Hybrid Origin
The pitchers of N. hurrelliana are roughly intermediate in appearance between those of N. fusca and N. veitchii. This has led to speculation regarding the lineage of this species, with a number of authors suggesting a possible hybridogenic origin.
Botanist Clive A. Stace writes that one may speak of "stabilised hybrids when they have developed a distributional, morphological or genetic set of characters which is no longer strictly related to that of its parents, if the hybrid has become an independent, recognisable, self-producing unit, it is de facto a separate species". This would support the status of N. hurrelliana as a species, since populations of this taxon appear to be stabilised and it is abundant where it does grow. Furthermore, it has never been found to be sympatric with either of its putative parent species. The hybrid may have locally outcompeted its parent species and eventually replaced them. Another possibility is that it was dispersed to new areas where neither of the parent species were established.
Examples of other Nepenthes species with a putative hybrid origin include N. hamiguitanensis, N. murudensis, and N. petiolata.
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