Early days of March

View of Zone I, northwards from Zone D.
Note the Hill Myna at the lower branch, left of tree.

Zoom in view of 'Tiong' (Hill Myna) 

 The early days of March have seen a return to the 'normal' climate of Bintulu which is rain at night and most days sunny.  There is thus plenty of time to do birding.  The very tall and huge jungle tree at Zone I which has been standing proudly was the arena of loud calls from the Tiong bird (Hill Myna).  Walking around the park is a daily routine to observe as many wildlife, plant life and scenery.  The Jambu Air tree ( Syzgium aqueum) is starting to bear more and bigger  fruits. The preservation of original jungle habitat as in the form of botanic islands have ensured the survival of stick insects of various types and sizes.

Early morning view

Jambu Air (Syzgium aqueum) - Zone B

Miding at Zone A.

Stick insect at Botanic Island Two

Botanic Island One with 'Draceana kambatika' at foreground

Black birds are back for black berries.

 The black birds are back again.  They are coming in big flocks.  They make the park sounds busy and noisy.  These birds belong to the Philippines Glossy Starling species. At present they come here to enjoy the delicious berries of the Eugenia oleina trees.  Since these trees are planted at every corner of the park, the excitement is seen everywhere.  These birds flock to the branches that are laden with the black berries and then they might take a rest at nearby perches.  They arrival are most welcomed here.

A 20 kg Jackfruit, compliments from the park.

 It's a hefty fruit.  Weighing 20 kg and fully ripe.  Today I harvested the tree fruit known locally as 'Nangka'.  It is very succulent and possesses a very distinctive aroma.
It's a good way to start the new year eating fresh fruits to your heart's content.
Knowing that it is free for the eating makes you feel a lot happier.
Compliments from the park.
Below are close-ups of the delicious fruit.

Ripe to eat

The lantern-like covering that hides the soft berry inside turn yellowish when fully ripe.
Location : Butterfly Garden, Zone C

The fruits of the Letup-Letup are now just ripe to eat.  The fruits are contained in a lantern-like structure that is in reality an enlarged calyx.  The fruits are soft yellowish berries when fully ripe and rounded and taste just like tomatoes.  I like to eat them freshly plucked or can also be served as dessert or in mixed  salad.  The fruits are called 'Letup' because once pressed in a clapping motion between our palms the lantern-like structure breaks and produces a popping 'top-top' sounds, thus the name Letup in Malay.

The Letup-Letup ( Lesser Bladder Cherry) - Physalis minima belongs to the Tomatao family ( Solanaceae)

Just nice for dessert

Letup-Letup or Lesser Bladder Cherry (Physalis minima)

Lesser Bladder Cherry or "Letup-Letup" (Malay)
Physalis minima
Family : Solanaceae - Tomato family

Fruit and flower

 There are plenty of 'Letup-Letup" fruits now at the Butterfly Garden area.   The more well-known variety is called the 'Chinese lantern', the variety we have here is the 'Lesser Bladder Cherry' which is the lesser Chinese lantern.
It is a short-lived herb bearing edible berries which are yellowish when ripe.  These berries taste like tomatoes and are hidden inside the inflated calyx resembling a delicate Chinese lantern.
This plant could be planted as part of edible landscaping or Sara landskap (Malay) in the Malaysian garden
I have done a photo rendart (i.e. photo rendered digitally artistic) below on this plant.

Photo rendart by MOOD, June'16.

Wild and beautiful Rambutan

The Rambutan fruit

This tree is about 70 years old but is standing tall, next to the stream at Zone F.  The Rambutan tree belongs to an age-old variety.  It isn't a hybrid. Its high stature is shared with the Balem tree nearby and both claiming to be one of the earliest species planted by predecessors  on this little green spot of our tiny blue planet.   It is precisely on this matter that  I have deep respect for both trees for their "will" to survive.  When I see it producing an abundance of fruits this year, the best in its fruiting history so far, I feel blessed to have its presence in the park. Talk about the taste - well, this is an age-old species or wild species as you might call it, and it tastes sweet and sour.  More sweet when it is very ripe than sour.  So there you have it, a wild species that still thrive  the vagaries of nature, wild and strong, wild and healthy, wild and productive, wild and beautiful.

Note the size and height of the Rambutan tree trunk.
Location : Zone F

Just google "Ong Lumok"

 The Ong Lumok is my kind of fruit.  It is pulpy sweet.  Very sweet indeed that I can finish three big fruits in one session.  I have written a fair bit on this fruit and to prove it just google "Ong Lumok" and you'll see most of the pictures and write-up on this fruit online  is from the Kambatik Park.  It is a seasonal fruit, known by Malays as "Terap" but the Bintulu Melanaus call it "Ong Lumok" or fruit of the Lumok tree.  "Ong" in Bintulu Melanau means fruit.  The Ong Lumok is a basic tree that is well-integrated into the agro-forestry practice at Kambatik Park.  The reason is obvious.  The fruits are edible to humans and wildlife and their seasonal fruiting makes the park an added attraction to all sorts of wildlife, birds, insects, butterflies and a myriad variety of flies.  Count the Ong Lumok as one fruit you must taste before you die!!  Long live the Ong Lumok.

Ong Lumok (Bintulu Melanau) - Terap (Malay)
Artocarpus odoratissimus
Location: Zone C

A fruity harvest

The Jering fruits

 What is living without fruits?  What is life without plants?  Don't think about it, you'll die!  So to feel alive we decided to bring along the bamboo pole and see what's there to be collected.  This morning the weather was fine, a good day for plucking fruits.  However, the seasonal fruits are becoming less and very soon their season will be over.  The remaining fruits collected this morning were the Ong Lumok, Cempedak, Jering and Rambutan.  Bintulu is blessed with many unique tropical fruits.  Checkout the many fruits of Sarawak or Bintulu for that matter in my other blog here ....>>>>http://mysarawak2.blogspot.com/p/unique-fruits.html

Can you recognize the fruits? ... Discover which is Jering, Rambutan, Cempedak and Lumok

Plucking the Ong Lumok and in-flight serving

Bamboo pole with fork used to snap the soft fruit stalk

Ong Lumok - the brownish one is over-ripe

 We were collecting Ong Lumok ( Artocarpus odoratissimus) fruits this morning.  The Ong Lumok tree is tall with broad maple-like leaves.  The fruits look like canon balls and out of the ancient world.  Its sweet pulpy fruits are one of my favourite seasonal fruits.  The season of the Ong Lumok is almost over now but there are still fruits hanging on the tree for the plucking.  To reach them I used a long bamboo pole with a fork at the tip.  A firm twist will do as the fruit stalk is soft.  Once detached from the main branch bring the pole slowly down so as not to drop the fruit.  If dropped the fruit can easily be smashed into pieces.  The Ong Lumok fruit attracts plenty of wildlife e.g. squirrels, tree lizards, birds etc.. However today was time for in-flight serving.  The  Yellow -vented Bulbul hoovered close to the very ripe fruit to enjoy the pulpy flesh ...Check out the pictures below....

Sweet and delicious.  Best eaten immediately after plucking...Oh, tropical paradise!

Yellow-vented Bulbul enjoying in-flight serving

Every day fruiting at the park

Clean cut leaf base for harvesting purpose

The thicker the yellow flesh the more
oil yield is obtained in better hybrids.

 The oil palm tree bears and produces fruits on everyday basis for the next 25 years, which is the economic life of the palm. When harvesting the oil palm fruit bunch, the thick and broad leaf base below it needs to be clean cut.  The bunch of fruits is held by a soft fruit stalk which is easily cut by a sharp curved pruner even at great heights.  Today many varieties of oil palm fruits are produced to obtain more oil yield for the manufacture of cooking oil.   Besides the oil from the yellow flesh (mesocarp), the center of the the fruit which contains the pure white embryo or kernel is also the source of kernel oil.  The seed's protective covering (endocarp) needs to be crushed at the factories to collect the kernel oil.  The remains of the waste endocarps can be used as road metalling.

Oil palm fruits are ovoid and are basally angled due to close packing.  The fruits are coloured variously yellow or orange and overlain with deep violet or black in exposed parts.

Ong Lumok fruit

Unripe fruits of 'Terap' (Malay) - Artocarpus odoratissimus

 The Ong Lumok trees (Artocarpus odoratissimus )  at the park are showing promise.  They are bearing fruits.  In Malay it is called 'Terap'.  It is a unique fruit found mainly on Borneo island.  "Ong" in Bintulu Melanau means fruit, thus the Lumok fruit.  There are a handful of very old Lumok trees at the park, planted more than 50 years ago and still bearing fruits.  The picture above shows unripe fruits from a tree grown just about 5 years ago.  In about a month's time the fruits will be ripe for the taking.

Ong Lumok tree at the foreground
Location : Zone F

70 years old Cempedak tree fruiting

Location: Cempedak Hill, Zone G

Cempedak ( Artocarpus integer)

 It is a huge tree and has been planted here before I was born.  The 'Cempedak' tree (Artocarpus integer) is fruiting extremely well.  It belongs to the same family of the more well-known Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis), Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) and Terap (Artocarpus odoratissimus).  The fruits of Artocarpus range from the size of a tennis ball to a punching bag.  They have latex in the bark, leaves and other living tissues.

Note how the fruits are borne on the main tree trunk and branches rather than end of branchlets as in the Breadfruit and Terap.

The Rambutans are ripening

Rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum)

 There are many exotic tree species in the park and some are fruit trees.  The 'Rambutan' tree that stands at about 50 feet tall has been here for at least 60 years.  It is fruiting right now and is part of the group of fruit trees that bear fruits seasonally towards the year end.  The Rambutans ripens in December till January.  Since this is an original tree (not a cultivar) the fruits tastes slightly sweet sour.  Rambutans are nowadays eaten fresh besides being canned or prepared as a cocktail. Ripe fruits attract all kinds of wildlife especially squirrels, birds and various insects.

View of park - Zone E is at foreground and Zone F at background

Hanging bunches of ripe Rambutans

The Chempedak fruit

Artocarpus is a significant genus of edible fruits in Sarawak - Artocarpus integer or 'Chempedak' in Malay is consumed in many ways..e.g. fritters, seeds are boiled to make porridge or smoked as in 'Likeng'

 This year the Chempedak trees are not fuiting profusely but there again a dozen of these trees at the farm collectively ensures many fruits to share and giveaway.  The big trees at the park have been planted before I was born that is more than 60 years ago.  However those original exotic trees have been preserved for posterity though I managed to add more trees over the years.  The Chempedak is easily mistaken for the Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus)  which is obviously much larger in size. In another blog  I have written a fair bit about the fruit especially the art of smoking it....checkout the story here ..

The original Chempedak trees planted more than 60 years ago are still standing and growing....as seen towering above the oil palm trees or Sawit in Malay.
Oil palm trees are an added crop, well-integrated into the existing landscape and agro-forestry practices at the eco-farm..

Like most trees of the fig family (Moraceae), the Chempedak has white latex to its bark, leaves and skin of the fruit.