Nepenthes Edwardsiana

Nepenthes edwardsiana , or the splendid pitcher-plant, is a carnivorous tropical pitcher plant endemic to Mount Kinabalu and neighbouring Mount Tambuyukon in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. It is considered one of the most spectacular of all Nepenthes, producing some of the largest pitchers and the most highly developed peristome ribs of any species in the genus.

Botanical history

The type specimen of N. edwardsiana was collected on Mount Kinabalu in 1858 by Hugh Low and Spenser St. John. Designated as Low s.n., the specimen is deposited at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Nepenthes edwardsiana was formally described[note a] in 1859 by Joseph Dalton Hooker. Hooker named the species after George Edwardes, Governor of the Crown Colony of Labuan, at the request of his friend Hugh Low.[note b] Hooker's original description and illustration were reproduced in Spenser St. John's Life in the Forests of the Far East, published in 1862. St. John wrote the following account of N. edwardsiana on Mount Kinabalu: