Mangosteen

Mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana L.) is described by some to be the most delicious tropical fruit in the world. Although I'm not sure that I agree with this description (see Fresh Fruit), mangosteen is certainly one of the most interesting fruits from an ethnobotanical or reproductive biology perspective. Botanically, the species is dioecious with separate male and female trees. A male mangosteen tree, however, has never been found and female trees produce fruits asexually through the process of apomixis. There are many possible scenarios to explain how this may have happened, but female trees that produce an indescribably delicious fruit coupled with marginally useful male trees, the appearance of a mutant apomictic gene, and thousands of years of careful selection by local villagers seems like a plausible explanation to me. [NOTE: The image shows mangosteens for sale in the main market of Kuching, Sarawak].

Aurelio y Luz

Elysa and I were given a pair of cobalt-winged parakeets (Brotogeris cyanoptera) as a wedding present and they stayed in/flew around our house the whole time we were in the Peruvian Amazon (see Jenaro Herrera). The male was named "Aurelio", the female "Luz". I could never tell them apart. [NOTE: Zooming in on Elysa's watch, I see that we were up playing with the parakeets at 11:00 PM on a Sunday evening]. 

Herbarium Specimens (from the Archive)

Some of my work involves collecting herbarium specimens. The specimen, ideally, will have leaves, flowers, and fruits, and all of these plant parts need to be carefully pressed and dried so that they can be mounted on an herbarium sheet. Big fruits sometimes need to be sliced up to press and dry.   The top image shows the fruits of Rhigospira quadrangularis, or "yahuar huayo", being sawed into slices at the IIAP field station outside of Jenaro Herrera in Peru (see Jenaro Herrera). The fruit slices and leaves will be folded into newspapers and dried in the plant drier shown glowing in the background.

The bottom image shows one of the herbarium sheets made from the Rhigospira collection.  This specimen is in the herbarium of the Chicago Field Museum; duplicates of the same collection are deposited in the IIAP herbarium and NYBG. [NOTES: That's my wife sawing through the Rhigospira fruits (thx, Elysa).  Close inspection of the herbarium label suggests that I had mis-identified the species and that it was later corrected by A. Leeuwenberg.  And yes, the glowing plant drier did eventually catch on fire.  Originally posted on December 4, 2008].

Fresh Fruit

These guys have just returned from their tembawang (see Tembawang) with a load of durian fruits (see Where'd all those durian trees come from?).  I'm a big fan of durian, and these are about as fresh and good as they get.

Field Assistant

This nice fellow, a Dayak from the Sanggau district of West Kalimantan, helped me with some forest inventories in the early 1990's.  He was great in the field. He knew his trees, picked up the inventory methodology very fast, and always had a big smile on his face.  He worked with us for about 10 days.  Never said a word. [NOTE: The tree in the background with the hacked-up trunk is Dipterocarpus (see Damar)].