Nepenthes Macrophylla - Botanical History

Botanical History

Nepenthes macrophylla was known to grow on Mount Trus Madi for a long time prior to its description, although it was not initially considered a distinct species. Shortly after its discovery, it was lumped with N. villosa, a similar species from Kinabalu National Park. In his 1976 guide, Nepenthes of Mount Kinabalu, botanist Shigeo Kurata wrote:

Mt. Trus Madi, located in the south of Mt. Kinabalu, become known as a locality for this species . Though this information is not confirmed yet, its existence is expected because this mountain falls within the vertical distribution of this species.

Later, N. macrophylla was treated as a form of N. edwardsiana, another closely related species. An early collection of N. macrophylla was made by Johannes Marabini in March 1983 and the herbarium material, designated as Marabini 2167, deposited at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany. Four years later, Marabini formally described the taxon as a subspecies of N. edwardsiana.

In their 1996 monograph, Pitcher-Plants of Borneo, Anthea Phillipps and Anthony Lamb treated N. macrophylla as a species in the process of being described, referring to it as "Nepenthes macrophylla (Marabini) Jebb & Cheek ined.". Botanists Matthew Jebb and Martin Cheek had intended to elevate N. macrophylla to species status since at least 1994 and did so upon the publication of their 1997 monograph "A skeletal revision of Nepenthes (Nepenthaceae)" in the botanical journal Blumea. This interpretation was supported by Charles Clarke, who noted that N. edwardsiana and N. villosa "have more in common with each other than do N. edwardsiana and N. macrophylla".