A good morning jungle trailing

Wild Ixora
Location : Provinsi Licuala, Zone I

Climber with maroon red young leaves

Located at  an elevation of  between 150  - 300 feet  above sea level, the jungle back door is a gem of a tropical rainforest ecosystem.  This morning,  I decided to explore further the Licuala Provinsi area which is named after the many stands of Licuala palms in the locality. It is one of the highest point in the park with steep slopes and many small hills surrounding it  making trekking a difficult and exhaustive  workout.  The forest is originally  a lowland dipterocarp hill forest ( in latin Di = two, ptero = winged, carp = fruit) .  Here can be seen many exportable jungle trees e.g. 'meranti' and 'kapur'.  The Kambatik jungle here supports a very diverse range of plantlife as well as wildlife because of the niches accorded by the jungle ecosystem.  I have therefore the opportunity to watch a unique climber (unidentified) which have strong stems and producing maroon red young leaves. Within the Provinsi Licuala I stumbled upon a wild Ixora plant with orange flowers.  My exploration this morning was well rewarded with the sighting of a big clump of Pandan 'palms' growing along a small stream.   This pandanus variety is sought after by the local Melanaus as the natural material for making mats and other types of handicraft items.  Other interesting encounters this morning was the fiddlehead of the 'Paku Kelindang' (Iban) - Blenchnum orientale and a green stick insect.

Licuala palms along the jungle path
Location : Provinsi Licuala

Maroon red young leaves of a jungle climber.

Jungle climber spiral up a tree

A green stick insect

Pandanus 'palms' situated along a stream
Location : Provinsi Licuala, Zone I

Fern fiddlehead, belonging to the Blenchnum orientale (Paku Kelindang - Iban)

A Myrmecodia epihpyte

A Myrmecodia epiphyte with large tuber housing tiny ants
Location : Licuala Hill

Large tuber of the Myrmecodia epiphyte

 I was making a new trail at Zone I yesterday when I stumbled upon an epiphyte and as the name implies it was above me. This epiphyte belongs to the 'Myrmecophytes' family which is unique in its ability to accommodate ants in their big tubers. The epihphyte was about four meters above me growing on the tree with its roots built more for grasping the tree trunk than for taking in nourishment from the soil. There are many epiphytic plants in here such as orchids and ferns which occupy a niche in the forest not used by other plants.

The big tubers are normally colonised by ants. Ants and termites are important soil animals involved in the litter decomposition and nutrients recycling.  The tiny ants will scour the forest floor for insects corpses at night.  These they carry on their backs to their arboreal nest.  The dead insects are stored and used as compost by the ants to create their 'fungus garden' which they cultivate within the tuber.  The ants feed on the fungi while the epihphyte uses the nutrients released by the fungal growth.
  

Ants and termites will scour the forest floor at night for dead insects to bring home to their arboreal nest.

Sunlight and mythical presence

Early morning light filtered through maze of branches and leaves
Location : Provinsi Rattan

Mythical presence

 I am starting to carry more jungle trailing in the early morning now.  There's plenty of ground to be covered.  More areas to explore.  I followed the Kambatik stream as it meanders  through the Provinsi Rattan for about 10 meters and then decided to climb a nearby slope to check out the vegetation.  I was pleased to see rays of light filtering through the dense maze of branches and leaves.  It created a mythical presence especially when it hit one sapling in the midst of the jungle darkness.  In the lowland rainforest less amount of light reaches the ground.  As a result it does not permit the growth of grass.  Furthermore the thick layer of dead leaves and organic litter strangle any invading grass species.  Walking in the jungle means stepping on many dead organic matter and overcoming hurdles of fallen branches, twigs and even trunks of trees.  There are also many saplings scattered about that we have to pass through.  The morning trailing was rewarded by an encounter with the fan palm which the Malays call "Palas" or Licuala ferruginea and it was a fruiting specimen.

The Kambatik stream passing by the area which is home to many species of rattan
Location: Provinsi Rattan

Licuala ferruginea - Palas (Malay)

Spherical fruits of the 'Palas'