Nepenthes erucoides (Nepenthaceae), an ultramaficolous micro-endemic from Dinagat Islands Province, northern Mindanao, Philippines

Abstract

A new species of Nepenthes—N. erucoides—is described and illustrated from a single ultramafic peak in the Dinagat Islands Province of northeastern Mindanao. It is a distinctive component of a relatively low-elevation, highly biodiverse montane elfin forest that has evolved in association with a particularly thin and extremely hostile substrate. Plant habit, and leaf, inflorescence, indumentum and peristome-column morphology appear superficially similar to those of the ultramaficolous montane species of Palawan, implicating an environmental basis for a syndrome of shared characteristics.