Nepenthes alata
Nepenthes alata is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to the Philippines. Like all pitcher plants, it is carnivorous and uses its nectar to attract insects that drown in the pitcher and are digested by the plant. It is highly polymorphic, and its taxonomy continues to be subject to revisions.
Description
N. alata can vary strongly in colouration and morphology. The floral formula is ✶ K4 A4+4+1* G0 for staminate and ✶ K4 A0 for pistillate flowers.Taxonomy
Nepenthes alata has long been treated as a highly polymorphic species spanning all the major islands of the Philippine archipelago. Under this broad circumscription, N. alata was understood to have an altitudinal range of above sea level and was recorded from, among others, the islands of Bohol, Camiguin, Cebu, Culion, Leyte, Luzon, Mindanao, Mindoro, Negros, Panay, Samar, and Sibuyan. Nepenthes alata in this broad sense is one of the easiest and most popular Nepenthes in cultivation.In 2013, N. alata was redelimited by Martin Cheek and Matthew Jebb to encompass only those populations from northern and central Luzon with conspicuously hairy pitchers. Cheek and Jebb's N. alata ''sensu stricto has an altitudinal distribution of and above. Under this interpretation, the more southerly plants previously referred to this species actually represent the newly resurrected N. graciliflora as well as the newly described N. negros and N. ramos. Nepenthes viridis from Dinagat and Samar is another close relative, as are N. ceciliae, N. copelandii, N. extincta, N. hamiguitanensis, N. kitanglad, N. kurata, N. leyte, N. mindanaoensis, N. saranganiensis, and N. ultra. Together these species form the so-called "N. alata group", being united by a number of morphological characters including winged petioles, lids with basal ridges on the lower surface, and upper pitchers that are usually broadest near the base.
Nepenthes alata is closely related to several other species, including N. copelandii, N. mindanaoensis, and N. saranganiensis. Nepenthes eustachya from Sumatra was once considered to fall within the variability of N. alata, but this was based on a misinterpretation of type specimens; these two species do not seem closely related to each other.
| Morphological character | N. alata | N. eustachya'' |
| Leaf blade | lanceolate-ovate | lanceolate |
| Leaf apex | acute or attenuate | rounded to sub-peltate |
| Petiole | broadly winged | scarcely or not winged |
| Spur | simple, acutely pointed | simple or bifurcate |
| Indumentum | reddish or whitish hairs | absent throughout |
| Structure of pitcher base | texture similar to rest of pitcher, abruptly attenuate to tendril | angular, woody, gradually attenuate to tendril |
Infraspecific taxa
- N. alata f. variegata Hort. ex P.Mann nom.nud.
- N. alata var. biflora Macfarl.
- N. alata var. ecristata Macfarl.
Natural hybrids
- N. alata × N. burkei
- N. alata × N. merrilliana
- ? × N. mirabilis
- N. alata × N. mindanaoensis
- N. alata × N. mirabilis
- ? N. alata × N. petiolata
- N. alata × N. pulchra
- N. alata × N. truncata
- N. alata × N. ventricosa