KAMBATIK re-visited online 2020

Pholidocarpus sumatranus, Botanic Island Two.

One of the thrills of blogging is to find your plant pictures taken up by authoritative bodies and placed them in their online encyclopedia. One such picture is the Pholidocarpus sumatranus palm that grows naturally in my park in Bintulu. I have only three stands of this rare palm growing healthy.
You can checkout more description on the palm by following this link...>>>https://www.palmpedia.net/wiki/Pholidocarpus_sumatranus                               

Pholidocarpus sumatranus, Botanic Island One.

In Plain Sight - Provinsi Yellow Palm (Part 8)

A large specimen of the Yellow Palm (Dypsis lutescens)
Syn : Chrysalidocarpus lutescens
Note the clustering habit.  New canes are produced from base of the clump as older ones mature.

Golden stems and leaf stalks
View looking north

 The plain area at Zone B which is mostly wet and marshy is dedicated to a collection of Yellow Palm (Dypsis lutescens) . The Yellow Palm is also commonly referred to as Golden Cane Palm or Butterfly Palm.  It is a clustering feather palm with its crown shaft bright yellow in colour.  One feature that is attractive of the palm is its slender leaf stalk.  Both the stalk and leaves will give an even richer golden colouration when planted in sunny places.  I have successfully propagated them by seeds though germination may take sometime.

View looking south

View looking south

View looking south
Location : Provinsi Yellow Palm, Zone B.

More views of the Provinsi Carpentaria

View looking east

View looking north

 This plain area, called Provinsi Carpentaria sounds international.  'Provinsi' comes from the Indonesia word to mean province.  Carpentaria is a place in Australia where at its bay are to be found many Carpentaria palms.  At the inset is seen healthy growing Carpentaria palms.  This palm is the main palm species planted at this provinsi. Other palm species planted in this location is the Coconut palm which are planted along the stream.   The Carpentaria palms are planted in boulevard-style planting.  The whole plain areas at the park is turned into a big palm collection.  To see other tropical palms suitable for the Kambatik garden, check them out in my blog here ...>>>http://alltheplants3.blogspot.com/search/label/Palm

View looking south-west
Note the healthy growing Carpentaria palm at left of picture.

View looking east

The Coconut Palm

The coconut palm at center of picture and the oil palm in the background are solitary feather palms.
Location : Zone C

 I have attempted to grow coconuts along the stream and plain areas.  The Coconut palm is the most well-known tropical palm throughout the world. It's green young nuts produce refreshing drink.  The apical bud or palm heart can be eaten raw or prepared into many types of dishes.  For that matter the palm heart is also referred to as palm cabbage.  Before the advent of oil palm its dried kernels (copra) can produce oil for cooking.  There are many other amazing ways all parts of the coconut tree are of economic importance for those able to grow them, especially people staying in tropical climates.  Seafarers helped distribute it among the many islands in the Pacific and Indian ocean, including the Malay archipelago group of islands.  They found that the nuts were an excellent source of food in their travels since the self-contained nut does not leak, dry out or become tainted with salt water.  Nowadays superior varieties of coconuts are planted for their larger fruits, more yield,  more juice, different leaf colours, dwarf habit, and fragrance of the meat and water.

Young coconut palms recently planted along the stream
Location : Zone  F

In Plain Sight - Provinsi Lakka (Part 2)

View of Provinsi Lakka, looking south
In the foreground is the Pong-Pong tree
Location : Zone F

Apple-like fruits of the Pong-Pong

 Provinsi Lakka is located at Zone F.  So far there are three clumps of the Sealing-wax palm planted at the area.  It is interesting to note that from two of the clumps I have obtained many plantlets by just removing or separating them from the mother tree.  Two varieties of the Sealing-wax palm are available on site.  One has deep orange leaf sheath while the other is in bright red.  There are other side attractions at the Provinsi Lakka.  A Pong-Pong tree nearby is attractive for its daily flowers and fruits that look like apples.  Other flowering shrubs and herbs planted includes the hibiscus, heliconias, scented pandanus (Pandanus amaryllifolius), variegated Bunga Cina (Gardenia jasminoides) etc.

Many names are given to this attractive palm e.g. Lipstick Palm, Pinang Raja, Sealing-wax palm
Botanic name : Cyrtostachys renda
Syn: Cyrtostachys lakka

 The Sealing-wax palm is a very attractive ornamental tree that should be used more generously in our Malaysian garden or Laman Kambatik.  More Sealing-wax palm will be added to the Provinsi Lakka gradually.

A variegated form of the Gardenia jasminoides

Bunga Raya (Malay) - national flower of Malaysia - Hibiscus rosa-sinensis

Uprooting a beauty

Trench the surrounding and dig out the  base of the clump into a root ball

Close up of Sandak or chisel

 How do you uproot a beautiful palm and find home for it elsewhere, successfully?  At the park it done by simple manual method of trenching and  making the base of the palm like a ball.  By this method the root system is intact and the clump can be transplanted to its new home.  The main tool is the 'sandak' or chisel used for cutting the base of oil palm branches.  When the root ball is free it is a little effort to wedge it out of the trench.  The Sealing Wax Palm has been previously known as Cyrtostachys lakka but now it is called  Cyrtostachys renda.  It is native to Borneo, thus Sarawak, thus Bintulu.  The one that I removed today will be made as instant planting material for the Provinsi Lakka.  Today I saved RM 500, being the price of the palm this size at the current market value.

At this height , the palm will fetch RM 500 at any local nursery in Bintulu.

In Plain Sight - Provinsi Carpentaria (Part 1)

View of Provinsi Carpentaria - looking north
Location : Zone F

The Kambatik parkland has many interesting  geograpahical features.   A stream runs through the park for approximately half a kilometer distance.  The highest point of the stream is at the eastern part of the park and is approximately 150 feet above sea level.  From there the stream meanders towards the lowest point of the park located to the west in a 60 feet gradual drop.  The stream is surrounded on all sides by hills, spurs, rolling slopes and valleys.  However at its immediate surrounds i.e. on the banks of the stream are to be found many low-lying or flat areas which in geographical term I call 'plain'.  In developing the park I was very concerned from the beginning about retaining the natural direction and  flow of the stream.  By doing so I hoped to have many fallback positions especially in combating torrential rain and flash floods that are a natural phenomena at the park, restricted to limited hours as a result of heavy downpour.  There are eight of these plain areas and are named according to the specific palm species that are prevalent in the landscape.  Starting from the source of the stream, the  plain areas are fondly referred to as Provinsi ( Malay for province); thus Provinsi Pinang, Provinsi Yellow Palm, Provinsi Manila, Provinsi Carpentaria, Provinsi Lakka, Provinsi Borneo (Buah Nyiur - origin of the word Borneo, pronounced in Malay), Provinsi Lady Palm and Provinsi Rattan.  In this post I show the Provinsi Carpentaria with its iconic Carpentaria Palm.

View of Provinsi Carpentaria, looking north
Location : Zone F

Carpentaria acuminata - Carpentaria palm
Location : Provinsi Carpentaria, Zone F

 The above picture shows a line of the Carpentaria palms planted nearby the stream. Below is a picture that shows the stream in dry weather, thus the water level is low.  Carpentaria palms originate from Australia and are native to the Carpentaria Bay there.

Provinsi Carpentaria, view looking south.

Plain areas are important landscape features because they afford our eyes rest when scanning the natural landscape of hills and valleys. They provide optimum flat areas for leisure and recreational activities.  Finally they are significant for wildlife as scavenging and foraging grounds for birds, butterflies and dragonflies.  Birds especially need its 'free' flight space to dash around the park quickly and without much obstruction.

Highlights today at the park (14 May)

Traveller's Palm - Ravenala madagascarensis
Location : Zone C

 The Traveller's Palm is not exactly a palm.  It belongs to the Banana family (Musaceae).  It has a unique name which indicates that it originated  from Madagascar. In this post I have included a picture of the Areaca catechu palm which is presently bearing fruits.  Palms have two main shapes, fan-like or feather-like.  Thus the Pinang tree (Areca catechu) is feather-like while the Traveller's Palm is fan-like.  The Pinang is a popular garden tree in all Malay kampungs in Sarawak.  They outlived people who first planted them and as such these trees can grow very tall and in many old pictures of Sarawak's towns and villages we can see them over-topping villages and other trees in the kampungs or rural landscapes. Today I bumped into a dragonfly which variety I have not seen below.  Checkout the pictures at the inset and below.....

CU of a dragonfly....
Zone G

Pinang - Areca catechu
Zone G

The betel-nut palm

The 'Pinang' tree rises above all the other fruit trees and oil palm trees
Location : Zone F

Areca catechu - in flowers and fruits

 Easily one of the tallest trees in the park is the 'Pinang' tree (Areca catechu) or sometimes called the betel-nut palm. The tree is planted for the fruits which have nut-like seeds.  In many cultures throughout the world (India, China and South-east Asia) betel nut chewing is a favourite pastime and such act is associated with many ceremonial functions in these countries. Below is the fruit cut in cross-section and in vertical section to show the nut clearly.  It is the nut that is chewed with leaves of the Piper betel (Sirih in Malay) and other ingredients that are popularly consumed among the elder folks nowadays in Sarawak especially the Malays and other native races here.

The endosperm which is the nut removed of its fibrous covering (as shown at bottom left in the above picture) is sliced and combined with the leaves of Piper betel ( Sirih in Malay) together with lime and other ingredients and made into a wad for chewing.  The nut is said to be strongly astringent and contains up to 25% of catehol tannins which provides some protection against tooth decay when the nut grounds down the teeth.

The inflorescence begins to develop inside the leaf sheath and grows fully once the leaf sheath is shed (seen above the group of fruits above). The inflorescence are sometimes used in ceremonial functions in Sarawak.  Ripe fruits become yellowish to orange in colour and unripe ones are green.