Borneo Palms in Habitat

[MikeL]

Just like in Bako, there are huge stands of Eugeissona insignis in Kubah. Here’s a hillside in the park just studded with these huge palms.

[MikeL]

A baby Licaula bidentata is just one of many jewels in the forest understory. Hey, I told you the Kubah rainforest was beautiful.

[MikeL]

More pictures to follow...

[User00]

we are waiting 

[doranakandawatta]

I am glad I visited Travel Logs posts, this thread could be more visible in the main forum, Discussing….

Thanks

 

[PALM MOD]

5 minutes ago, doranakandawatta said:

I am glad I visited Travel Logs posts, this thread could be more visible in the main forum, Discussing….

Thanks

 

As a friendly reminder - IMO PalmTalk is much better viewed/read by clicking on the "Unread Content" link in the upper right of the page. This way you will always be directed to the new posts since your last visit, and never miss anything of interest outside of the main Palm Forum.

[doranakandawatta]

1 minute ago, PALM MOD said:

As a friendly reminder - IMO PalmTalk is much better viewed/read by clicking on the "Unread Content" link in the upper right of the page. This way you will always be directed to the new posts since your last visit, and never miss anything of interest outside of the main Palm Forum.

Thank you for guiding me in the forum, good to know.

Anyway I enjoy all places here! 

[Patricia-CR]

Mike, those pics are making my days!

[Palmaceae]

Great photos of some great palms! I really like the Oncosperma's.

[MikeL]

Thanks for the comments and compliments. Sorry about being such a slow poster.

 

One reason I posted in this forum is that I actually do want to present more of a travelogue especially since we only spent a minority of our time in Borneo looking for palms. Borneo is the third biggest island in the world with fascinating cultures and spectacular wildlife including elephants, rhinos and, of course, orangutans. I’d like to slip in a few photos of those other non-palm aspects of the island.

[MikeL]

Most of Malaysian Borneo’s national parks offer some kind of overnight accommodation of one type or another. Kubah had these huge chalets built from the hardwood trees that used to cover much of the island. Our chalet was divided into four separate apartments with a common living area and kitchen but we were the only tenants. It looks pretty romantic but, from what I could tell, the water supply was simply piped in from the local streams. I thought it was a good idea to use a water filter. An even better idea was to get Mary to filter the water.

[MikeL]

I wasn’t familiar with the botanical term “petiolule” before traveling to Borneo. The photo here gives a visual definition of that term; specifically, the middle segment of this Licuala leaf has one humdinger of a petiolule. (I looked it up and humdinger is the correct scientific term. Here it means that the stalk of the center leaflet is very long.) I believe this is L. petiolulata.

[MikeL]

Here is another shot of L. petiolulata in the Kubah rainforest. If you look really closely at the full leaf just left of center you can see a long petiolule on the center segment, i.e., on the segment that seems almost like an extension of the petiole.

[MikeL]

Another Licuala from Kubah. Sorry I don’t know the species of this one. I’m even more ignorant of the plant in the second picture. It looks palm-like, but I really don’t know what it is. I just took the shot 'cause I thought it was pretty. Any guesses about it are welcome.

[MikeL]

Now for some gratuitous palm beauty – ripening fruit on Iguanura palmuncula var. palmuncula. I have some confidence in the identity of this palm since it was growing in the park’s palmetum and had a label right next to it. (I find that labels are some of the best features to look for when trying to identify a palm.) Yes, the park has a small palmetum with several uncommon species in it.

[MikeL]

Let’s wrap up this visit to Kubah with some miscellaneous shots of its lovely rainforest.

[MikeL]

Next stop: Lambir Hills.

[MikeL]

Lambir Hills National Park is located in northern Sarawak, close to Brunei and too far from Kuching to be included in the biennial activities. However, the park is on the itinerary of the pre-tour and I’m looking forward to a return visit. While not as spectacular as Bako, it is pretty and has plenty of palms.

[MikeL]

My favorite palm in Lambir Hills was the achingly beautiful Pinanga species, P.  mirabilis. This particular specimen was almost as tall as I am, and was one of the few palms I saw anywhere in Borneo with a full complement of (nearly) ripe seeds. P. mirabilis is a protected species in Sarawak, but I think it might have been abundant in the park.

[MikeL]

Kubah is famous for its diversity of palm species, but I think that Lambir Hills must be one of the palmiest places I’ve ever been. Just look at the density of palms in this shot. I think those palms with bifid paddle leaves might be more examples of Pinanga mirabilis.

[MikeL]

This Areca species had me stumped for the longest time but both Jeff Marcus and Philip Arrowsmith think it’s Areca insignis var. insignis. According to one of Dransfield’s papers, a distinctive feature of this species is the way the leaflets extend at almost right angles from the leaf rachis.

[MikeL]

Here’s a another Areca insignis var. insignis. This one was pretty robust - over three meters tall - and as you can see in the photo, it was surrounded by smaller palms. I seem to remember that at the time I thought that the main plant was clumping a bit from its base.

[MikeL]

According to Dransfield’s key, A. insignis var. insignis has interfoliar inflorescence while the inflorescence of A. insignis var. moorei is infrafoliar. You can see in this shot that the inflorescence of these trees in Lambir Hills is interfoliar.

[MikeL]

More shots from Lambir Hills coming up soon.

[steve99]

 Great pics Mike.   Gotta love the D800!

 

 

 

 

[MikeL]

Thanks, Steve. It didn't take very long to realize that there were some good uses for the 36 megapixels in the D800.

[MikeL]

Earlier in this thread I posted some shots of Eugeissona insignis with its massive, spiny leaves. A much smaller Eugeissona, E. minor, stalks the understory of the forest at Lambir Hills. These palms only reach a maximum of three to four meters, with a good chunk of that made up of stilt roots. Some park literature referred to these fancifully as “walking palms.” They didn’t seem to be in any hurry to get anywhere while I was there.

[MikeL]

One more picture of Eugeissona minor – a close-up of its unlovable trunk.

[MikeL]

Lambir Hills is home to a very impressive palm: Borassodendron borneense. Unfortunately, I couldn’t seem to get a good picture of one in habitat. I only saw a couple of mature B. borneense in the forest and nearly every one I saw, young or old, was smothered in other foliage. The two pictures here are of the same large tree; the fruit shown in the bottom shot are the size of grapefruit.

[MikeL]

Here are a couple of other young Borassodendron borneense in the Lambir Hills forest. These guys were just babies, which gives you some idea of how big they’ll get. The only clear view I got of these trees were of the ones planted in the parking area. I wish I’d been smart enough to take a picture of one of those.

[MikeL]

As I mentioned earlier, Lambir Hills is neither dramatic or spectacular. But there is an extensive trail system, some pretty waterfalls, and lots and lots of palms. You can even seem palms alongside the trail Mary is walking down in the second shot.

[User00]

great photos, thanks for updates 

[MikeL]

You see a lot of Licualas in Lambir Hills. I don’t know which species this is but it might be L. valida. The only reason I think it might be L. valida is because it’s pretty big.

[MikeL]

Here are some pictures of the large Licuala species at Lambir Hills – large enough to allow me to walk under its leaves and shoot upwards. An interesting feature of some of these specimens is the way the leaf segments stay connected at the tips creating narrow windows in the leaves. LG Saw, in his revision of Licuala in Borneo, mentions that he noticed similar windows in  L. valida in Sabah, Borneo.

[MikeL]

Oncosperma horridum is not terribly common in Lambir Hills but is easy to see since it’s tall enough to emerge from the forest canopy in places. I was fortunate to get close enough to the tree in the second picture to get a good look at its trunk and inflorescence.

[MikeL]

Some miscellaneous shots to close out this visit to Lambir Hils. First, Licuala bidentata. Look closely and you'll see its inflorescence in bloom. Second, Arenga undulatafolia. This species occurs throughout Borneo; I have more pictures of it to come. Finally, a third picture of some non-palm prettiness.

[MikeL]

Next, into the heart of Borneo.

[User00]

im waiting for the pics of heart of Borneo 

[jardinierpalmiertrat]

very beautiful, 3 weeks ago i was to bornéo, but i stay only in Kuching. i wait your post. i hope in 2 years go back in bornéo for visiting the hearth and north of bornéo. All place in Sarawak are amazing

[Kim]

Oh, best travel thread in a long time!  Spectacular photography, informative commentary, and so topical for the June trip! So much to look forward to! Sarawak will be a fantastic trip.