Re: Classification of Nepenthes pervillei

From: SCHLAUER@chemie.uni-wuerzburg.de
Date: Thu Dec 04 1997 - 08:07:09 PST


Date:          Thu, 4 Dec 1997 08:07:09 
From: SCHLAUER@chemie.uni-wuerzburg.de
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg4611$foo@default>
Subject:       Re: Classification of Nepenthes pervillei

Dear Rich,

> I have a question (I suspect for Jan) but I thought I would pose it to
> the list. I recently looked up Nepenthes in "Flowering Plants of the
> World" edited by V. H. Heywood. In the brief description it says:
>
> "The family is usually regarded as containing a single genus, Nepenthes,
> but some authorities consider that the Seychelles species Nepenthes
> pervillei represents a separate genus Anurosperma."
>
> I don't know much about Nepenthes pervillei and I am curious as to what
> is so unique about it that anyone would think that it belongs to a
> separate genus.

Well, the species is a straightforward _Nepenthes_. The seeds,
however, do not have the long "tails" on either side of the embryo
that are so characteristic for the other species in the genus (Greek:
An-=non-; uro=tail; sperma=seed). This has been interpreted as an
adaptation to life on small islands (Seychelles), where long thin
seeds could possibly be blown away to the open sea.

Kind regards
Jan



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