Searching For Nepenthes In Borneo - Part 1

[Fredders 20]

Hi guys

In August I had one of the best experiences of my life, when I went on an expedition to visit Borneo for the first time and search for Nepenthes.

The trip started at Kota Kinabalu where our group of 9 joined together and then headed off to explore Mount Kinabalu, the Mesilau Nature Reserve, Poring and Gunung Emas in the Crocker Range.

There we saw at least 8 species and two, possibly three hybrids of Nepenthes in the wild and another 4 species within gardens, before returning back to KK where our group split, 4 to go back home and 5, including me to continue on to the Nepenthes Summit conference in Kuching.

Due to the amount of photos taken while over there (around 2,500) I'll be breaking my trip up into a few different posts.

Part 1 - Kota Kinabalu

Kota Kinabalu

Our trip started when 4 of us reached KK around the same time and it was suggested by a friend that we head off in a taxi towards Beaufort to look for Lowland Neps along the side of the road.

As none of us had been to Borneo before or seen Neps in the wild, we found looking for the ideal habitat and getting the taxi driver who didn't speak much English to stop was challenge. After driving for around 45 mins and not seeing what we thought as suitable habitat, we finally spotted a couple of spots that looked like they needed investigating. Our first spot revealed nothing but when we stopped the second time 100m down the road we finally managed to find our first Nep. At first we thought it was Nepenthes mirabilis, due to the large leaves and thick peristome, but perhaps it's a hybrid with N. gracilis as that was found growing next to it. We also found a unidentified yellow flowering affixed aquatic Utric growing in a trench on the side of the road nearby, which could possbily be U. gibba.

Unidentified Nepenthes N. x (mirabilis x gracilis)???

Can anyone identify this plant?

Unidentified Nepenthes N. x (mirabilis x gracilis)???

N. gracilis found growing next to the unknown Nepenthes.

U. gibba???

U. gibba???

After finding our first plants we decided to turn back to look at a couple of other similar locations we'd already passed. At the next spot we discovered more N. gracilis growing on a steep baron rockface in full sun. None of could believe that they could survive here as it seemed so inhabitable under the baking sun.

N. gracilis growing on the steep rock face on the side of the road.

A nice clump of N. gracilis pitchers.

N. gracilis

More to come soon.

Part 2 – Mt Kinabalu

Cheers

Steve

[Olivier Tschuy 0]

Hi Steve

Great pictures. It reminds me of my trip in Borneo arround 2004. It's just a fantastic place..

Cheers

Olivier

[Andreas Fleischmann 11]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for sharing your beautiful photos! BTW, you are right, the yellow flowered aquatic Utricularia IS U. gibba! ;)

All the best,

Andreas

[Fredders 20]

Thanks for confirming that Andreas. We also found U. gibba, but not in flower at a site near Bau when we were staying in Kuching.

Cheers

Steve

[chesara 0]

You lucky thing you,its amazing what conditions a nep can take.

Bye for now julian

[Alexander Nijman 11]

There are qieut a lot of Nepenthes species wich grow in the wild on sunny spots under a hot tropical sun.

And often along roadsides.

Regards,

Alexander

[obregon562 0]

nice!