Loving the emergents

Botanic Island One

Botanic Island One

 I love the emergents.  For in the rainforest ecology of the park,  these super tall  trees rise above the landscape with a respectful 20 - 40 meters  high from the humid and leaves-littered forest floor below.  These are the forest wonders that delight me in my daily walks, their majesty proclaiming their age, rising above the competition and giving the iconic canopy and structure of the lowland dipterocarp forest.  These trees are retained as part of the agro-forestry practice of the nature park.  They are the answers that I worked hard on for many years now i.e. to re-live the green landscape of the village where I was born.  I am blessed daily to watch them grow,  close enough to walk below them, touch them and feel the ameliorating air below them. Trees are basic to any landscape, the taller the more original is the landscape.  This is so because we are living in the tropical rainforest zone on Borneo Island which contains one of the oldest and richest ecological diversity gems on this planet.  Life is really worth living with them as neighbours,

Zone D

Zone C

A jungle treelet with atttractive pale yellow flowers

Flowering jungle treelet
Location : Botanic island Two

 There are four botanic islands at the park.  These islands are areas where the original lowland dipterocarp forest characteristics and habitat are preserved. Occasionally I would venture carefully  into them in order  to discover new plants, animals, fungi, birds or any form of wildlife.  This morning has been a successful search.  I bumped into a treelet which was having pale yellow flowers.  It was a magical moment  in a jungle preserved here.  The location was at Botanic Island Two.  Below is shown the flowers in closer range.    

Close-up of the flowers.
Identity of the treelet is presently unknown.
Location : Botanic Island Two

The beauty of forest trees

Jungle tree in full flower in May

 This lovely forest tree is located at Botanic Island Two.  I have been observing it for the last two months.  In May it started to produce beautiful yellow flowers.  The flowers were intact for about a month.  For the last two weeks I observed that it has produced fruits that are in a leaf-like form (see inset)  Today a gust of strong wind blew plenty of the fruits down to the forest floor.  Imagine if the  tree is close to a river or stream.  The fruit with its seed encased in the leaf-like pod will float down river and thus aid in its propagation.

Jungle tree in full flower in May

Fruiting in red in June

CU of leaf-like red ruits

Today  - majestic colours of red and orange...
The orange flowers belong to a bauhinia species.
Location : Botanic Island Two