KOTA KINABALU: A type of giant hairy pitcher plant which was first photographed in 2004, has officially been named after it was recognised as a new species and classified as Critically Endangered.
Named after the Orangutan whose scientific term is Pongo, this plant - Nepenthes pongoides, found in the ultramafic mountains in central Sabah, has a striking resemblance to the great ape’s long, dark, rusty-red hair.
Ever since its discovery almost two decades ago, many researchers have gone to the area to locate and document this plant.
Of late, researchers from Sabah Forestry Department’s Forest Research Centre (FRC) collaborated with Australian colleagues to document this giant species of tropical pitcher plant.
FRC’s Alviana Damit partnered with Dr Alastair Robinson, an authority on the genus Nepenthes based at Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria in Melbourne, to locate and document this plant in its natural habitat.
They secured the necessary permits to climb and sample plant material from the strictly access-controlled mountains where it grows.
Sabah Chief Conservator of Forests, Datuk Frederick Kugan said that such discovery would enhance biodiversity conservation efforts in the state.
He said though new to science, the extraordinary plant was first photographed during a 2004 expedition where it went unrecognised as a new species owing to the limited perspective of the two pictures.
Sabah Forestry Department Deputy Chief Conservator of Forests (R&D), Dr Arthur Chung said in a statement that it only came to the attention of botanists in 2018, when a handful of new photos revealed details that told Nepenthes experts that it was likely an unknown species.
The team's expedition, initially planned for 2019, was delayed for over two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, allowing researchers time to refine their expedition plans, secure necessary international collaboration approvals, and obtain external funding to support their work, he said.
He said in 2023, the expedition team, including Alviana, Dr Robinson, and botanical assistants Jemson Jumian and Nur Adillah Yusof, encountered the new pitcher plant in the late morning of their third day on the mountain.
“The plant’s distinctive leaves, ornate pitchers, remarkable covering of long red hair, and impressive size left them in no doubt that the plant was unknown to science,” said Chung.
The team found remains of various prey within the plant’s pitchers, from beetles and centipedes to giant millipedes and even a freshwater crab, an assemblage which most other pitcher plants are too small to trap, he revealed.
He said the plant’s striking similarity to the orangutan’s hair was front of mind for the team so naming the plant after the orangutan was proposed right there on the mountain.
Alviana feels that it is an incredible experience to be the first to study this plant.
“I have been studying Sabah’s Nepenthes for years, so when Dr Alastair proposed this collaboration, I was excited to be part of it. Botanists at FRC all have different specialisms, but the botanists specialised in Nepenthes are often based overseas,” she said.
“Having grown up in Malaysia himself, Dr Alastair is very keen for us to become the ultimate experts for these plants since they grow in our country and are our heritage to manage, so the opportunity for face-to-face knowledge sharing in the field was really valuable for both sides,” she said.
Nepenthes pongoides are endemic to a relatively low-elevation mountain range and, with just 39 mature individuals have been documented across two sub-populations.
The plant has been classified as Critically Endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List due to its small population size and vulnerability to poaching.
Chung said naming this critically endangered plant after a critically endangered animal draws a strong conservation parallel.
Illegal collection poses the most significant threat to most wild Nepenthes populations, he said, adding two species were already extinct in the wild due to poaching fueled by the high market value of ornamental plants.
This discovery was published in the paper: “Sabah's hidden giant: Nepenthes pongoides (Nepenthaceae), a micro-endemic tropical pitcher plant from northern Borneo. Australian Journal of Botany 72”, he shared.
The initial expedition was funded by a travel and research grant from the International Carnivorous Plant Society Inc. (USA).
The follow-up expedition was funded by the National Conservation Trust Fund (NCTF) under the Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability of Malaysia (NRES).
