Nepenthes smilesii is a climbing tropical pitcher plant from Indochina that grows in open, sandy savannah and tolerates a long dry season. It needs bright light, a sandy, low-nutrient medium, and a cooler, drier rest period than most pitcher plants.
Family
Nepenthaceae (Pitcher-plant family)
Grows as
Shrub, Climber
Light
Full sun
Water
Keep the medium moist but never waterlogged, using rainwater or distilled water, and let it dry slightly between waterings.
Soil
Free-draining, low-nutrient mix such as sphagnum peat with perlite or sand.
Temperature
Roughly 15–35 °C; tolerates cooler lows than most Nepenthes but protect from frost.
How easy
Moderate
Native range
Indo-China
Climate
wet tropical
About
Nepenthes smilesii () is a tropical pitcher plant native to northeastern Thailand, southern Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Nepenthes smilesii can tolerate an extended dry season and is most common in open, sandy savannah and grassland.
The specific epithet smilesii refers to plant collector Frederick Henry Smiles, who made the first known collection of this species.
Where it grows
Nepenthes smilesii has a widespread distribution throughout Indochina. It has been recorded from Cambodia, northeastern Thailand, southern Laos, and western Vietnam. The species occurs across a wide range of altitudes, being recorded from elevations of 16–1,500 m above sea level, although it is more typically found at around 800 m.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Nepenthes smilesii by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.