The useful 'Nibong' palm ( Oncosperma tigillarium)

Seen in the middle is a young 'Nibong' palm  (Ocosperma tigillarium)
Location : Zone C

 At the eastern edge of Zone C is a forested area that has big and very tall trees, secondary jungle trees, thickets of ferns and other small shrubs,  At the edge close to the Kruak wetlands (between Zone B and Zone C)  two Nibong trees grow unimpeded.  I have observed them for about three years now and am planning to remove one or two of its off shoots after checking the presence of many a few days ago.  I intend to use more of this palm for landscape use.  One of my pictures on the Nibong palm which is planted in the landscpae area around the  Petronas Twin Towers  in Kuala Lumpur was selected in the image gallery of the online Palm Encycolpedia.  
I have written a fair bit about the uses of the Nibong palm in another blog as in this link...>> http://myussop.blogspot.my/2009/10/nibong-palm-and-its-uses.html

The Nibong palm ( at centre of picture, seen between the big tree trunk at left and the oil palm tree at right) grows here naturally.
Zone C

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.

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

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.