[6] The specific epithet mikei honours Mike Hopkins, who co-discovered the species with the describing authors.

[2] On this trip, the team also found two other undescribed Nepenthes taxa on the mountain: N. ovata and a plant they named N. xiphioides.

The male inflorescences were about 20 centimeters, peduncle inclusive.Prior to its description, N. mikei was known as N. minutissima among pitcher plant growers.

[2] Nepenthes mikei was formally described by Bruce Salmon and Ricky Maulder in a 1995 issue of the Carnivorous Plant Newsletter.

[6][10] It was prepared on February 17, 1995, from a plant cultivated in New Zealand,[4] and consists of a vine bearing a female inflorescence, a lower pitcher, and a rosette.

[2] The specimen was originally collected in 1989[4] from a "very steep ridge in wet mossy forest" near the summit of Mount Pangulubao, at an altitude of 2000 m.[2] The authors described the plant as growing "in peaty humus or moss at the base of 5–6 m tall trees".

[note b] In 1997, Matthew Jebb and Martin Cheek published their monograph "A skeletal revision of Nepenthes (Nepenthaceae)",[3] in which they provided an emended description of N. mikei that encompassed specimens of the closely related, and at the time undescribed, N. angasanensis from Mount Leuser, Goh Lembuh, and the Kappi region.

[6] Salmon and Maulder did not support this interpretation and reinstated their original description of N. mikei when they described N. angasanensis in 1999.

[6] Nepenthes mikei is noted for rapidly transitioning from a rosette to a climbing stage; sequential internodal lengths of 2–3 mm and 10 cm have been recorded.

Its apex may be acute or obtuse and it is abruptly contracted at the base, clasping the stem for around half of its circumference.

[2] The waxy zone is well developed[12] and eye spots may occasionally be present on the rear inner surface, visible through the opening.

An indumentum of short, white or yellowish hairs is usually present on the tendrils and some parts of the inflorescence.

[6][7][13] The typical habitat of this species is summit scrub vegetation as well as lower and upper montane mossy forest.

[6][7] It always grows terrestrially, often in open sites such as ridge tops and cliff sides, where it is exposed to direct sunlight.

[6] The species is rare in blangs, where the lack of surrounding vegetation means the stems scramble along the ground.

[6] Nepenthes mikei may be difficult to find on Mount Pangulubao,[14] where it is sympatric with N. gymnamphora (N. xiphioides), N. ovata, and N. spectabilis.

[1] This agrees with an informal assessment made by Charles Clarke in 2001, who also classified the species as Vulnerable based on the IUCN criteria.

However, Clarke noted that since substantial populations of N. mikei lie within protected areas, they "are unlikely to become threatened in the foreseeable future".

[6] Nepenthes angasanensis also typically produces longer stems, with regular offshoots from the leaf axils,[6] although these have been observed in N. mikei as well.

[7] In 2001, Charles Clarke performed a cladistic analysis of the Nepenthes species of Sumatra and Peninsular Malaysia using 70 morphological characteristics of each taxon.

[6] N. gracilis N. reinwardtiana N. tobaica N. angasanensis N. mikei Clarke concluded that the "relationships between [these species] are very complex and are somewhat difficult to interpret at present".