KOTA KINABALU, Dec 17 — Researchers from the Sabah Forestry Department’s Forest Research Centre (FRC) have collaborated with Australian colleagues to document and name a newly-discovered giant species of tropical pitcher plant Nepenthes pongoides.
Found in the ultramafic mountains in central Sabah, the species was named after the orangutan, whose scientific name is Pongo, due to the plant’s striking resemblance to the great ape’s long, dark, rusty-red hair.
FRC’s Alviana Damit partnered with Dr Alastair Robinson, an authority of the genus Nepenthes based at Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria in Melbourne, to locate and document this plant in its natural habitat, having secured the necessary permits required to climb and sample plant material from the strictly access-controlled mountains where it grows on.
Chief conservator of forests Datuk Frederick Kugan said the discovery would enhance biodiversity conservation efforts in Sabah.
Though new to science, the extraordinary plant was first photographed during a 2004 expedition.
It went unrecognised as a new species owing to the limited perspective of the two pictures, only coming to the attention of botanists in 2018, when a handful of new photos revealed details that told Nepenthes experts that it was likely an unknown species.
The team’s expedition, initially planned for 2019, was delayed for over two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The delay allowed the researchers to refine their expedition plans, secure all necessary international collaboration approvals, and obtain external funding to support their work.
In 2023, the expedition team, including Alviana, Robinson, and botanical assistants Jemson Jumian and Nur Adillah Yusof, encountered the new pitcher plant in the late morning of their third day on the mountain.
The plant’s distinctive leaves, ornate pitchers, remarkable covering of long red hair, and impressive size left them in no doubt that the plant was unknown to science.
The team found remains of various prey within the plant’s pitchers, from beetles and centipedes to giant millipedes and even a freshwater crab, an assemblage which most other pitcher plants are too small to trap.
The plant’s striking similarity to the orangutan’s hair was front of mind for the team so naming the plant after the orangutan was proposed right there on the mountain.
“It was an incredible experience to be the first to study this plant,” said Alviana.
“I have been studying Sabah’s Nepenthes for years, so when Dr Alastair proposed this collaboration, I was excited to be part of it. Botanists at FRC all have different specialisms, but the botanists specialised in Nepenthes are often based overseas.”
She said having grown up in Malaysia himself, Robinson was very keen for FRC to become the ultimate experts for these plants since they grow in Malaysia and are the country’s heritage to manage.
“So the opportunity for face-to-face knowledge sharing in the field was really valuable for both sides,” she added.
Nepenthes pongoides is endemic to a relatively low-elevation mountain range and just 39 mature individuals have been documented across two sub-populations.
The plant has been classified as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List due to its small population size and vulnerability to poaching.
Naming this critically endangered plant after a critically endangered animal draws a strong conservation parallel.
Illegal collection poses the most significant threat to most wild Nepenthes populations.
Two species are already extinct in the wild due to poaching fuelled by the high market value of ornamental plants.
This discovery was published in the paper: Sabah’s hidden giant: Nepenthes pongoides (Nepenthaceae), a micro-endemic tropical pitcher plant from northern Borneo. Australian Journal of Botany 72.
The initial expedition was funded by a travel and research grant from the International Carnivorous Plant Society Inc (USA).
The follow up expedition was funded by the National Conservation Trust Fund (NCTF) under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability of Malaysia (NRES). — The Borneo Post
