Is Borneo Exotics' Nepenthes aenigma the real thing?

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In recent months I have been seeing the recently described Nepenthes aenigma being offered for sale by well-known Nepenthes producer Borneo Exotics, and have had a few people ask me if these are the real thing. A link to their price list can be seen here: http://www.borneoexotics.com/files/availability.pdf

If you have read the description you will see that we had a very difficult time searching for female plants, and all plants from Site 1 were males, with no sign of seedlings. I even proposed in that paper that this population is most likely on its way to natural extinction. Site 2 had a small population and on our last expedition dated May 22-23, 2015, we attempted to traverse the mountain to be able to observe both populations in one, single trip but the team was met by an impenetrable summit vegetation drenched by driving, metallic rains:



Site 2 is supposed to have at least one female plant, but the population is also extremely small. Note that on the description paper we opted not to give the name of the mountain as a hedge against collecting, so it does make me wonder if what BE is offering as N. aenigma is indeed that species. Yesterday I sent an email message to Rob Cantley to inquire about their stocks' provenance, and I was told that their identification was based on the belief that the characters of their plants closely match the description of N. aenigma. None of the taxon's authors have actually seen seedling plants so I myself cannot make an educated guess if what BE is offering as this species is indeed that species. But if what they have is indeed N. aenigma, then someone may have found the location of Site 2 and serendipitously found and distributed seeds. However, I find the likelihood of this happening very small given the remoteness of the sites and the concealed nature of the plants' preferred niches. As mentioned before, the name of the mountain is not shared by the authors so any Nepenthes enthusiast wanting to possess this species will have to contend with an enormous stack of odds just to find these plants in the wild. Nevertheless, it is also possible that plants have also been found on a fourth, still undisclosed site.

You can download a pdf copy of the paper here: http://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/5/2/23

Nepenthes aenigma exhibiting typical coloration.

An example of the species with red peristome and a lid suffused with red.

This N. aenigma trap is the reddest the authors have found so far.

Similar to species such as N. ampullaria and N. gymnamphora, the traps of N. aenigma are apt to be buried on the ground, possibly to aid better capture of roving arthropods.


Aerial pitchers of N. aenigma scrambling over bamboo.


My thoughts on BE's N. aenigma? Unless I learn the provenance of their plants, I doubt it's N. aenigma.

A report on its rediscovery in 2013 is featured here: http://pitcherplants.proboards.com/thread/12006/rediscovery-nepenthes-sp-luzon

Two photos I have taken from that expedition is shown below:





Addendum

Two emails I received very recently provided information that BE's N. aenigma may be this species, after all, but there are gaps in our knowledge regarding their stocks' provenance that can allow us, the authors, to categorically state that what they have is the real thing- but it is very possible that they do.

Comments

  1. Jason Swearingen23 January 2020 at 14:40

    Hello Jardinerong! I purchased BE's Nepenthes aenigma (BE-3770) several months ago, and after some observation, suspect that it is more likely another Luzon native: N. barcelonae. It is not particularly tolerant of shade, and lacks fully-developed wings on its lower pitchers (unlike your photos above). The pitcher is also flush red, much like barcelonae.

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