10 years ago, Nepenthes bokorensis was uncovered to science.

Some of you who know me are well aware that Nepenthes bokorensisis the very first Nepenthes I formally described as a taxonomist. Although, the description has been published in 2009, I started to work on it two years before after I found this pitcher plant on a trip in August 2007 on Phnom Bokor, in southern Cambodia. 

The plant was actually known from local people for a long time ago and it had been collected several times by several botanists along the 20th century but it was labelled as 'Nepenthes thorelii' or 'Nepenthes sp.' and no one had realized that it was a species in its own right. To their defense, until this last decade, the Nepenthes of former Indochina were very poorly known and the literature dealing with them was out of date. 

Now, in 2017, although things remain confusing and unsatisfying in a certain way, much has been done to get a better understanding of the species of this region. Various taxa have been described from Cambodia and especially Thailand and many of them along with plants from Lao and Vietnam are now deemed to be part of a so-called Nepenthes thorelii aggregate. Whether all of the taxa comprised in that group are good species remain to be seen and, arguably, some of them will be treated at subspecific level. As for other well known Nepenthes groups (deaniana group, bongso come to mind), a revision is eagerly expected. 

Of all the species from the Nepenthes thorelii aggregate, Nepenthes bokorensis is arguably the most distinctive.The striped peristome, the vaulted lid and the larger lamina, among other features, easily set this taxon apart from the other species of the group. Incidentally, it has been confused with N. thorelii in the past and it has been used in horticultural to make some popular hybrids such N. thorelii x N. truncata which should hence be relabelled as N. bokorensis x N. truncataas a matter of fact.

On a personal side, this species holds a particular place in my history. I was in the need of meeting with my roots, to go on a strange collision course with my parents country (I was mainly raised in France) when I undertook that initial botanical trip in August 2007. When I suspected this pitcher plant to be new, I didn't really know what to do with this but thanks to resourceful people and experts who eventually became friends (Andreas Fleischmann, Alastair Robinson, Marcello Catalano, Stewart McPherson and Greg Bourke), I finally got Nepenthes bokorensis published in March 2009.That first paper would be the first one of a series and the beginning of a new chapter in my life.

10 years later, carnivorous plants, botany and taxonomy still hold a very important place in my life (though the current state of Nepenthes taxonomy sometimes  irks me more than Dendrocnide moroides. ;-). In August 2016, I returned to Cambodia and to Phnom Bokor in order to finalize my long overdue revision of the Nepenthaceae of Cambodia, Lao and Vietnam. I also wanted to assess Nepenthes bokorensis conservation status as it is endemic from Bokor mountain. I will talk about this particular point in a separate blog post that I will write soon. In the meanwhile, let's celebrate the ten years anniversary of the plant discovery with a long gallery of photographs. :-)

Let's start with the well known upper pitchers, which can be more than 35 cm tall, with their distinctive vaulted lid, a feature I now think I didn't emphasize enough in my scientific description of the species.

Another feature (although some pitchers do not exhibit it): 

the striped peristome of the upper pitchers.

What a great cultivar this would be, don't you thin?

More typical pitchers:

Some pitchers developed lid that had nothing to envy to Nepenthes clipeata:

Now a series of lower pitchers photographs. 

The affinities with the species of the Nepenthes thorelii group is obvious.

In most cases, the vaulted lid is developed as well.

And this is the best lower ptichers I observed last year, a fantastic specimen with chocolate colored lower pitchers. I wonder how the upper pitchers would have been like!

The flowers, with single pedicels here.

A series of habitats shots. As you will see, the species is still thriving in some parts of the Bokor plateau. These photographs were taken on 'new' locations than the ones found on my previous trips in 2007, 2009 and 2011 (almost all of these were destroyed as far as I can tell) but more about this later.

The weather was changing on the Bokor plateau every 15 minutes and blazing sun was prompt to be replaced by deep fog.

Luckily, the sun came back from time to time.

Ants feeding on the pitcher plant nectar. A couple of papers have been published on the subject of Nepenthes bokorensis interactions with these Hymenopterans.

Google this if you want to know more:

Other habitats shots:

I hope you enjoyed this gallery. As promised a post dedicated on Nepenthes bokorensis conservation status will follow.