Nepenthes sumatrana was first collected by Johannes Elias Teijsmann in February 1856, near the port town of Sibolga.

[3][note a] Teijsmann wrote the following account of his discovery:[3][4] Among the plants collected to-day and the day before yesterday [February 3rd and 1st], there were 4 species of Nepenthes (katoepat baroek, tjalong baroek, or taau-taau),[note b] growing here on the very coast between the scrub in a thin layer of humus, under which pure sea sand, or against steep rocks and the coast, when there was only some earth or moss for the germination.

[2] In his monograph of 1908, "Nepenthaceae", John Muirhead Macfarlane placed N. sumatrana in synonymy with N. treubiana,[9] a species native to New Guinea.

[4] In 1986, N. sumatrana was again recognised as a distinct species by Rusjdi Tamin and Mitsuru Hotta, who noted significant differences between it and N.

[10] Matthew Jebb also treated N. sumatrana separately in his 1991 monograph, "An account of Nepenthes in New Guinea",[11] as did Joachim Nerz and Andreas Wistuba in 1994, when they described the closely related N.

[7] Despite the numerous taxonomic revisions, it appears that none of these authors (with the exception of Clarke) saw living plants of N. sumatrana.

The first person to knowingly observe N. sumatrana in the wild since Teijsmann's original collection is thought to have been Ch'ien Lee, in 1998.

Specimens collected near Sawahlunto and named Nepenthes spinosa by Tamin and Hotta[note c] appear to be conspecific with N. sumatrana, although trips to the area in 1995[15] and 2001 failed to locate any plants.

[7] Nepenthes sumatrana grows terrestrially in dense, undisturbed lowland forest on sandstone substrates.

Moist, shady conditions appear to be vital to the survival of the species, as it has not been recorded from areas that have been cleared due to logging or agricultural activities.

These requirements might explain the fragmented nature of its distribution and suggest that N. sumatrana is more seriously threatened with extinction than previously thought.

Seedlings of N. sumatrana have been recorded from open cliff faces, but it is uncertain whether these survive to maturity, as larger plants are only known from the forests, where their stems can use surrounding objects for support and climb into the canopy.

[7] In 2001, based on first hand observations of wild populations, Charles Clarke informally reclassified N. sumatrana as Critically Endangered according to the IUCN criteria.

In comparison, the threat of over-collection is relatively small, since many plants grow on very steep slopes which are virtually inaccessible.

Taxonomic confusion concerning N. sumatrana and closely related species such as N. beccariana and N. longifolia makes the implementation of new conservation projects all but unfeasible.

In 2001, Charles Clarke published a cladistic analysis of the Nepenthes species of Sumatra and Peninsular Malaysia based on 70 morphological characteristics of each taxon.