Sarawak Palms in Habitat

[elHoagie]

Lindsey and I visited Sarawak for a couple weeks in April. We spent all of our time in National Parks and reserve areas, and we saw a lot of fantastic palms (and amazing animals!). We're still going through all the photos, but I'm going to post the first batch. It was very dark, and very dense in most locations, and so difficult to get "clean" photos of the palms. I have what I think are correct IDs for a large number of the palms we saw, and I know the genera of most of the palms. Some I have no idea... Any help you can provide with IDs would be excellent. I have much higher resolution photos I can send if that would help with an ID...

All of the photos from this first batch were taken in Bako National Park

First up is an unknown Caryota

[elHoagie]

Here is Eugeissona insignis, which was growing everywhere in Bako. These palms are HUGE, with leaves that are at least 10m long. In one photo you can see a bridge on one of the trails to get a sense of scale.

[elHoagie]

We did a lot of hiking, and saw quite a bit of the park. However, we only saw Johannesteijsmannia altifrons growing in one very small section.

[elHoagie]

Here's a nice Licuala that we saw in a few locations within the park. Does anyone know the species?

Jeff Marcus provided a tentative ID of Licuala bidentata for this species.

[elHoagie]

We saw one Livistona species in the park, and we saw very few plants. Anyone know the species?

Correction, thanks to Jeff Marcus this palm has been ID'd as Pholidocarpus majadum.

[elHoagie]

A common palm in Bako is Onconosperma tigillarium, which is beautiful!

[elHoagie]

We saw a few individuals of this one Pinanga species. Any idea on the species?

[elHoagie]

We saw two species of Salacca in Bako, both with red emergent leaves. Here is the less commonly seen of the two - who knows the species?

[elHoagie]

Here's the second species of Salacca. Any idea what it is?

[elHoagie]

Here's a nice palm we saw in the same area as the Joeys, but nowhere else. I have no idea on the genera of this palm... Any ideas?

Thanks to Jeff Marcus, this palm has been ID'd as Pinanga salicifolia. The leaf form on this palm changes quite a bit from juvenile to adult, and explains why I thought this and the palm in the post below were a different species.

[elHoagie]

Here's the final palm we saw in Bako. This was only growing exclusively in an area near the Joeys. This is a very sexy palm. In size and leaf shape it's almost identical to Chamaedorea oblongata, but it has a very colorful trunk and crownshaft. Any idea what it is?

Thanks to Jeff Marcus, this palm has been ID'd as Pinanga salicifolia.

[elHoagie]

That's it for now. I'll post more photos as we sort through them. There are a LOT more palms!

Again, any help you can provide with IDs would be much appreciated.

[Cindy Adair]

As expected, I'm no help on I.D.'s.

However I'm greatly enjoying all your photos and imagining what it would be like to go on such a trip.

It's especially pleasant to visualize the tropics when Spring is eluding us in Virginia. I still need a coat to go outside even mid day.

The Joeys are my favorite photos so far!

[Pedro 65]

Jack and Lindsey,all the Joey altifrons pics are Stunning to say the least and give me "fire in the belly" , glad they can grow well here. I Look fwd very much to more pics from your Sarawak trip. Pete

[Jeff Searle]

Jack,

This brings back lots of memories! I made a trip there many years ago to Bako myself. Solo. I made the same hike and recogonize the Eugeissonia and the little boardwalk that was near the entrance to the walk. I walked the trail and also saw the huge Joeys there and then the trail just stopped, with a small sign that said "end". But can't really help you with the id's. Thanks, I look forward to more pictures.

Jeff

[elHoagie]

Thanks for the replies!

Jeff - The trail now continues on a fair distance. We actually spent 4 days/3 nights in Bako, and so went on most of the trails (some more than once).

Our next stop was the area near Mt. Santubong. This was by far the least palm rich of the locations we visited, but we saw a couple.

The first is this Arenga species. We only saw a couple plants, and I have no idea what it is. I doubt the pictures will allow for an ID...

[elHoagie]

We also saw this Caryota. I think it's probably the same species we saw in Bako...

[elHoagie]

Finally, there was this Onconosperma species. Unlike Bako, where they were heavily clustering, on Santubong they were either solitary or lightly clustering. Maybe this is Onconosperma horridum? I unfortunately don't have any other photos of the Onconosperma in Santubong...

[paulgila]

great pix, dewd!

[elHoagie]

We saw a lot of Nypa fruticans. These are from the Kuching wetlands...

[DoomsDave]

PANT! (gulp)

PANT! (urk . . . )

OMG great pictures. Ran out of the office and screamed obscenities down the elevator shaft . . . .

Collect any seeds?

[dan.vagnoni]

Holy crap...What can you tell us about the growing conditions for the joeys? Soil?

[elHoagie]

Dave - There were very few seeds, I think maybe because it was near the start of the dry season.

Dan - The Joeys were under fairly thick canopy. I don't remember anything special about the soil, almost all of the soil we saw in Sarawak was thick reddish clay.

[elHoagie]

Ok, the next stop was a couple hours up the Delok river from Batang Ai. We spent 6 days in this area doing a lot of hiking looking for Orangutans, and we saw a lot of palms during the hikes. I don't have IDs for many of these palms, so any help would be appreciated.

First up is an unknown Arenga species. We didn't see too many of these. I'm pretty sure it's trunkless, as I don't remember seeing one that was "off the ground", but the leaves are huge (maybe 10 m or 30 ft long).

[elHoagie]

Next up is this unknown Iguanura species. We only saw this palm in one fairly small area on a ridge a couple hundred meters above the valley, but we saw quite a few specimens. The leaves morph back and forth from undivided to divided, although in general the larger palms had mostly divided leaves and the smaller ones had mostly undivided leaves.

[elHoagie]

We saw this fan palm in several locations. It's clumping, and essentially trunkless, reaching a maximum height of maybe 1.5 m (5 feet). I have no idea what this is... Maybe Maxburretia? I'm pretty sure it's not a Licuala....

[elHoagie]

This palm was everywhere. I think it's probably the same Eugeissona insignis that was saw in Bako, but I'm not entirely sure. Our guide was collecting the tips of the aerial roots that hadn't reached the ground yet...

[elHoagie]

We only saw a couple of this palm. I think it's Onconosperma horridum, but I'm not sure...

[elHoagie]

I'm pretty sure this palm is Pinanga auriculata. We only saw it in one particular area, growing close to some streams.

[elHoagie]

We also saw Pinanga. It was only growing on the same ridge near the Iguanura. I have no idea what this is. The stems were fairly thin (maybe 2-3 cm or 1 in), it was clustering, and maybe 5m (15 ft) tall. Any ideas?

[elHoagie]

We saw one more Pinanga, again only on the ridge near the Iguanura. This palm was very small, with stems about 1 cm in diameter (0.5 in), reaching a maximum height of maybe 1.5 m (5 feet). It was clustering. All of the leaves were bifid. Unfortunately I didn't really get any decent photos of this palm... Who knows what this is?

[elHoagie]

Saw this Salacca, I think it's the same species as the first Salacca from Bako (the pictures from Bako are MUCH better than these)...

[elHoagie]

And also this Salacca, which I think is the same as the second Salacca from Bako. Still no idea what species this is...

[elHoagie]

That's it from Batang Ai. I still have a LOT of photos of a LOT of additional palms, so stay tuned...

[aussiearoids]

Arenga sure looks like undulatifolia .

[Darold Petty]

Jack, for what use does your guide collect the newer aerial root tips? Great photos, thanks!

[paulgila]

Arenga sure looks like undulatifolia .

looks like it to me,too!

[Walter John]

Fabulous Jack, that Joey with it's tongue like leaf looks like it just spat you two out.

Thanks for posting.

[Stevetoad]

Crazy cool photos Jack!

[Hammer]

Crazy cool photos Jack!

100% agree!