Hi Ram
I haven’t heard of any other clipeata sites being found, that doesn’t mean that there hasn’t been one found though. I do know that Chien Lee (the dude that rediscovered campanulata in west Borneo, when I wasted months going feral in east Borneo where it was originally discovered) gave it a shot and didn’t find it. Charles Clarke and I think even Andreas Wistuba have also had a good look at similar sites and lucked out. Clipeata was known to grow on Gunung Kelam which is a big granite rock, sticking out of a flat plain. There are other, similar rocks in the general area however as far as I know, clipeata hasn’t been found on any of them. This was the case with campanulata too. I looked around the general area at other likely sites and assumed it had been wiped out. Lo and behold it is found on the other side of the island!! So who knows?
Emesis
Yes, I understood what you were saying.
With regard to the clipeata problem, and this will also very shortly apply to a few others that I know of too; aristolochiodes now and maybe dubia sometime soon, I don’t see any other alternative to collecting seed, if it’s possible. As an example, the last time I visited the aristolochiodes site there were surely no more than about 10 plants left. Even if no one visited the site again, I believe that this is below the minimum number of plants required to sustain the population. I can’t accept that we should leave these fantastic plants to die out, ultimately because we have overcollected them.
Here’s my scene for a perfect world, which we all know this is far from, but….
Forget, for a minute, the fact that the gov. here in Indo has no money.
The government could set up a tc lab somewhere like at the Bogor Herbarium where there is some serious botanic talent, and interest. Employ someone to go around and collect seed from all the Indonesian species and create a “bank” of tc’d plants. These could be available for export sale as tubed plants. As well as making the plants ubiquitous and therefore unlikely to be wiped out, it would reduce demand for wild collected, employ a few people and generate some much needed revenue. This would be in addition to setting up proper national park boundaries to stop gardening encroaching into forests, employing more staff to police the parks, etc ,etc. Last but DEFINITELY not least, it would also include EDUCATING the local people, which is no mean feat. Without this, you would be pushing the proverbial sh*t uphill trying to achieve anything else.
Now unless some well meaning philanthrope with a penchant for bug-eating plants comes along this is never going to happen in my lifetime. The next best thing is what Malaysia has done. They have recognized that in these days of eco-tourism, their national parks and forests are some of their best assets. They have much better organized national parks. You couldn’t take a plant from Kinabalu if you wanted to. There is no rubbish, the path going up is still attractive and well maintained. In contrast, if you climb Mt Bromo in east Java, they have put CONCRETE steps up the side of the mountain – like something out of “Gone with the Wind”!!
I diverge.
Bottom line:
In my opinion, some of the plants are too far gone to just be left to repopulate on their own. Collecting seed, propagating as many as possible and distributing them as widely as possible seems to be the best way to ensure the plants don’t become extinct. Given the state of this country at present, everything else will have to wait, and until then, whatever plants that are still left need to be looked after and if we aren’t the ones to do it, then I ask you….?
Cheers, fatboy.
WOW what a mouthful!
(Edited by fatboy at 12:45 pm on Nov. 1, 2001)
I haven’t heard of any other clipeata sites being found, that doesn’t mean that there hasn’t been one found though. I do know that Chien Lee (the dude that rediscovered campanulata in west Borneo, when I wasted months going feral in east Borneo where it was originally discovered) gave it a shot and didn’t find it. Charles Clarke and I think even Andreas Wistuba have also had a good look at similar sites and lucked out. Clipeata was known to grow on Gunung Kelam which is a big granite rock, sticking out of a flat plain. There are other, similar rocks in the general area however as far as I know, clipeata hasn’t been found on any of them. This was the case with campanulata too. I looked around the general area at other likely sites and assumed it had been wiped out. Lo and behold it is found on the other side of the island!! So who knows?
Emesis
Yes, I understood what you were saying.
With regard to the clipeata problem, and this will also very shortly apply to a few others that I know of too; aristolochiodes now and maybe dubia sometime soon, I don’t see any other alternative to collecting seed, if it’s possible. As an example, the last time I visited the aristolochiodes site there were surely no more than about 10 plants left. Even if no one visited the site again, I believe that this is below the minimum number of plants required to sustain the population. I can’t accept that we should leave these fantastic plants to die out, ultimately because we have overcollected them.
Here’s my scene for a perfect world, which we all know this is far from, but….
Forget, for a minute, the fact that the gov. here in Indo has no money.
The government could set up a tc lab somewhere like at the Bogor Herbarium where there is some serious botanic talent, and interest. Employ someone to go around and collect seed from all the Indonesian species and create a “bank” of tc’d plants. These could be available for export sale as tubed plants. As well as making the plants ubiquitous and therefore unlikely to be wiped out, it would reduce demand for wild collected, employ a few people and generate some much needed revenue. This would be in addition to setting up proper national park boundaries to stop gardening encroaching into forests, employing more staff to police the parks, etc ,etc. Last but DEFINITELY not least, it would also include EDUCATING the local people, which is no mean feat. Without this, you would be pushing the proverbial sh*t uphill trying to achieve anything else.
Now unless some well meaning philanthrope with a penchant for bug-eating plants comes along this is never going to happen in my lifetime. The next best thing is what Malaysia has done. They have recognized that in these days of eco-tourism, their national parks and forests are some of their best assets. They have much better organized national parks. You couldn’t take a plant from Kinabalu if you wanted to. There is no rubbish, the path going up is still attractive and well maintained. In contrast, if you climb Mt Bromo in east Java, they have put CONCRETE steps up the side of the mountain – like something out of “Gone with the Wind”!!
I diverge.
Bottom line:
In my opinion, some of the plants are too far gone to just be left to repopulate on their own. Collecting seed, propagating as many as possible and distributing them as widely as possible seems to be the best way to ensure the plants don’t become extinct. Given the state of this country at present, everything else will have to wait, and until then, whatever plants that are still left need to be looked after and if we aren’t the ones to do it, then I ask you….?
Cheers, fatboy.
WOW what a mouthful!
(Edited by fatboy at 12:45 pm on Nov. 1, 2001)