Related Species
The unusual pitcher morphology of N. aristolochioides makes it difficult to confuse with any other species; the almost vertical orientation of the pitcher mouth is a unique characteristic.
Joachim Nerz noted that N. aristolochioides shows "close affinities" to N. talangensis. However, it may be easily distinguished from that species on the basis of the pitcher mouth, which is horizontal in N. talangensis. In addition, the pitcher mouth of N. talangensis is elongated into a short neck, whereas N. aristolochioides lacks a neck altogether, with the lid being inserted in front of the pitcher. Both the mouth and lid are considerably larger in N. talangensis. The two taxa also differ somewhat in growth habit; N. talangensis occurs only terrestrially and is a weak climber, whereas N. aristolochioides occasionally grows as an epiphyte and climbs high into the forest canopy.
The laminar morphology of N. aristolochioides is also similar to that of N. bongso, although N. aristolochioides is easily distinguished from this species by the shape of its pitchers and the hooded nectaries of the lid.
In 2001, Charles Clarke performed a cladistic analysis of the Nepenthes species of Sumatra and Peninsular Malaysia using 70 morphological characteristics of each taxon. The following is part of the resultant cladogram, showing "Clade 1", which has 51% bootstrap support. Its most strongly supported subclade is the sister pair of N. inermis and N. dubia, having 95% support.
A fully developed upper pitcher (left) and an unopened upper pitcher (right), both found at 2100 m above sea level
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Although N. aristolochioides resembles N. klossii in some respects, the two species are geographically isolated from each other and are not thought to be closely related. The unique adaptations of these taxa might represent an example of convergent evolution, whereby two organisms that are not closely related independently acquire similar characteristics while evolving in separate, but comparable, ecosystems.
Read more about this topic: Nepenthes Aristolochioides
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