Musėkautas

.

In general terms, the flora and fauna of Australia displays clear differences to that of South East Asia, especially the major islands of the Sunda Shelf. This distinction in plant and animal life led the 19^th century naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace to propose a theoretical boundary line to distinguish the wildlife of the two regions (the so-called Wallace Line). Yet despite the differences in plant and animal life, pitcher plants (Nepenthes) which are widespread and diverse in South East Asia, occur in the north of Australia. Three species have been discovered so far, all of which occur only in Queensland on the Australian continent. One is N. mirabilis, a widespread species which occurs north across most major islands of the South East Asian archipelago to southern China. The remaining two species are endemic to Australia, and occur nowhere else in the world.

The spectacular pitchers of Nepenthes mirabilis

The Nepenthes of Australia have a prominent role in the history of the exploration of Queensland. All three Nepenthes species were first observed and collected by Frank Jardine who was among the earliest European pioneers to settle the Cape York peninsula. During the late 19^th and early 20^th century, eleven species of Nepenthes were described from the Cape York region, although most are no regarded as synonyms of N. mirabilis or merely ecophenes of that species. Skaityti toliau…