Into the woods

Burning the road for three hours or so up north eventually lead us to a green heaven, albeit a steamy one.

As soon we stepped out of the cosy automobile into this sauna of a place, we were greeted by a welcome party ....

... a troop of dusky leaf monkey (Trachypithecus obscurus). These are obligate herbivores and most of them have a pot belly as digesting the leaves is a slow inefficient process and hence they tend to over eat. I consider them to be the most adorable monkey in Malaysia due to their peaceful nature and impish looking face.

This particular fearless young guy caught my eyes as it fed nonchalantly on the young leaves just above me.

Fallen while still so glorious, like Kim Jonghyun or James Dean before him perhaps ..... the spent bloom of an Syzgium.

The stilt roots of a tall Dillenia (possibly D. reticulata), showed that this area is seasonally flooded, especially during the year end monsoon.

We were stopped short by a singular tree with a population of these sap-sucking red-nosed lantern flies (Fulgoridae ).

From another angle they look even more ridiculous -  the function of the red-tipped horns remained elusive.

Amydrium medium is a climbing aroid with nice juvenile foliage that turns rather nondescript as it matures.

The rare small palm Licuala kiahii resides in this neck of the woods. East and West Malaysia has the highest diversity of Licuala in the world although to casual observers they look rather similar.


Pinanga disticha is a common palm in this area - it has beautiful mottled foliage. This has great horticultural value and is not difficult to grow in a sheltered location indoor.

 The very interesting Phyllanthus griffithii which is endemic in West Malaysia.

  The distinctive flower and fruits of a Sterculia....

... usually these are giant trees growing in more open area but this small species appear to prefer shade.

 A couple of the so called corpse flower follows - the common Amorphophallus paenifolius which is fruiting ....

....and the much rarer Amorphophallus bufo - which I have yet to see flower despite encountering them many times.

 ....and finally, what a glorious spot to wash our smelly dirty feet .....

"There's no wifi in the woods but you will find a better connection" ....hmmm I am not sure .... we were just trespassing this dark realm, like rolling stones really.....too keen to get back to our comfort zone, too impatient to sync with nature's channel....

Polygala venenosa

This is a giant and more horticultural interesting member of this large cosmopolitan genus with a common name of milkwort. In Malaysia, members of this genus are mostly inconspicuous small ground herbs  ....

but this species is up about 2 metre tall and bears many pendant inflorescence with few flowers opening only at the tip. As the flower drops, the bract elongate and show signs of scars where the pedicels were attached. The flowers, each about 2 cm long, change hue from white, yellow to purple as they mature. 

As you can see, the inflorescence can be quite long, up to 30cm although usually shorter.

It is supposedly a montane plant but I found this population in Pahang lowland. Its distribution extend north to Thailand and south to Borneo and Java. Many Polygala species are used in folk medicine but as its latin name suggests, this species is said to be toxic, and can cause nausea and giddiness just by touching (as per Philibert Commerçon,  a renown medical doctor / botanist in 1700s and the collector of the type specimen in Java). More recently however, M.R. Henderson mentioned in "Malayan Wild Flowers" that local population was not known to be poisonous, and having handled the plants myself, I can attest to that.  

Spring fever

The sedated winter ferments and foments a coup d'etat in the biological world that unleash upon the North East USA once the ice melts and air warms. The drumbeat of spring plays like speed-metal - hormone-charged new shoots ooze from the ground and bare branches in tempo of 200 beats per minute.


The fertile stems of the primitive Equisetum punch purposefully into the warm air, looking as they had looked for the past hundred million years.....in fact, looking more like rattler's tails rather than the common name, Horsetails....

....the toxic bridal veil of Amianthium muscaetoxicum, adventurous ruminants had been known to be rewarded with supreme enlightenment no less than rigor mortis....

.... the alluring guise of Trillium erectus belies a noxius smell due to its penchance for flies and its tendency to cut your tongue with tiny calcium oxalate crystals.

Elsewhere .....

.... Jack-in-the pulpit unpacks an uplifting sermon ....

.... Mountain Laurel summons an unrestrained cheer ....

....a trail of pink slippers were left by some maiden ....

.... to bait and ensnare a prince or emir ....

One of the many victims of this uprising, my little romp in the wild resulted in excessive inhalation of the pollen laden air....and a wretched paranasal sinusitis which lasted til' late summer.

How can something so good feel so bad ?

ps: Accordingly to some taxonomists, there should be only one species of the variable Arisaema triphyllum although completely green forms were also sighted. The encounter of the Cyrpripedium acaule occured in Virginia and was highlight of the trip. And thanks to the good people of defunct UBC forum for identifying the horsetail, which I had initially thought was a fungus, ha ; and Beth from Firefly forest for id-ing the Fly Poison.

Small insignificant herbs beside the gurgling cascade along the slope of a granite mountain.

Halfway up a granite mountain, we stopped by a nice little cascade to cool our feet. For 3 hours we had walked without seeing another soul, which was rather erie since this path was obviously quite well trodden before. We later found out from nearby residents that the place was actually cordoned off by authorities due to activities from gangsters and drug takers. We had actually bashed through a part of the forest that had bypassed the notices.

Some rheophytes and herbs were growing at the edge of the stream. This one is a Sonerila begonifolia aff, a fern-like Selaginella and Argostemma growing on wet rocks.

Nice red hairs on the Sonerila.


This rheophyte is a Pipthospatha ridleyii, an aroid that sometimes find its way into the aquarium trade by accident, although it is not a true aquatic plant and is unlikely to do well fully submerged for long. Young leaves have nice variegated leaves but the variegation diminish as the plant grows.

See also Rock garden and Bucephalandra in Borneo

NetWork Pepper

Young leaf of an unknown creeping Piper from Borneo. There are many nicely patterned Piper from the forests around this region (for example this Piper porphoryphyllum) but they are generally not easy to grow. This rather succulent creeper is also quite a slow grower.

If you can ID this, please let me know.

A forest pepper

This is the jungle version of our table pepper - Piper porphoryphyllum aff, is a humidity loving plant quite often seen in the Malaysian forest. It may be seen creeping along the undergrowth until it finds a good support from which it continue its growh upwards as shown. It is not an easy plant to grow in a normal garden although it is very ornamental. It will quickly succumb to even short periods of low humidity.

Bat Lily

Beside a small forest stream, stained dark brown by logging up stream, a solitary Tacca integrfolia (Bat Lily) quietly bloomed.

The family Taccaceae is a small family of about 10 monocots from SE Asia and Africa. Recently, taxonomists lump the group together with the true yam family Dioscoreaceae.

This plant is available commercially as a kind of curio. Its not easy to grow at home since it likes dark damp habitat. Its cousin, T. chantrieri appears to be more accomodating and sets seeds easily too - in fact it self pollinates without external help.

The Blue Family

Blue Friday. Stock market indexes drop like stone, Singapore's economy in recession and closer to home, retrenchment looms.

Head for the garden ....

While blue colouration in flowers is a relatively rare occurence in the natural world, the plant family Commelinaceae is credited with producing a good many species with varying hues and intensities of blue flowers, like the blue ginger (Dichorisandra thyrsiflora), Trandescantias and the common weed Commelina communis, which has a most intensely blue bloom.

Perhaps commercial breeders seekinng for the blue rose should take a closer look at this family. Right now, it appears they are spicing genes from pansies, and the result is not exactly blue, ha !

While visiting my friend's massive garden, I spied upon this Cochliostema jacobianum, a giant in this family of mostly smallish plants. This is an epiphyte from the New World that grows like a Bromeliad, trapping nutrients between its stacked leaves. The flowers are more purplish though, but cluster is comparatively big. The whole plant is about 3 feet in diameter and in the wild, it can be so heavy it frequently caused the branches on which it sits to snap and tumble to the forest floor. Fortunately, it seems equally adapted to terrestrial life.

A Curious parasite - Aeginetia indica

Beside a swampy trail just under the shade of tall lallang, we found this interesting holoparasite which grow on roots of grasses (Cyperales and Graminales). This relative of the broomrape is found throghout East Asia.