Nepenthes Insignis - Botanical History

Botanical History

The first known collection of N. insignis was made by August Adriaan Pulle on November 9, 1912. The specimen, Pulle 277, was collected in southwestern New Guinea at the "order of the Beaufort River" at an altitude of 80 m. It includes male floral material and is deposited at the Bogor Botanical Gardens (formerly the Herbarium of the Buitenzorg Botanic Gardens) in Java. It is also preserved in alcohol and is sheet 201110 at the National Herbarium of the Netherlands in Leiden.

Nepenthes insignis was collected again in September 1926, by Willem Marius Docters van Leeuwen. The specimens, Docters van Leeuwen 10258 and 10286, were collected in northwestern New Guinea at the "order of affluent C of the Rouffaer River" at an altitude of 250 m. They are also deposited at the Bogor Botanical Gardens, although they do not include floral material.

B. H. Danser formally described N. insignis in his seminal monograph "The Nepenthaceae of the Netherlands Indies", published in 1928. The description was based solely on herbarium material and Danser did not see the species in its natural habitat. Danser designated Pulle 277 as the type specimen.

Two further collections of N. insignis were made by Leonard John Brass in March 1939, 4 km south west of Bernhard Camp, Idenburg River (sheet 13379) and 8 km south west of Bernhard Camp (sheet 13669). Both are deposited at the Bogor Botanical Gardens.

It appears that N. insignis was knowingly observed in the wild only in 1994 by four members of a field trip to New Guinea: W. Baumgartl, B. Kistler, H. Rischer, and A. Wistuba. A report on the group's findings was published in the Carnivorous Plant Newsletter the following year.