Nepenthes northiana

[San]

We scaled a near vertical cliff around the District 1 of Sarawak to catch a glimpse of, what I believe to be, the most beautiful lowland pitcher, Nepenthes northiana. Seeing and touching this giant specimen dangling a hundred metres or so above the ground in the lunar scape was pretty surreal. The plant was first painted by the Victorian naturalist and painter Marianne North and subsequently named after her. It is endemic to a few limestone hills here which are haphazardly blasted by natives in their search for gold.

Around August this year, this species achieved notoriety when a now famous photo showing a drowned mouse peering out of its pitcher was splashed across many press releases with headlines like "Newly discovered Pitcher plant eats rats !" . The headlines were meant for the new species Nepenthes attenboroughii but the press men apparently made a boo boo and the mistake was propagated .

Hort Log

[kevind76]

Originally Posted by San

We scaled a near vertical cliff around the District 1 of Sarawak to catch a glimpse of, what I believe to be, the most beautiful lowland pitcher, Nepenthes northiana. Seeing and touching this giant specimen dangling a hundred metres or so above the ground in the lunar scape was pretty surreal.

Are you saying the pitchers were a hundred metres above the ground, or the plant was growing that high? They are vines, but I thought this one usually had the pitchers on the ground, like rajah. Is this a lower pitcher or an upper?

[San]

While most Neps are vining, all those I have seen appeared to grow more or less as rosette hanging on bare cliff face. Only quite old specimens may be vining as the stems elongate slowly - and its becoming rare to see old specimens in the wild.