[5] However, in their 1996 monograph, Pitcher-Plants of Borneo, the authors treated it as a species in the process of being described, referring to it as "Nepenthes murudensis Culham ined.".

[2] At the time of its description, botanists were divided on whether N. murudensis should be considered a species, although the consensus view held that it was of hybridogenic origin.

[13] This latter specimen was collected as part of the eighth botanical expedition to Mount Murud since Eric Mjöberg's first ascent in 1922.

One example of this appears in the article "Nepenthes of Gunung Murud", authored by John De Witte and published in a 1996 issue of the Carnivorous Plant Newsletter,[14] where an upper pitcher of N. murudensis is identified as N. tentaculata.

[4] Most parts of the plant are virtually glabrous, although a short, dense indumentum of velvety brown hairs is present on the stem, inflorescences, and lamina midribs.

[17] The typical habitat of this species consists of stunted montane scrub and ridge vegetation, which rarely exceeds 1.5 m in height.

[4] Nepenthes murudensis has no known natural hybrids,[4][17] although N. hurrelliana, N. lowii, N. muluensis and N. tentaculata also occur on the mountain.

[3] In 1996, John De Witte reported observing N. reinwardtiana on Mount Murud,[14][18] but other authors have failed to find it on the mountain.

[1] Previous assessments, including that by Charles Clarke in 1997, classified the species as Endangered based on the IUCN criteria.

[4][5][12] Botanist Clive A. Stace writes that one may speak of "stabilised hybrids when they have developed a distributional, morphological or genetic set of characters which is no longer strictly related to that of its parents, [...] if the hybrid has become an independent, recognisable, self-producing unit, it is de facto a separate species".

[20] This would tend to support the status of N. murudensis as a species, since populations of this taxon appear to be stabilised[8] as well as highly homogeneous,[9] and it is one of the most abundant Nepenthes on the summit ridge of Mount Murud.

Nepenthes murudensis differs in lacking filiform hairs on the upper surface of the lid, being more robust in all respects, and having a dense indumentum on inflorescences and some vegetative parts.

[2][4][25] However, a number of populations of N. tentaculata from northern Sarawak produce pitchers exceeding 20 cm in height and these may be very similar in appearance to N.

[26] Nepenthes murudensis can be distinguished from its other suspected parent species, N. reinwardtiana, on the basis of lacking "eye spots" on the inside surface of its pitchers and having distinctive leaf bases that completely clasp the stem.