Nepenthes ramispina is a great species because of its dark brown to nearly black pitchers. The inside of the pitcher is a cream color which offsets the dark brown exterior nicely. There's a picture in Gordon Cheers' book "Carnivorous Plants of the World" that refers to the same plant as Nepenthes gracillima. I don't know if N. gracillima and N. ramispina are two truly different species or two plants that are the same with two different names. I do grow N. gracillima and I've read that indeed they are two different species. I know that Charles Clarke has a species profile of N. gracillima in his book Nepenthes of Sumatra and describes it as different from N. ramispina. They do look different from each other so I'm guessing they are recognized as separate species. The one most commonly on the market is N. ramispina. I originally grew it under shade cloth until it got too big for that area. Since then I've moved it to a hanging pot in full sun. I've found that once Nepenthes get used to outdoor conditions under some shade cloth, they can definitely take more sun as time goes on. As with this plant, once they outgrow their 4" green pots and get potted up to a 6" pot, I display them as hanging plants in full sun without any problems. Now that this plant is vining and climbing all over the place, I've noticed the upper pitchers aren't as dark black. They tend to green up a bit. N. ramispina is an easy plant to maintain and a good moderate grower. I'd consider this plant a "step up" plant to growing outdoors after trying some of the easier species first. Because of its unique pitcher color, this is another must have plant for the Nepenthes enthusiast.

Cultivation: easy;  good moderate grower for a highlander
Market availability: size 3; fairly common
Species variability: none that I'm aware of other than locality differences
$ / size: moderate $25.00 and up
Cuttings: available at times 
Sex: male