Traps on the mountain: the Nepenthes aenigma expedition of 2015
This is the expedition that led to the description of Nepenthes aenigma.
May 22, 2015- I have been to this same mountain before, April 8, 2012, upon the bidding of Herman Nuytemans, who first found these plants on this mountain in April of 2002. Herman was supposed to join me on that first trip of mine, but had to rest it out due to an accident that happened shortly before his arrival to the Philippines. And so for the 2015 ascent, Herman finally had the opportunity to once again see his discovery made from a little over 13 years ago. And for this hike, we were joined by two of his original companions from 2002, Mael and Mulo; both were with me when I re-found the plants in 2012 and we knew exactly where the plants were located. Immediately after setting up camp, we headed straight to the Nepenthes.
If you haven't yet seen the protologue of this species, please proceed here: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/dbbb/2bb9f2f290d5f141d53c4a3bf0b3be0a4edc.pdf
This population is what was referred to in the paper as 'Site 1' and which I argued to be well on its way to natural extinction due to the absence of female plants. All five plants were healthy and already branching at different levels throughout the stem, but because these cannot reproduce, must be regarded as functionally extinct. See below is Herman finally seeing his own discovery from years ago:
A variant with dark red peristome:
And here is another variation with a great deal of red coloring on the trap:
A couple of upper pitchers supported by bamboo:
Much like the distantly related N. sibuyanensis, the lower pitchers of N. aenigma have the tendrils digging into the ground resulting in fully formed traps buried on the leaf litter. This supposedly facilitates the capture of roving prey.
On our second day, we decided to attempt to traverse the mountain to observe the plants at Site 2, which according to our companion and co-author Michael Calaramo, harbored two small populations.
The summit vegetation is dense and punctuated here and there with Pandanus, Pinanga, and Cyathea.
Herman and Michael taking a brief respite.
Mulo hacks through the tangle of bamboos to create a trail. Because the vegetation is generally low, we can clearly determine our bearing and direction. But the impenetrability of the summit flora is quite another story.
Rattans are often the bane of climbers, but this one was particularly rather elegant:
And then suddenly, we found plants of N. ventricosa. Compared to specimens I am used to seeing on the province of Quezon on the east coast, these examples have somewhat longer necks.
The species name 'ventricosa' is Latin for 'swollen'. This angle aptly shows the swollen base that lent this species its name.
Here is a very handsome species of Pinanga with red shafts covered in violet bloom. This one is only about 5 feet tall at the most.
Under the mercy of strong winds and metallic rains, we pressed on. But even though we can clearly see the promontory that supposedly represents our last hurdle, we decided to turn back and admit defeat. It was just way too dense and we simply do not have enough time and food supplies to permit a longer stay.
Email exchanges took place with Thomas Gronemeyer, who was at that time involved in the description of another new species, N. justinae, and an emendment of N. ramos, which I was also involved with. Thomas agreed to accommodate our new species together with the description of N. justinae and by February of 2016 we were confident enough to finally send the draft to Eleftherios P. Eleftheriou, the Academic Editor of the publication Plants. By May the following year the description of N. aenigma was finally published
May 22, 2015- I have been to this same mountain before, April 8, 2012, upon the bidding of Herman Nuytemans, who first found these plants on this mountain in April of 2002. Herman was supposed to join me on that first trip of mine, but had to rest it out due to an accident that happened shortly before his arrival to the Philippines. And so for the 2015 ascent, Herman finally had the opportunity to once again see his discovery made from a little over 13 years ago. And for this hike, we were joined by two of his original companions from 2002, Mael and Mulo; both were with me when I re-found the plants in 2012 and we knew exactly where the plants were located. Immediately after setting up camp, we headed straight to the Nepenthes.
If you haven't yet seen the protologue of this species, please proceed here: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/dbbb/2bb9f2f290d5f141d53c4a3bf0b3be0a4edc.pdf
This population is what was referred to in the paper as 'Site 1' and which I argued to be well on its way to natural extinction due to the absence of female plants. All five plants were healthy and already branching at different levels throughout the stem, but because these cannot reproduce, must be regarded as functionally extinct. See below is Herman finally seeing his own discovery from years ago:
A variant with dark red peristome:
And here is another variation with a great deal of red coloring on the trap:
A couple of upper pitchers supported by bamboo:
Much like the distantly related N. sibuyanensis, the lower pitchers of N. aenigma have the tendrils digging into the ground resulting in fully formed traps buried on the leaf litter. This supposedly facilitates the capture of roving prey.
On our second day, we decided to attempt to traverse the mountain to observe the plants at Site 2, which according to our companion and co-author Michael Calaramo, harbored two small populations.
The summit vegetation is dense and punctuated here and there with Pandanus, Pinanga, and Cyathea.
Herman and Michael taking a brief respite.
Mulo hacks through the tangle of bamboos to create a trail. Because the vegetation is generally low, we can clearly determine our bearing and direction. But the impenetrability of the summit flora is quite another story.
Rattans are often the bane of climbers, but this one was particularly rather elegant:
And then suddenly, we found plants of N. ventricosa. Compared to specimens I am used to seeing on the province of Quezon on the east coast, these examples have somewhat longer necks.
The species name 'ventricosa' is Latin for 'swollen'. This angle aptly shows the swollen base that lent this species its name.
Under the mercy of strong winds and metallic rains, we pressed on. But even though we can clearly see the promontory that supposedly represents our last hurdle, we decided to turn back and admit defeat. It was just way too dense and we simply do not have enough time and food supplies to permit a longer stay.
Email exchanges took place with Thomas Gronemeyer, who was at that time involved in the description of another new species, N. justinae, and an emendment of N. ramos, which I was also involved with. Thomas agreed to accommodate our new species together with the description of N. justinae and by February of 2016 we were confident enough to finally send the draft to Eleftherios P. Eleftheriou, the Academic Editor of the publication Plants. By May the following year the description of N. aenigma was finally published
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