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Nepenthes chaniana is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to Borneo, where it grows at elevations of 1100–1800 m above sea level. It is characterised by a dense indumentum of long, white hairs. Pitchers are cylindrical and mostly white to yellow in colouration.

The specific epithet chaniana honours Datuk Chan Chew Lun, who, as Managing Director of Natural History Publications (Borneo), facilitated the publication of several important works on Nepenthes (including Pitcher-Plants of Borneo, Nepenthes of Borneo, and Nepenthes of Sumatra and Peninsular Malaysia).

Botanical history
Cultivated plants of this species were for a long time misidentified as N. pilosa. While N. pilosa is endemic to Kalimantan, N. chaniana is native to Sabah and Sarawak (Bukit Batu Lawi and other mountains). The pitchers of N. pilosa are rounder and broader in shape than those of N. chaniana.

The type specimen of N. chaniana was collected by Charles Clarke on Mount Alab, the highest peak in Crocker Range National Park.

In his 1997 monograph, Nepenthes of Borneo, botanist Charles Clarke noted that several authors had noticed discrepancies between the type material of N. pilosa and plants identified as this species in the field:

"[T]he illustration of the type of N. pilosa in Danser (1928) does not correspond very well with plants identified as N. pilosa in East Malaysia (J. Schlauer, pers. comm.). M. Jebb (pers. comm.) also notes that the upper pitcher on the type is unusual [...]"

Despite this, Matthew Jebb and Martin Cheek did not distinguish the East Malaysian plants from N. pilosa in their monograph published the same year. Similarly, in Pitcher-Plants of Borneo (1996), Anthea Phillipps and Anthony Lamb treated plants from Mount Alab, Crocker Range, as N. pilosa, following the interpretation of J. R. Turnbull and A. T. Middleton in an unpublished mimeograph report from 1981.

Although he treated plants from East Malaysia as N. pilosa in his 1997 monograph, Charles Clarke doubted their conspecificity. He visited the type locality of N. pilosa in 2004, making the first collection of this species since 1899. In July 2006, Clarke revisited wild populations of N. pilosa on Bukit Batu Lesung to confirm its status as a distinct species. Later that year he, together with Ch'ien Lee and Stewart McPherson, published the formal description of N. chaniana. This revised circumscription means that N. pilosa is endemic to Kalimantan, while N. chaniana is native to Sabah and Sarawak. As such, virtually all plants in cultivation up to that time under the name N. pilosa actually represented N. chaniana.

Description
Nepenthes chaniana is a climbing plant growing to a height of 8 m.



Leaves are coriaceous and petiolate. The lamina (leaf blade) is oblong to elliptic in form and reaches up to 30 cm in length by 10 cm in width. The shape of the laminar apex is highly variable: it may be obtuse to truncate and sometimes even acuminate. The laminar base may be obtuse or attenuate, and narrows to form a petiole. This petiole measures up to 8 cm in length and is often winged, although it may be canaliculate, particularly in younger specimens. The sides of the petiole closely surround the stem, forming a sheath. Juvenile plants exhibit a distinctive leaf morphology, whereby the lamina broadens quickly as it emerges from the narrow petiole and is abruptly truncate at the other end, with an emarginate apex. This often gives the laminae of younger plants a cordate appearance. Tendrils are typically quite short, particularly those bearing aerial pitchers.

Nepenthes chaniana quickly transitions from a rosette to a climbing vine and therefore only produces lower pitchers for a brief time. These terrestrial traps may infundibular, ovate or cylindrical in their basal half, and exhibit variable swelling. The pitcher cup becomes slightly narrower around its midpoint, continuing as a cylindrical or gently infundibular tube up to the pitcher orifice. They reach 15 cm in height by 4 cm in width, although most are considerably smaller. A pair of wings up to 8 mm wide is present on the ventral surface of the pitcher cup. They are sparsely lined with fringe elements up to 7 mm long. The cylindrical peristome is up to 4 mm wide, being roughly uniform in width throughout its length. It bears very small ribs up to 0.3 mm high, spaced up to 0.3 mm apart. The two lobes of the peristome under the lid are separated by a gap of up to 3 mm. The lid or operculum is orbicular to elliptic and measures up to 4 cm in length by 4 cm in width. The lower surface of the lid bears a well developed hook-shaped appendage up to 1 cm long at its base. An unbranched spur is inserted close to the lid–pitcher junction. It is up to 3 mm long, but usually much shorter.

Upper pitchers are much larger than their terrestrial counterparts, reaching up to 30 cm in height by 7 cm in width. They are narrowly infundibular in the basal half, becoming broadly infundibular above, especially directly below the pitcher orifice. Aerial traps are characterised by their laterally appressed walls, which are particularly pronounced in older specimens. The flattened peristome may be up to 1 cm in width and bears similarly small ribs to those in lower pitchers; they are up to 0.3 mm high and spaced up to 0.3 mm apart. The peristome may be pinched at the front, forming a triangular projection and giving the mouth a cordate shape.

A dense indumentum of soft, white to golden hairs is present on all vegetative parts. These hairs measure up to 7 mm in length, the longest being found on the tendrils; they are noticeably reduced, in both size and density, on the upper laminar surface.

Natural hybrids

 * ? N. albomarginata &times; N. chaniana
 * N. chaniana &times; N. veitchii

Plants identified by Charles Clarke as a hybrid between N. chaniana (known as N. pilosa at the time) and N. lowii are now thought to represent N. fusca &times; N. lowii.