Nepenthes Ephippiata
Nepenthes Ephippiata is a unique highland species which grows in several remote mountains in Borneo. The species is generally known from three locations: Bukit Raya, a remote mountain in the south of Borneo; Hose Mountains, a mountain range in the western part of Malaysian Borneo; Mubung Jalak, a remote mountain located in the near center of Borneo (Indonesian side). All three of these locations are incredibly difficult to access, typically requiring up to a week of travel by boat or 4x4 offroading before starting the hike. As a result, N. ephippiata is not often visited by botanists in-situ.
Like N. Lowii, N. ephippiata forms saddle-shaped toilet bowl pitchers shaped like a toilet. The plant has a symbiotic relationship with the local mountain shrew; the exudate under the pitcher lid provides a source of food. In turn, the shrew uses the pitcher as a toilet!
N. ephippiata upper pitcher on Mubung Jalak 1700m. Note the presence of shrew poop on the saddle of the pitcher!
This species was discovered in 1899 by a local plant botanist Amjah, who collected a specimen from mubung jalak. Notably, the herbarium specimen does not contain any pitchers. Despite this, in 1928 B. H. Danser recognized that Amjah's discovery was distinctly different from Nepenthes Lowii based on the leaf shape and stem attachment.
Since Amjah's discovery, N. ephippiata was discovered on bukit raya and the hose mountains. Since 1899, attempts to summit mubung jalak failed on multiple attempts owing to the mountain's extremely remote location. Two prior attempts in the early 2000's failed as the expedition teams ran out of food before locating the summit. In 2025 a third attempt was successful where myself and several botanists found the type locality. The population is quite small, with no more than a few dozen mature plants restricted to the summit area. A few herbarium specimens were collected for the Samarinda botanical garden in order to provide the missing pitcher that Amjah was unable to collect 125 years prior.
Previously, it was believed that N. ephippiata has no natural hybrids. We were able to confirm that the plant hybridizes with N. Pilosa and a yet un-named species.
Cultivation Requirements
N. Ephippiata is generally found to be slightly easier and faster to grow than N. Lowii. Notably, many growers report that the hose mountain variety is far easier to grow than the bukit raya form. According to some growers in the UK, seedlings from bukit raya appear to challenge this theory; they report that the bukit raya seedlings are quite fast. It's possible that the old Borneo Exotics bukit Raya clone (which may also be the same as the AW clone) is likely just a bad clone. Ultimately we will have to wait until the UK offspring are grown out to know for sure.
Fertilizer
Even as a young seedling, N. Ephippiata will tolerate a large number of nutricote 180 day pellets in the soil. I usually add ~4 pellets per inch of pot size. As with N. Lowii and N. Rajah, N. Ephippiata can take a lot of fertilizer. Like N. Macrophylla, the young pitchers on N. Ephippiata are quite fragile and will burn easily. I would not recommend adding nutricote pellets to the pitchers until they are atleast 2-3" tall.
Light
This species thrives in full sunlight. On mubung jalak, almost all of the plants (or seedlings) that we found were growing in full sunlight. There was a single juvenile plant growing in the shade at around 1500m, but the plant looked rather sickly and underdeveloped. I try to give N. Ephippiata as much light as possible by placing the seedlings in the brightest areas in the greenhouse.
Temperatures
Unlike it's similar species relative, N. Lowii, N. Ephippiata has a lower altitude distribution that allows it to be grown in slightly warmer conditions in cultivation. Some growers have found the hose mountain variety can be grown in intermediate conditions. I have not tried this with my hose mountain ephippiata, but our anecdotal experience on mubung jalak was that it didn't get too cold at night. However, the daytime temperatures weren't too particularly warm either. It probably never got above 80F during our time on the mountain. For now, I would recommend growing N. Ephippiata in highland conditions (nights in the 50s, days in the high 70s low 80s).
Soil
N. Ephippiata can grow in a wide range of soil mixes. Personally I've always treated it like lowii and adopted the same soil mix of 50% perlite 50% coco chips. Some growers have also used sphagnum mixes with good success, but these mixes dry out too quickly in my conditions. Notably, all of the plants on Mubung Jalak grow terrestrially. Some of the larger plants were growing straight out of the ultramafic soil, but we found a small number of seedlings and juvenile plants growing in a matt of live sphagnum. The natural hybrid, N. ephippiata x pilosa, was also growing in a mossy embankment. Despite the wide range of substrate, a key similarity is that all of these areas were very well draining.
This guide was written by a human.