Nepenthes smilesii

This species has been distributed under the names Nepenthes kampotiana, N. mirabilis, N. thorelii and now as N. anamensis. My plant came with the name "N. kampotiana", which refers to a different, hairless, species. N. smilesii appears most closely related to the new N. bokor.

A friend, Micheal Manna, also has a plant of "N. kampotiana" from the same source. (We purchased this species from Bruce Lee Bednar.) Both Michael's and my plants are females. I would really like to know the location data for these plants we have in cultivation...

I received the plant bare root. It had one rosette with thin leaves and some really thick roots. These roots were rather different from other species I've grown; actually forming a rootstock which looks like a carrot which had divided several times from which grew normal looking Nepenthes roots.

After being potted up and placed into a plastic bag to avoid transplant shock, it grew nicely for a short while. As I was adapting it to lower humidity, the rosette started looking like it was going into shock. I increased the humidity back up to nearly 100%. Since the rosette continued to look stressed, I maintained it in very high humidity for the next three months. Finally, the rosette adapted, or so I thought, and I was able to lower the humidity without stressing the plant. Then a shoot appeared on the soil surface near the main stem, but not on the stem like all other basal rosettes I've seen.

As this did not seem like a normal Nepenthes basal rosette, I un-potted the whole thing to take a look. My surprise led me to borrow a camera to photograph and document the unusual growth of this species:

In the photograph above, notice how the stem area between the original rosette and the rootstock rotted away? The decay was so advanced, the old stem connecting to the root stock was completely gone. I estimate the rootstock shed the still living rosette then remained inactive for more than two months. The original rosette had rooted (thanks to the extra high humidity) and was growing many thin, black roots; typical of Nepenthes. Even though there are many roots growing from the top rosette in this photo, only one can be clearly seen crossing in front of the white stem because the soil is so dark.

It appears as though the plant "expected" to loose the older rosette and stored food and these tan colored, thick, tuber-like roots. The new rosette was formed by a white, stolon-like stem growing from the rootstock, positioned about two inches under ground. The reason the original rosette had been doing so poorly was because it had been shed by the plant and was no longer attached to the roots! In normal household or natural conditions, the older rosette would have died. It was a good thing had I kept the pot in very high humidity and allowed the soil to dry slightly to damp instead of keeping it as wet as I normally do.

The image below is a virtual herbarium; there are four links to three different closeups. To view them, click on different areas of the plant.
The following four photographs belong to Michael Manna.

Most Nepenthes only produce flowers at the tops of their climbing stems, unless they experience some sort of trauma. Notice how the flowers of this species arise from the short stems? The pitcher tendrils seem to be non-coiling and very short and the flower stems are very long before the first flower appears. These four characters; (1) thin leaves, (2) short tendrils, about half as long as the pitchers are tall (3) long flower stems which grow from short shoots and (4) tuberous or carrot-like roots; might be useful in separating it from nearby or closely related species.