Q: The big Nepenthes checklist!

A: The previous FAQ entries were geographically based, and many species were mentioned on more than one page. Here is a taxonomic list of the species without repeated entries. Each species names is linked to the page where it is treated in the most detail, or at least where it first appears in the FAQ.

The relationships among the species in this genus are very difficult to fathom, in my opinion. Significant advances in developing a subgeneric organization were made by Clarke et al. (2018)--they promoted a system with eight sections. Even their well thought out system has a set of plants that are difficult to classify.

Also, in my opinion as a tourist to this genus--and not necessarily a really deep thinker--it seems that some of the species that have been described have pretty weak science behind them. So if you are looking for a "correct" list of species....well....I think you're asking for the impossible. All I will do is give you my current list and why it looks the way it does.

As new species are described, I think I will place them at the bottom of the list, at least for now.

¹Sometimes lumped with N. mikei Salmon & Maulder.
²Includes N. pectinata Danser and N. xiphioides Salmon & Maulder.
³Some botanists merge N. ramispina Ridl. and N. alba Ridl. into N. gracillima Ridl.
⁴Formerly referred to as N. anamensis Macf.
⁵Often grouped with N. alata Blanco.

To complete my listing, a few additional species should be noted. These are as follows...

1) Clarke et al. (2018) provided a list of additional species that they could not easily place in their system. The first three were:

N. gracilis Korth.
N. mirabilis (Lour.) Druce
N. papuana Danser

The editors of Ellison & Adamec (2018) moved them to Nepenthes section Urceolatae, although I understand (via Schlauer, pers. comm. 2018) that the placement of the species in this section was deemed tentative or uncertain by Clarke et al. (2018).

2) Nepenthes mirabilis is sometimes expanded with the inclusion of a few varieties:

N. mirabilis (Lour.) Druce
    N. mirabilis var. echinostoma (Hook.f.) Hort.Slack ex J.H.Adam & Wilcock
    N. mirabilis var. globosa M.Catal.

3) The following species were also supposed to be included in the appendix list in Ellison & Adamec (2018), but were erroneously omitted. This list includes several more species of uncertain placement. All but N. macrovulgaris might reasonably be associated with section Urceolatae, although the details are, again, uncertain (Schlauer, pers. comm. 2018).

N. hirsuta Hook.f.
N. hispida G.Beck
N. macrovulgaris Turnbull & Middleton
N. mapuluensis Adam & Wilcock
N. northiana Hook.f.
N. parvula Gary W.Wilson & S.Venter
N. rowanae F.M.Bail.
N. tenax C.Clarke & R.Kruger

4) Finally, the following species are not included in the lists associated Ellison & Adamec (2018) at all... These include a mixed bag of new species or other entities.

N. beccariana Macf.
N. biak Jebb & Cheek
N. extincta Jebb & Cheek N. orbiculata M.Catal & T.Kruetr.

Page citations: Clarke, C., Schlauer, J., Moran, J., and Robinson, A. 2018; also refer to the citations in the geographical pages for this genus.