Tolagyi Tour of Tanai

On our first afternoon in Tanai, we took a tolagyi out to some patches of forest on the outskirts of town (see January 12, 2005 post in Myanmar 2005).  Great way to see the countryside, but kind of bumpy.

Snack Food of the Gods

Macambo (Theobroma bicolor) is one of the lesser-known members of the genus Theobroma which includes chocolate (T. cacao) and cupuaçu (T. grandiflorum).  The Latin name of the genus means "food of the Gods". I'm sure that Linneaus had chocolate in mind when he named this taxonomic group.

The seeds of mocambo are skewered, roasted, lightly salted and sold as a snack food in the Peruvian Amazon. Truly one of the most delicious nuts I've ever tasted. Hard to imagine anything that goes better with an ice cold Pilsen Callao. [NOTE: The roasted mocambo seeds shown above were being offered for sale on a side street in Iquitos, Peru. I bought several sticks.]

Corpse Flower

Rafflesia is a unique genus of flowering plants. The members of this group are parasitic and have no stems, leaves, or true roots.  Many of them are pollinated by carrion flies and, to attract these insects, their flowers smell strongly of rotting meat. The common name for the plant, "corpse flower", describes the floral odor quite well.  Finally, some species of Rafflesia (e.g. Rafflesia arnoldii) are renown for producing the largest single flower in the world, the corolla obtaining a diameter of over a meter. 

My study site at the Raya-Pasi Nature Reserve in West Kalimantan (see Illipe Nut III) contained a healthy population of Rafflesia tuan-mudae.  The young flower buds, which would pop-up unpredictably in the forest, were the size of croquet balls. The image above shows a new flower next to an older blossom which has started to decompose. [NOTE: The vines growing on the tree in the background are Tetrastigma (VITACEAE), the obligate host for Rafflesia].

Black Pepper

Black pepper is made from the dried, unripe berries of the tropical vine, Piper nigrum.  It is, in terms of monetary value, the most widely traded spice in the world.

The green berries are boiled and then set out to dry. Over time, the pulp and seed coat start to wrinkle and darken and the berry turns into a peppercorn.  The photo shows bulk pepper for sale in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  

I like pepper as much as anybody else, but the commercial production of this spice is kind of a mess ecologically.  Forest clearing, herbicides to keep the weeds down, lots of erosion. Something to think about the next time you're asked if you "want a little fresh cracked pepper on your salad". [NOTE: The new pepper plantation shown above is from the Sambas district of West Kalimantan].

Uvilla

Uvilla (Pouoruma cecropiaefolia) is one of my favorite Amazonian fruits. The fruits look like huge purple grapes and the tree is spindly with sparse branches and large palmate leaves.  The whole concept of this species is something that Dr. Seuss might have come up with.

The best part about uvilla is that the fruits are really sweet and fun to eat. [NOTE: The girls are from a little village on the Ucayali River in the Peruvian Amazon.  They happily shared their uvilla with me].

Snow Day

Zen Master Baoche of Mt. Mayu was fanning himself. A monk approached and said, "Master, the nature of the wind is permanent and there is no place it does not reach. Why, then, do you fan yourself?"

"Although you understand that the nature of the wind is permanent," Baoche replied, "you do not understand the meaning of its reaching everywhere."

"What is the meaning of its reaching everywhere?" asked the monk again.  The master just kept fanning himself. The monk bowed deeply.

Eihei Dogen
Genjo Koan
Treasury of the True Dharma Eye (Shobogenzo)
1233 C.E.

Pitcher Plants

Bornean heath forests are a tough place to grow.  The Iban word for this type of forest, kerangas, sums up  the problem quite well: "land that cannot grow rice".  Nutrients (especially Nitrogen) are scarce in the acidic, sandy soils on which these forest grow and plants have to be creative to survive here.  Pitcher plants (Nepenthes sp.), for example, live largely off the edaphic grid and get their nutrients by trapping, drowning, and slowly digesting small insects. Some of the larger species of Nepenthes may occasionally trap small vertebrates such as rats and lizards. Whatever it takes...

How to Make Dendrometer Bands

Silvia Purata and I made this video (in Spanish) for foresters in the Selva Maya (see Selva Maya III and Selva Maya Interrupted) to show them how to make dendrometer bands for measuring tree growth.  The bands provide a very precise estimate of radial increment. When they are properly fitted, you can actually see the tree swell after a rain storm. [NOTE: The video was filmed in the Parque Zoológico of Chetumal in Quintana Roo and edited in a local hotel room using Final Cut Express and my Powerbook. Silvia did the voice-overs].

Regeneration Surveys

Once you know how many seeds a tree produces, it's worth the effort to find out what happens to them.  How many germinate?  How many are eaten? How many germinate and are then smashed by a falling branch? And where is the safest place for a seed to land?  Under the parent tree where there is a lot of competition or  dispersed away from the parent? All of these questions are directed toward developing a better understanding of how a particular species maintains itself in the forest.

Regeneration surveys provide the data to answer these questions.  In this picture, Umberto Pacaya is counting Spondias mombin fruits in marked plots positioned at varying distances from the parent tree.  Main findings: a lot of the fruit are eaten, a great number of them float away with the rising floodwater, many young seeedlings get smashed, uprooted, or defoliated, you can count the number of seedlings/hectare that get established each year on one hand. [NOTE: Ecological studies of Spondias mombin where conducted in a tract of varzea forest along the Ucayali River in Peru in collaboration with IIAP; Umberto loved using the click counter].

Yield Studies

Knowing how much fruit a tree produces can be a very useful piece of information.  It can give you some idea of how much fruit you can expect to harvest (and sell) from the forest, and it can provide insight into how many fruits you need to leave in the forest so that the tree will continue to regenerate itself. Yield studies can also be used to estimate rates of pollination, fruit set, fruit predation, and a host of other demographic parameters.  Good estimates of fruit production provide the basis for sustainable forest use.  

Unfortunately, we know very little about fruit production by tropical trees, even for valuable species like Brazil nut, mahogany, or rubber. Goes a long way in explaining the currently dismal situation with a lot of wild-harvested tropical forest resources.  The image above shows sample traps in position under a large Spondias mombin ("uvos") tree in Peru to quantify fruit production.  The fruits fall into the traps, the traps represent a certain percentage of the crown area of the tree, you count the former and multiply it by the latter to estimate total fruit yield.  Really not that hard to collect these data, and yet they are so rare. If you want to know the size-specific rate of fruit production for natural populations of Spondias in the Peruvian Amazon, click here. [NOTE: That's José Tuanama shown in the foreground; Umberto (see Umberto Pacaya) is visible in the background to the left. Elysa conducted the yield study of Spondias as part of her M.S. thesis].