swampy grasslands, on rock ridges, in open forests on white sand and on metalliferous, ultramafic soils.
Systematics
Nepenthes maxima was first described by the German botanist Caspar Georg Carl Reinwardt in 1824 . The species epithet means something like "the largest" and refers to the stately appearance of the plants.
The closest related within the genus are Nepenthes klossii , Nepenthes fusca and Nepenthes eymae .
proof
- ↑ a b c d e f g Martin Cheek, Matthew Jebb: Nepenthaceae (= Flora Malesiana. Ser. 1: Spermatophyta. Vol. 15). Nationaal Herbarium Nederland, Leiden 2001, ISBN 90-71236-49-8 .
- ^ Matthew Jebb, Martin Cheek: A Skeletal Revision of Nepenthes (Nepenthaceae). In: Blumea. Vol. 42, 1997, ISSN 0006-5196 , pp. 1–106, here p. 61, ( digital version (PDF; 8.82 MB) ).
- ↑ Helmut Genaust: Etymological dictionary of botanical plant names. 3rd, completely revised and expanded edition. Birkhäuser, Basel et al. 1996, ISBN 3-7643-2390-6 .
