Botanist names carnivorous plant after threatened orangutan
Supplied by Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria
Dr Alastair Robinson, Manager of Biodiversity Services at Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, together with a team of Malaysian botanists, has documented a critically endangered carnivorous plant in Malaysia, Nepenthes pongoides, which they named after the orangutan to raise awareness of the major threats to its survival.
When the team noticed that the plant’s stems and emerging leaves were thickly covered with long, dark, rusty red hairs, they immediately recognised a striking similarity with the orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus).
“We had a fleeting encounter with an orangutan near camp the evening before we located the plants, so it was front of mind,” he said.
Dr Robinson said that naming the plant after the orangutan might help raise awareness of their shared critically endangered status.
“People tend to overlook plants in favour of animals; it’s a recognised phenomenon known as plant blindness,” he said.
Dr Robinson hopes that by raising awareness about the species, greater measures will be taken to protect it, perhaps including the legal collection of seeds so that the plants can be grown in captivity.
“We cannot protect what we don’t know, so documentary work like this is a key step towards reducing the risk of species extinction and loss of biodiversity.”
“Cataloguing biodiversity provides the critical taxonomic and ecological knowledge needed to develop and implement meaningful conservation measures,” he said.
The new plant was discovered on a low-elevation mountain range with just 39 mature individuals observed.
The primary threat to the species is illegal poaching by collectors who are willing to pay top dollar for such plants. Other threats, also faced by the orangutan, include land clearance and random episodic events such as fires.
Dr Robinson assisted with describing and documenting the plant, and lodged
specimens at Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria’s National Herbarium in Melbourne, which is home to nearly 1.6 million plant, algae and fungi specimens. Specimens were also lodged at Malaysia’s Sandakan Herbarium.
As an authority on Nepenthes, and having grown up in Malaysia, Dr Robinson strived to provide expertise to his Malaysian colleagues, while ensuring that all key decisions about the new species were made by them.
Nepenthes is one of the most species-rich genera of carnivorous plants, comprising around 160 species. Glands within the pitchers produce digestive enzymes that help break down trapped prey.
The team recorded remains of various prey in the pitchers, from beetles to centipedes, giant millipedes, and even a freshwater crab.
The published paper is linked here: https://www.publish.csiro.au/bt/Fulltext/BT24050
Founded in 1853, the National Herbarium of Victoria is the oldest scientific institution in Victoria. The herbarium was established to house the State Botanical Collection, one of Australia’s most valuable biological research repositories.
This internationally significant collection is the largest herbarium collection in Oceania, comprising 1,562 million dried plant, algae and fungi specimens. A third of the collection is global in nature, reflecting staff expertise; it includes over 30,100 types (the specimens anchored to the names given to all new species), making it the largest repository of type materials in the Southern Hemisphere. Approximately 23,100 of the type specimens represent Australian flora, while 7,000 are from overseas.
The State Botanical Collection also includes Australia’s largest botanical library, an associated archive, and a collection of significant botanical artworks.