kadakuda Posted February 7, 2011 Was able to find most plants on my want to find list. Totally bombed on durian though. lots of trees, but no fruits i was wanting to bring home some seeds. no such luck. lots of otehr fruit though. Some pics of a few of the many places we were. Brugmansia sp. from the mountain areas. need to go through many 1000's of pics yet, but later will post some real thick brug trees. Entada speceis. spent a full day cluimbing up trees to look for critters and try and get some seed pods. couldnt get many as they are often a good 50-100 feet up tehre and i was starting to get a little nervouse reaching out on limbs for pods that high up. but some of the bases of these vies were over 3 feet thick....simply amazing to see! a small pod, some were triple this length Kratom plants and their habitat...i never knew they actually grew IN *deep* water during wet season....craziness. seeing is believing. one of many wild gingers and one of the highlights of our trip, Rafflesia pricei lucky to find this guy. also some buds and 2 dead flowers this trip. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MORG Posted February 7, 2011 Awesome! That Rafflesia is incredible. That would have been an exciting find. Did you get out into the rainforests yourself, or were you accompanied by a guide? Learn anything interesting about local ethnobotanical practices? Is the kratom M. speciosa? Did you bioassay? Keep the photos coming Thanks for sharing. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tripsis Posted February 7, 2011 Amazing finds kada, there's some great diversity there. I love Borneo, definitely one of my favourite places. I only ever got to see Rafflesia pricei flowers past their prime. Stunning photos of it! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
planthelper Posted February 8, 2011 nice to see the kratom in it's natural habitat, cool pic's, thx for showing us, kada! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
krazykungfu Posted February 8, 2011 Sweet photo's! I haven't moved from the PC....I've been drooling over those Kratom pics all morning Did you end up asking anyone where they were? Or were you just cruisin' the river and next thing you know... "sh!t - there's some Kratom!"? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kadakuda Posted February 8, 2011 Borneo is awesome. but one thing i find with both malaysian borneo and peninsular malaysia is they have totally fucking raped their country....after our backpacking trip 2 years ago in penn. malaysia we stopped buying palm oil. man its sad to really see just how much is gone....i mean GONE. north america, europe, amazon i dont think comes close. Ya those are "good" kratom plants lol. we did go on tours (i was traveling with my wife who is not that into bushwhacking) and i asked one guy there about kratom and he said it was poisonous and can get you high. We were just playing around going down smaller tributaries and my wife said "hey that looks like that plant you have at the farm" so i look and was on cloud 9 the rest of the day. after she pointed it out we saw it everywhere. i was too focused on trying to spot crocodiles. back at camp i cleaned up some cuttings and tried some leaves. definitely the real thing. I didnt ask anyone where to find them as i was told its illegal there, and malaysia is pretty fricken strict with drugs so i did not want to risk it. i was pretty anxious at teh airport...my entire back pack was probably 50% plant material lol. and on the way back home the malaysian side had 2 extra bag scanners than normal...sketchy, sweaty tourist for sure. MORG, ya we rented a car the entire time and went around ourselves. though we did do 2 tours (i had to or my wife wouldnt of come to borneo lol, i honestly HATE doing tour guides stuff...but gotta compromise. i admit to seeing stuff we wouldnt have without them) i did a lot of solo hiking, only day trips and night trips. its was really rainy, so didnt take a lot of pics as i would have normally. but i tried. we found all sorts of awesome plants, but not too many "ethnos" as we expect around here. 2 entada seeds sprouted in my backpack on the way home...i ahve been trying for a couple years to grow those store bought massage seeds without luck, and these seeds took 2 days lol. fresh helps. they are actually sort of soft and leathery. I am going through more pics, might get more up today, or tomorrow. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tripsis Posted February 8, 2011 Yeah, I too will not buy any products with palm oil in them. It's truly devastating to see how the forests have been razed to the ground for the palm monocultures. I haven't been to (Malaysian) Borneo for almost 5 years now, it didn't strike me as too bad back then. I guess they're following in Indonesia's footsteps then? I had hoped they would have had better management... Can't believe you took the risk of bring cuttings back though the airport! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
planthelper Posted February 8, 2011 and my wife said "hey that looks like that plant you have at the farm" so i look and was on cloud 9 the rest of the day. after she pointed it out we saw it everywhere. man, thats an awesome story, as i guess that your wife is, probably not as much into ethno plants and how to ID them. one time, in south america my ex yelled out, "i think i found some old ceramics" and i just replied, "probably just modern bricks or sherds", but they all turned out to be ancient sculptured ceramics. i just like it if, the wife finds the treasure, the man went out to hunt, hehehe. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
krazykungfu Posted February 9, 2011 Palm Oil: Off the top of my head Malaysia and Indonesia are pretty close when it come's to the amount of palm oil supplied by each to world markets, with Indonesia just on top - I haven't seen the plantations in Indonesia despite having gone there a number of times (but there's over 13 000 islands so no wonder!), but as soon as you fly into Malaysia the plantations smack you in the face! Pretty crappy... Keep those pics comin'! or just get your wife to do it if she's that skilled at IDing :)ha ha Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mauve Posted February 9, 2011 Thank you for the pics, Kada ! I love seeing mature kratom trees, now i don't fear overwatering Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kadakuda Posted February 9, 2011 krazy, that is a FANTASTIC video. at he end with the lone tree....if you guys are thinking that is just some exaggerated greenpeace hippy bull shit, its not. it is really like that there. i mean they have logged SO much there, its beyond comprehension. I am from BC canada and i though we logged a lot, but man do these guys give a whole new meanign to the words clear cut. so sad. I haven't been to (Malaysian) Borneo for almost 5 years now, it didn't strike me as too bad back then. I guess they're following in Indonesia's footsteps then? I had hoped they would have had better management... Many of the areas are planted with large trees, far older than 5 years. Maybe you were jsut around the mountains, where they grow less palm oil. Can't believe you took the risk of bring cuttings back though the airport! If no one took risks, we wouldnt be so far ahead man, thats an awesome story, as i guess that your wife is, probably not as much into ethno plants and how to ID them.one time, in south america my ex yelled out, "i think i found some old ceramics" and i just replied, "probably just modern bricks or sherds", but they all turned out to be ancient sculptured ceramics. i just like it if, the wife finds the treasure, the man went out to hunt, hehehe. You said it. she isnt into it much at all, but she enjoys spending time with me looking for plants as long as its not too uncomfortable. i LOVE reptiles/amphibians/bugs etc too. htose were my first love, and damn near every single time she finds the first frog, snake lizards etc and i am on my knees all the time searching out so carefully. she walks by, hey you see that viper? funny how these things play out eh? Keep those pics comin'! or just get your wife to do it if she's that skilled at IDing :)ha ha here are some more non-ethno pics. if there is one thing i am better at than my wife, aside from drinking, its dealing with computers. at least i have that.... here are some pics on the Kinabatangan River, a huge river with massive diversity and is *now* protected. its all been stripped already, but at least no more can be stripped. but the issue is the native lands can still be stripped. so this super "impressive" job the malaysian gov has done protecting this (now bare) river. There are lots of tourist there to see wildlife. they do have great chances to see wildlife. because behind that 10-30 meter buffer zone they didnt log to the rivers edge, that is the *only* forest left for the animals to live. so you get this ultra concentration of wildlife right by the rivers edge for us white people to go clicky at. as much as i hate it, tourism is a better option for natives with land than clearing for more palm oil. lesser of 2 evils. the real borneo. a local guy taking palm seedlings to the land he is wrecking.... this pic may look pretty. but you see that lone tree back there, teh entire area should be liek that and higher. in a good forest, you wont see the mountain behind.... Palm oil in penninsular malaysia its not jsut palm oil. banana plantations are also HUGE in the above area. rubber, vegetable/fruit, tea etc etc...all take their toll. I am not against agriculture as a whole, that is my job so that would be rather hypocritical. but i am against senseless clearing and monoculture. smart farming can use a fraction of the land nad have the same output...in the case of malaysia its jsut cheaper to whack down the tres, hire some indonesians to work teh land and keep on cruisinbg on harvesting whatever you plant in massive quantities and have worked for almost no labour costs.....not to sound racist, but the damn chinese business folks had a big hand in this, as did them bloudy brits lol! Palm oil at least can support some biodiversity. a number of plants live on teh stems which have many crevices. i ahev found tons of small animals around and some big ones like birds, monkeys snakes, and lizards (including large water monitors) tea estates at Cameron Hihglands (very agricultural area) in penn. malaysia this is what virgin forest looks like in malaysia (these pics are in penninsular, i saw NO virgin foreest in borneo , next trip). An Entada sp. vine im sitting on. the tree is probably a good 3 meters diameter. each leaf on this ferm is about 9 feet long and 2 feet wide....biggest i have found ever. i am 6'4 adn i stood only about halfway up that rock. Strangler figs before inner tree dies: After inner tree dies Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
