Nepenthes thorelii - a resolution.

[Sockhom]

Hello,

Here are a few more pictures, including a nice yellow variant of the species with yellow lower pitchers.
I will write some field reports on my blog when our travel is over (we have now 2 weeks of field work in Cambodia). This was of course a fantastic discovery and I am happy that we (The Institute of Tropical Biology of HCM, their Vietnamese colleagues, Alastair and myself) managed to rediscover this long lost species. At last. We are now working on setting proper conservation programs with the help of the Vietnamese authorities.
We will thoroughly document this species in the near future: new taxonomic and ecological informations will be provided so that everyone can now clealry understand this species.
In short: N. thorelii is a true lowland species which develops large subglobose pitchers characterized by a large bulbous peristome and a cordate (apple shape) lid. The tendrils are very long and the leaves are narrowly obovate. Upper pitchers are often pure yellow (at least as yellow as N. flava) and are narrowly infundibular and obovate at the top, a shape reminiscent of some elongated N. aristolochioides upper pitchers. A very thin indumentum covers all the plant. The species seem to occupy a very specific habitat as it grows in the drier part of swampy habitats.
I am happy to say that all surmises that I formulated in my last paper on this species (The Elusive Nepenthes thorelii) has proved to be correct, even the botanical illustration! ;-)











A variant with yellow lower pitchers:










Alastair Robinson with Nepenthes thorelii:




Francois.