Species
+

Nepenthes rafflesiana Jack

Raffle's Pitcher, Raffle's Pitcher plant, Raffles' pitcher-plant, 벌레잡이풀

Climate known 67 photographs Carnivorous plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Nepenthes rafflesiana, or Raffles' pitcher-plant, is a species of tropical pitcher plant. It has a very wide distribution covering Borneo, Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia, and Singapore. Nepenthes rafflesiana is extremely variable, with numerous forms and varieties described. In Borneo alone, there are at least three distinct varieties. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Nepenthes rafflesiana”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Nepenthes

Nepenthes is a genus of carnivorous plants, also known as tropical pitcher plants, or monkey cups, in the monotypic family Nepenthaceae. The genus includes about 170 species, and numerous natural and many cultivated hybrids. They are mostly liana-forming plants of the Old World tropics, ranging from South China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines; westward to Madagascar and the Seychelles (one); southward to Australia (four) and New Caledonia (one); and northward to India (one) and Sri Lanka (one). More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Nepenthes”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Nepenthaceae
Described by
Jack
Native to
Borneo, Malaya, Sumatera
Wild records
576 in range· 172 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Aug, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
3217mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Dec 362 mm (CHELSA)
Light
28–34DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a carnivorous plant by the genus Nepenthes, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (September to January and March to May at the habitat (not shifted)). Habitat rain 3217 mm a year, wettest December at 362 mm, driest February at 206 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 34 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 21.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Nepenthes hookeri Alphand ex Hook.fil.; Nepenthes kookeriana H.Low; Nepenthes kookeriana H.Low ex Becc.; Nepenthes nigropurpurea (Mast.) Mast.; Nepenthes nigropurpurea Anon. and 10 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a carnivorous plant by the genus Nepenthes, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (September to January and March to May at the habitat (not shifted)).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (2363 mm of 3217 mm) takes 8 months, September to January and March to May. Mean temperature moves 1.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 3217 mm a year, wettest December at 362 mm, driest February at 206 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

3217 mm a year at the habitat, 2363 mm of it September to January and March to May. Wettest month December at 362 mm, driest February at 206 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 2429 mm to 4396 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 34 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 34 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 25, the highest 90th-percentile month 38).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 21.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 21.5 °C, the absolute minimum 18.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 23.1 °C in January (across the envelope cells 20.1 °C to 24.6 °C), warmest day 29.9 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 21.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 66 to 70% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 28 °C in Jan to 30 °C in Aug; mean night from 23 °C in Jan to 24 °C in May. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 3217 mm of rain a year, most in Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 222 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 18.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 31.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.15°20°25°30°35°31.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)18.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 28–34RH 66–70 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 222 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C28 / 27–3029 / 27–3029 / 28–3030 / 28–3130 / 28–3130 / 28–3030 / 28–3030 / 28–3130 / 28–3129 / 28–3129 / 28–3028 / 27–30
Night °C23 / 20–2523 / 20–2523 / 20–2524 / 21–2624 / 21–2624 / 21–2623 / 20–2523 / 21–2523 / 20–2523 / 20–2523 / 21–2523 / 20–25
Rain mm318 / 200–482206 / 115–363251 / 150–378270 / 150–392253 / 189–329209 / 153–282218 / 136–293221 / 131–288264 / 167–331303 / 209–385342 / 236–428362 / 241–542
DLI29 / 27–3233 / 30–3634 / 30–3834 / 30–3832 / 29–3632 / 29–3532 / 30–3534 / 32–3734 / 31–3732 / 30–3429 / 27–3228 / 25–31
RH %69 / 66–7268 / 65–7168 / 65–7169 / 65–7268 / 65–7167 / 64–7067 / 64–6966 / 63–6967 / 64–7068 / 65–7170 / 66–7270 / 67–73

Each figure is the median across the 222 grid cells holding the 494 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1788:5838 (0.575, 111.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 18.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 21.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 222 distinct grid cells holding the 494 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1788:5838 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 0.50_111.875, lapse-corrected -47 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 25 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBorneo, Malaya, Sumatera
Kew's description“climbing shrub or liana” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker1.712, 110.453 · in the densest population, 290 records (50% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 576 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 172 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 114 km away. 5 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 82 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 576 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Nepenthes rafflesianaNepenthes rafflesianaNepenthes rafflesianaNepenthes rafflesianaNepenthes rafflesianaNepenthes rafflesianaNepenthes rafflesianaNepenthes rafflesiana

Photographs: (c) Caleb Catto, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Mathew Rees, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Daniel Krsek, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Nepenthes rafflesiana, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Harmless nectar source or deadly trap:Nepenthespitchers are activated by rain, condensation and nectar
Ulrike Bauer, Holger F. Bohn, Walter Federle (2007) · Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences
A Viscoelastic Deadly Fluid in Carnivorous Pitcher Plants
Laurence Gaume, Yoël Forterre (2007) · PLoS ONE
A novel resource–service mutualism between bats and pitcher plants
T. Ulmar Grafe, Caroline R. Schöner, Gerald Kerth, Anissa Junaidi (2011) · Biology Letters
Slippery or sticky? Functional diversity in the trapping strategy of Nepenthes carnivorous plants
Vincent Bonhomme, Hervé Pelloux‐Prayer, Emmanuelle Jousselin, Yoël Forterre (2011) · New Phytologist
Flower‐scent mimicry masks a deadly trap in the carnivorous plant Nepenthes rafflesiana
Bruno Di Gíusto, Jean‐Marie Bessière, Michaël Guéroult, Linda B.L. Lim (2010) · Journal of Ecology
Foliar Reflectance and Vector Analysis Reveal Nutrient Stress in Prey‐Deprived Pitcher Plants ( Nepenthes rafflesiana )
Jonathan A. Moran, Alison J. Moran (1998) · International Journal of Plant Sciences
Evidence for alternative trapping strategies in two forms of the pitcher plant, Nepenthes rafflesiana
Ulrike Bauer, T. Ulmar Grafe, Walter Federle (2011) · Journal of Experimental Botany
Removal of methyl violet 2B dye from aqueous solution using Nepenthes rafflesiana pitcher and leaves
Muhammad Raziq Rahimi Kooh, Muhammad Khairud Dahri, Linda B.L. Lim (2017) · Applied Water Science

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Nepenthes 174 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 14 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.