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"A skeletal revision ofNepenthes (Nepenthaceae)" is amonograph byMatthew Jebb andMartin Cheek on the tropicalpitcher plants of the genusNepenthes. It was published in the May 1997 issue of thebotanical journalBlumea.[1] The work represented the first revision of the entire genus sinceJohn Muirhead Macfarlane's 1908 monograph.[2] Jebb and Cheek's revision was based on "collaborative work by both authors since 1984, largely onherbarium specimens, but including fieldwork inNew Guinea,Indonesia,Malaysia,Singapore andMadagascar".[3] It was a precursor to their more exhaustive 2001 monograph, "Nepenthaceae".[4]
The authors recognised 82 species, including six described for the first time:N. argentii,N. aristolochioides,N. danseri,N. diatas,N. lamii, andN. murudensis.[1] Additionally,N. macrophylla was raised to a species from infraspecific rank. Jebb and Cheek also included five "little known taxa":N. deaniana,N. junghuhnii,N. melamphora var.lucida,N. neglecta, andN. smilesii. Three taxa were excluded:N. cincta,N. cristata, andN. lindleyana. Three widespreadnatural hybrids were also covered.[1]
Jebb and Cheek revised several of the taxonomic determinations made inB. H. Danser's influential 1928 monograph, "The Nepenthaceae of the Netherlands Indies". This included the recognition ofN. eustachya,N. hispida,N. ramispina, andN. sumatrana as distinct species, whereas previously they had been treated asheterotypic synonyms ofN. alata,N. hirsuta,N. gracillima, andN. treubiana, respectively. Jebb and Cheek also reduced Danser'sN. carunculata toN. bongso andN. leptochila toN. hirsuta. A number of more recently described species were also sunk in synonymy, includingN. faizaliana andN. sandakanensis to synonyms ofN. stenophylla,N. longifolia to a synonym ofN. sumatrana,N. talangensis to a synonym ofN. bongso,N. tenuis to a synonym ofN. dubia, andN. xiphioides to a synonym ofN. pectinata.[1][5] The authors alsolectotypified a number of names.[1]
Nepenthes of Borneo byCharles Clarke was published in the same year as Jebb and Cheek's revision. Unlike the latter work, however, it was primarily an ecological monograph and did not attempt to provide an alternative taxonomic interpretation of theBorneantaxa (with the exception of treatingN. borneensis in synonymy withN. boschiana and retainingN. faizaliana as a distinct species).[6] However, several of the taxonomic revisions made by Jebb and Cheek were reversed in Clarke's subsequent monograph,Nepenthes of Sumatra and Peninsular Malaysia, published in 2001.[2]
TaxonomistJan Schlauer reviewed "A skeletal revision ofNepenthes (Nepenthaceae)" in the September 1998 issue of theCarnivorous Plant Newsletter.[4]
The paper is a must for all interested seriously in the taxonomy of Nepenthes, and it is another important step towards an improvement of Danser's classical treatment. However, several debatable points have to be clarified previous to the completion of the Flora Malesiana account.
Schlauer disagreed with Jebb and Cheek's synonymisation ofN. talangensis withN. bongso and their interpretation ofN. stenophylla, which, according to Schlauer, served to perpetuate "Danser's misconception".[4]
"A skeletal revision ofNepenthes (Nepenthaceae)" was also reviewed by Zdeněk Žáček in a 1997 issue ofTrifid.[7]
