Nepenthes glabrata

Nepenthes glabrata is a climbing plant growing to a height of 13 m. The stem is terete to slightly two-ridged and up to 3 mm in diameter. Internodes are up to 3 cm long.

Leaves are chartaceous and sessile. The lamina (leaf blade) of young rosette plants is linear, while that of rosettes on mature plants may be greatly reduced to the point of being almost absent. On climbing stems, the lamina is narrowly oblong-ligulate to narrowly oblanceolate. It measures up to 12 cm in length by 3 cm in width. It has an acute apex with a slightly peltate tendril insertion. The lamina is shortly attenuate at the base, clasping the stem by approximately one-third to one-half of its circumference and may or may not become decurrent as a pair of very low ridges. One to three longitudinal veins are present on either side of the midrib. Pinnate veins are inconspicuous.

Rosette and lower pitchers are small and globose. Upper pitchers are shortly cylindrical to slightly infundibular. They grow to 14 cm in height by 3 cm in width. The wings found in aerial pitchers are distinctive in that they are well developed (≤10 mm wide) but lack fringe elements. The pitcher mouth has an oblique insertion. The peristome is cylindrical and narrow, measuring only up to 2.5 mm in width. It bears very fine ribs (0.1 mm high) spaced 0.25–0.5 mm apart. Unusually, the inner margin of the peristome lacks teeth. …

Nepenthes glabrata is endemic to Central Sulawesi, where it grows terrestrially in open, high forest. It has an altitudinal distribution of 1,600 to 2,100 m above sea level. At one location, N. glabrata has been found growing alongside N. maxima and Drosera burmanni at 1,600 m. A putative natural hybrid with the former has been recorded. Nepenthes glabrata is classified as Least concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, based on an assessment carried out in 2015.

As in the case of N. eymae and N. hamata, two formal descriptions of this species were published almost concurrently. The first, by Shigeo Kurata under the name N. rubromaculata, was published on February 6, 1984, in the Journal of Insectivorous Plant Society. The second, by John R. Turnbull and Anne T. Middleton as N. glabratus, was published four days later on February 10, in Reinwardtia. Although Kurata's article was printed first, the name he used is a later homonym of a horticultural hybrid published in 1891 (N. × rubromaculata) and is thus a nomen illegitimum (illegitimate name). Nepenthes glabrata (emended with a feminine suffix) is therefore the correct name for this species. The holotype of N. glabrata, J.R.Turnbull & A.T.Middleton 83113a, was collected on August 31, 1983, from the Tri Tunggal Eboni Corp. logging concession (1°33′S 120°55′E) in Central Sulawesi at an altitude of 1,666 m. In their description of the species, Turnbull and Middleton wrote that the specimen was deposited at Herbarium Bogoriense (BO), the herbarium of the Bogor Botanical Gardens, but Matthew Jebb and Martin Cheek were unable to locate it in 1995 and 1996, and write that it "may never have been distributed". The holotype of N. rubromaculata Sh.Kurata, Kurata, Atsumi & Komatsu 149a, was collected on November 9, 1983, from the route from Malei to Kajoga in Central Sulawesi. …