Sago

Woman in Gulf Province of Papua New Guinea carving out the pith from the trunk of a sago palm to extract the starch.  The starch is mixed with water to form a paste or baked into biscuits. [NOTE: Neither form has much flavor, at least to my taste buds]. 

Dion edule

A large cycad, Dion edule, growing near Jalcomulco in the state of Veracruz, Mexico.  I conducted a series of long-term ecological studies on this species in the mid-1980's with Andrew Vovides from the Instituto de Ecologia in Jalapa. We monitored the growth and reproduction of marked individuals for several years and discovered some fascinating facts about this primitive plant.

We found out, for example, that some of the individuals on our study site were more than 2,500 years old, and that Dion edule is the oldest living plant in Mexico. Given their great age and small stature, we also estimated that these are some of the slowest growing plants in the world. A more detailed description of the Dion edule study can be found here. [NOTE: Soon after we published our findings, Dion edule was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the slowest growing plant in the world. I couldn't find a link to the Guinness book, but the species is listed in several other places (e.g. here) with this distinction. 

Ladang

A Dayak farmer in West Kalimantan closely watching the fire clear his upland rice field or ladang. The nutrient-rich ash from the burn will allow him to produce a good crop of rice for two or three years.  Weeds and low-yields will later force him to abandon rice cultivation and start managing a variety of useful tree species in the forest re-growth.     

Honey

The fisherman at Danau Sentarum (see Danau Sentarum and Bubu Weaver) collect honey produced by Apis dorsata, the giant honey bee.  These bees are almost an inch long and have an excruciating sting.  I went honey hunting with a group of fisherman in the early 1990's.  We motored over in our boat to the hive and two collectors scaled the tree.  They both carried smoking torches to subdue the bees so they wouldn't get stung (so much). They alternated rubbing the smoking torch over the hive and hacking at it with their parangs to free it from the branch.

I was calmly sitting in the boat taking in the whole process, when all of a sudden the entire hive fell into the boat. Bees and all. Needless to say, everybody jumped in the lake, much to the amusement of the two collectors up the tree. I was later told, "they always do that".  [NOTE: The photo was taken during the dry season when the lake is low and all the house are floating several meters up in the air.  Those are my purple high tops shown at the lower left].

Driver Needs a Drink of Water

One of the elephant handlers stops on the outskirts of Namyun to get a drink of water before heading down the Ledo Road with our bags (see Hukuang Valley Rattan Survey, Shopping for Supplies, A Bridge to Far, and Myanmar 2005). [NOTE: Watch for the geese walking across the road in front of the elephants].