Nepenthes distillatoria (; Neo-Latin, from Latin: destillo "to distill", -oria, adjectival ending; "something from which a liquid is distilled", i.e., pitcher) is a tropical pitcher plant endemism to Sri Lanka. It was the second Nepenthes species to be described in print and the first to be formally named under the Linnaean system of taxonomy. It is therefore the type species of the genus.
Botanical history
Nepenthes distillatoria was the second
Nepenthes species to be described in print, after
N. madagascariensis. In 1677, Danish physician
Thomas Bartholin made brief mention of it under the name
Miranda herba, Latin for "marvelous herb".
Three years later, Polish–Dutch merchant
Jacob Breyne referred to this species as
Bandura zingalensium, after a local name for the plant.
subsequently became the most commonly used name for the
Nepenthes, until Linnaeus coined
Nepenthes in 1737.
[Phillipps, A. & A. Lamb 1996. Pitcher-Plants of Borneo. Natural History Publications (Borneo), Kota Kinabalu.]
Nepenthes distillatoria was again described in 1683, this time by Swedish physician and naturalist Herman Niklas Grim.
The root draws up moisture from the earth which with the help of the sun's rays rises up into the plant itself and then flows down through the stems and nerves of the leaves into the natural utensil to be stored there until used for human needs. translated
Carl Linnaeus used Grim's original specific epithet when naming N. distillatoria in 1753.
Nepenthes distillatoria was again illustrated in Johannes Burmann's Thesaurus Zeylanicus of 1737. The drawing depicts the end of a flowering stem with pitchers. Burmann refers to the plant as Bandura zeylanica.
In the horticultural trade of the late 19th century, N. distillatoria was often confused with N. khasiana of India.[Masters, M.T. 1872. The cultivated species of Nepenthes. The Gardeners' Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette 1872(16): 540–542.][Masters, M.T. 1881. New garden plants. Nepenthes Mastersiana×, Hort. Veitch. The Gardeners' Chronicle, new series, 16(415): 748–749.][Masters, M.T. 1882. New garden plants. Nepenthes rubro-maculata×, Hort. Veitch. The Gardeners' Chronicle, new series, 17(423): 143.][Dixon, W.E. 1889. Nepenthes. The Gardeners' Chronicle, series 3, 6(144): 354.]
Ecology
Nepenthes distillatoria is
endemism to
Sri Lanka and is the only
Nepenthes species recorded from the island. It grows in waterlogged open
Shrubland, along road embankments and other cleared areas, and in forest.
N. distillatoria occurs from sea level to 700 m altitude.
Due to its isolation, N. distillatoria has no known natural hybrids.
Infraspecific taxa
Three infraspecific taxa of
N. distillatoria have been described, although they are no longer considered valid.
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Nepenthes distillatoria var. rubra (Nichols.) Hort.Veitch Nurseries ex Lindsay (1891)
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Nepenthes distillatoria var. speciosa Hort.Van Houtte ex Rafarin (1869)
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Nepenthes distillatoria var. vera D.Moore (1872)
[Moore, D. 1872. On the culture of Nepenthes at Glasnevin. The Gardeners' Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette 1872(11): 359–360.]
Further reading
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Anonymous 1849. Societies. Botanical of Edinburgh, July 12. The Gardeners' Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette 1849(30): 470–471.
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Anonymous 1881. Messrs. Veitch's Nepenthes-house. The Gardeners' Chronicle, new series, 16(410): 598–599.
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Amaratunga, K.L.D. 1980. Nepenthaceae. In: M.D. Dassanayake & F.R. Fosberg (eds.) A Revised Handbook to the Flora of Ceylon, Volume 6. Taylor & Francis, London. pp. 241–244.
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Arcangeli, G. 1893. Sopra l'infiorescenza di una pianta di Nepenthes . Nuovo Giornale Botanico Italiano 25: 511–512.
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Athauda, S.B.P., H. Inoue, A. Iwamatsu & K. Takahashi 1998. Acid Proteinase from Nepenthes distillatoria (Badura). In: M.N.G. James (ed.) Aspartic Proteinases: Retroviral and Cellular Enzymes. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, Volume 436. Plenum Press, New York. pp. 453–458.
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Athauda, S.B.P., K. Matsumoto, S. Rajapakshe, M. Kuribayashi, M. Kojima, N. Kubomura-Yoshida, A. Iwamatsu, C. Shibata, H. Inoue & K. Takahashi 2004. Enzymatic and structural characterization of nepenthesin, a unique member of a novel subfamily of aspartic proteinases. Biochemical Journal 381(1): 295–306.
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Bauer, U., C.J. Clemente, T. Renner & W. Federle 2012. Form follows function: morphological diversification and alternative trapping strategies in carnivorous Nepenthes pitcher plants. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 25(1): 90–102.
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Blume, C.L. 1852. Ord. Nepenthaceae. In: Museum Botanicum Lugduno-Batavum, sive stirpium exoticarum novarum vel minus cognitarum ex vivis aut siccis brevis expositio. Tom. II. Nr. 1. E.J. Brill, Lugduni-Batavorum. pp. 5–10.
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Burbidge, F.W. 1882. Notes on the new Nepenthes. The Gardeners' Chronicle, new series, 17(420): 56.
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DeFilipps, R.A. 1998. A digression upon James Taplin, Nepenthes hybridizer (Nepenthaceae). Carnivorous Plant Newsletter 27(4): 104–109.
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De Luna, M. 1964. Nepenthes distillatoria. British Homoeopathic Journal 53(4): 266–267.
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Gode, L. 1987. Découverte de Nepenthes distillatoria. Dionée 10.
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Guenther, K. 1913. Die lebenden Bewohner der Kannen der insektenfressenden Pflanze Nepenthes destillatoria auf Ceylon. Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Insektenbiologie 9: 122–130, 156–160, 198–207.
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Hooker, J.D. 1859. XXXV. On the origin and development of the pitchers of Nepenthes, with an account of some new Bornean plants of that genus. The Transactions of the Linnean Society of London 22(4): 415–424.
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Jinasena, D., S. Rajapakse, P. Samaraweera & S.B.P. Athauda 2008. Preliminary characterization of phosphatase activity in the crude pitcher fluid of Nepenthes distillatoria (bandura). In: H. Goonatilake (ed.) Proceedings of the 64th Annual Sessions: Part I – Abstracts. Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science, Colombo. p. 147.
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Kitching, R.L. 2000. Food Webs and Container Habitats: The natural history and ecology of phytotelmata. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
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Korthals, P.W. 1839. Over het geslacht Nepenthes. In: C.J. Temminck 1839–1842. Verhandelingen over de Natuurlijke Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche overzeesche bezittingen; Kruidkunde. Leiden. pp. 1–44, t. 1–4, 13–15, 20–22.
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Koswatte, I., S. Rajapakse, P. Samaraweera & S.B.P. Athauda 2008. Occurrence of lipase activity in the pitcher juice of Nepenthes distillatoria (bandura). In: H. Goonatilake (ed.) Proceedings of the 64th Annual Sessions: Part I – Abstracts. Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science, Colombo. p. 103.
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Lindley, J. 1846. Order XCIV. Nepenthaceæ.—Nepenths. In: The Vegetable Kingdom; or, The Structure, Classification, and Uses of Plants, Illustrated upon the Natural System. Bradbury & Evans, London. pp. 287–288.
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Madugalle, V., S. Rajapakse, P. Samaraweera & S.B.P. Athauda 2008. Detection and preliminary characterization of glycosidase/s from Nepenthes distillatoria. In: H. Goonatilake (ed.) Proceedings of the 64th Annual Sessions: Part I – Abstracts. Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science, Colombo. p. 149.
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Mansur, M. 2001. Koleksi Nepenthes di Herbarium Bogoriense: prospeknya sebagai tanaman hias. In: Prosiding Seminar Hari Cinta Puspa dan Satwa Nasional. Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia, Bogor. pp. 244–253.
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Meimberg, H., P. Dittrich, G. Bringmann, J. Schlauer & G. Heubl 2000. Molecular phylogeny of Caryophyllidae s.l. based on matK sequences with special emphasis on carnivorous taxa. Plant Biology 2(2): 218–228.
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Meimberg, H., A. Wistuba, P. Dittrich & G. Heubl 2001. Molecular phylogeny of Nepenthaceae based on cladistic analysis of plastid trnK intron sequence data. Plant Biology 3(2): 164–175.
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Meimberg, H. 2002. Molekular-systematische Untersuchungen an den Familien Nepenthaceae und Ancistrocladaceae sowie verwandter Taxa aus der Unterklasse Caryophyllidae s. l.. PhD thesis, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich.
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Meimberg, H. & G. Heubl 2006. Introduction of a nuclear marker for phylogenetic analysis of Nepenthaceae. Plant Biology 8(6): 831–840.
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Oudemans, A.C. 1915. Anoetus guentheri nov. sp.. In: Guenther, K. Die lebenden Bewohner der Kannen der insektenfressenden Pflanze Nepenthes distillatoria auf Ceylon. Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Insektenbiologie 11: 242–243.
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Paxton, J. 1834. Mimulus Smithii. Paxton's Magazine of Botany 1: 54–63.
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Schmid-Hollinger, R. 2012. Abnorme Blüten von carnivoren Pflanzen. Das Taublatt 72: 17–22.
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Schmid-Hollinger, R. Abnorme Blüten von carnivoren Pflanzen . bio-schmidhol.ch.
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Schmid-Hollinger, R. Kanne (pitcher): Was ist das? bio-schmidhol.ch.
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Schmid-Hollinger, R. Nepenthes distillatoria: Form und Bau der Kannen . bio-schmidhol.ch.
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Schmid-Hollinger, R. Nepenthes distillatoria: Haare (Trichome) . bio-schmidhol.ch.
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Schmid-Hollinger, R. Nepenthes distillatoria: Blütenhülle (Perianth) . bio-schmidhol.ch.
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Schmid-Hollinger, R. Nepenthes distillatoria: Blütenstände . bio-schmidhol.ch.
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Takahashi, K., S.B.P. Athauda, K. Matsumoto, S. Rajapakshe, M. Kuribayashi, M. Kojima, N. Kubomura-Yoshida, A. Iwamatsu, C. Shibata & H. Inoue 2005. Nepenthesin, a unique member of a novel subfamily of aspartic proteinases: enzymatic and structural characteristics. Current Protein & Peptide Science 6(6): 513–525.
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Voelcker, A. 1849. XVI.—On the chemical composition of the fluid in the ascidia of Nepenthes. The Annals and Magazine of Natural History, series 2, 4(20): 128–136.
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Wijesinghe, P., S. Rajapakse, P. Samaraweera & S.B.P. Athauda 2008. Partial purification and characterization of deoxyribonucleases from Nepenthes distillatoria. In: H. Goonatilake (ed.) Proceedings of the 64th Annual Sessions: Part I – Abstracts. Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science, Colombo. p. 212.
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