·arno ~a Volume 60 · Number 4 2000-2001 Page S 2 The View From the Forest Canopy Arnoldia (ISSN 004-2633; USPS 866-100) rs Richard Primack, Melvm Goh, and published quarterly by the Arnold Arboretum of Meekiong Kalu Harvard University Second-class postage is paid at Massachusetts. Boston, 10 Survival of the Most Adaptable Peter Del Tredici Subscriptions are $20.00 per calendar year domestic, $25 00 foreign, payable m advance. Smgle copies of 19 Knees: An most issues are $5.00; the exceptions are 58/4-59/1 Cypress Enduring Enigma (Metasequoza After Fifty Years) and 54/4 (A Source- Christopher H. Briand book of Cultmar Names), which are $10.00. Remit- ’ tances may be made m U.S. dollars by check drawn 26 Gmkgo biloba in Japan on a U.S. international and bank; by money order; Mariko Handa by Visa or Mastercard. Send orders, remittances, change-of-address notices, and all other subscription- related communications to: Circulation Manager, 35 Arnold Arboretum Weather Station Arnoldia, The Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Data-2000 Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts 02130-3500. Telephone 617/524-1718; facsimile 617/524-1418; 37 Index to Volume 60 e-mail arnoldtaCarnarb harvard edu. Front cover: The "knees" of Taxodmm distichum Postmaster: Send address changes to Arnoldia Circulation Manager Inside front cover: A gallery of adaptable plants. The Arnold Arboretum First row, from left to right Stewartia sinensis, 125 Arborway Lmodendron tuhpifera x chmense, Anstolochia Jamaica Plain, MA 02130-3500 mandshunensis Second row Cercidiphyllum ~apomcum ‘Monoka Karen Madsen, Editor Weepmg’, Quercus phellos, Hydrangea quercifoha. Andy Wmther, Designer Third row. Abies koreana, Koelreutena pamculata ’Rose Lantern’, Rhododendron calendulaceum Editonal Committee Inside back cover: First from left to Andersen row, right: Phyllis " Xanthoceras mlcomodes, Ellen S Bennett sorbifolium, Heptacodmm Robert E. Cook Hydrangea quercifoha Second row: Koelreutema ’Rose Peter Del Tredici pamculata Stewartia Koller Lantern’, smensis, Hydrangea pamculata Gary ’Praecox’ Stephen A. Spongberg Third row: Rhododendron arborescens, Ktm E. Tripp Enkianthus perulatus, Lmdera obtusilobum. ~ Copyright © 2001. The President and Fellows of Back cover: Betula platyphylla seen through Acer Harvard College pseudosieboldianum on Changbai Shan, north China. Tree chmber lugah Tagi photographed on a giant strangler fig, Ficus sp. (Moraceae).). The View from the Forest Canopy Richard Primack, Melvin Goh, and Meekiong Kalu or decades, botanists from Harvard Uni- childhood, they went to Kuching, the capital of versity and elsewhere have been studying Sarawak, seeking education and work. They J- the remarkably diverse flora of the both have the "burongs"-bird tattoos on their rainforests on the island of Borneo. Much of throats and star tattoos on their shoulders-that this interest was sparked by Peter Ashton, mark them as members of the rural Ibans (also former director of the Arnold Arboretum, who known as the Sea Dayaks), but apart from that, has been doing research in Borneo for over forty they are very different in both appearance and years. Through the years, many Harvard stu- personality. Jugah is short, weighing only dents, undergraduate and graduate, as well as around a hundred pounds, with an outgoing, postdoctoral and staff researchers, have traveled fun-loving personality. In a group he is often to Borneo to look for new plant species, to hunt the main talker, loudly telling stories in an for plants with medicmal potential, or to deter- excited, high-pitched voice. By contrast, mine the environmental effects of logging. Banyeng is barrel-chested, with a quieter, more Others have pursued zoological mterests. Tim reserved personality. He usually speaks more Laman, an Arnold Arboretum Associate, com- slowly and hesitantly, but occasionally he, too, bined his knowledge of the rainforest with becomes excited. his photographic skills to produce a series of A The Traditional of Trees ~ articles for National Geographic, most recently Way Climbing one on gliding frogs, lizards, and snakes that In their workmg years, both Jugah and Banyeng live in the forest canopy. Cheryl Knott and could climb virtually any tree in Sarawak’s Mark Leighton of Harvard’s Peabody Museum forest: few trees were too tall or too difficult for have investigated the ecology of orangutans, these two, who used the traditional methods monkeys, hornbills, and other large mammals they had learned from boyhood and refined and birds. while working for the Forest Department. The Whatever the subject being investigated, a most common method involves an mchworm- key member of all these exploration teams in like series of movements-grabbmg a tree with Borneo’s rainforest is a person known as a "tree the arms, raising the legs along the trunk, and climber." Not surprismgly, a tree climber’s offi- gripping the trunk with their feet while extend- cial job is to climb trees and collect specimens ing the body another one to two feet up the of leaves, flowers, and fruits that are then dned trunk-movements repeated agam and again and mounted on herbarium sheets for use in until the top of the tree is reached. botamcal research. The best tree climbers are When the trees were of ideal size for climbing also experts m camp craft and forest lore. Two of in this way-about two feet in diameter- the most famous tree climbers in all of South- Banyeng and Jugah could scoot to the top in a east Asia, both of them well known to Harvard minute or two. When the trees were smaller, or researchers, are Jugah Tagi and Banyeng Ludong, had slippery bark, they sometimes tied a rope now in their fifties and recently retired from the around their ankles to increase the pressure of Sarawak Forest Department. Sarawak, which is their feet agamst the trunk. part of Malaysia, occupies the northwest coast When the trunk of the targeted tree is too of Borneo. thick to hold onto, the traditional tree climber Both Jugah and Banyeng grew up in remote has to work from a smaller tree nearby. If the longhouses, the sort of single-structure villages smaller tree is flexible enough, he might simply on stilts that are common in Borneo. After their climb to the top branch and swing back and 4 Jugah Tagi demonstrates the techmques of tradmonal tree climbmg. forth until he can reach over, grab a branch of ing trees more than 175 feet tall, relying on their the larger tree, and leap across. Other situations own skill and confidence to avoid accidents. require the use of a "penyulok," a forked pole Today’s young tree climbers, by contrast, make up to thirty or thirty-five feet long to which extensive use of tree-climbing spurs and belts another forked stick is tied with a vine to make and specialized rock-climbmg equipment. This a hook. For example, after climbing the smaller makes tree climbing much slower and more tree, the tree climber might haul up the restrictive than the traditional methods. penyulok into the tree using a long, rope-like But it also makes the climbing safer. Banyeng, rattan vine. He then extends the penyulok hori- who still does contract work with the Forest zontally to hook a branch on the target tree and Department, comments on the danger inherent twists the branch until it breaks off and falls to m his unusual profession: "There is always an the ground. In other cases the climber might element of fear when you are so high up, but the build bridges between the two trees: after pull- higher we go, the more careful we are. The few ing up the penyulok and hooking it over a times that I have fallen it was because I wasn’t branch on the target tree, he ties the base of the careful enough, as I was not very high yet. My penyulok to the smaller tree and crosses over it worst accident was near Melinau Gorge in Mulu to the larger tree National Park, where I not only fell out of a tree, As one can imagine, these maneuvers, often but also rolled down a hill and got really banged " performed hundreds of feet above the ground, up all over." require extraordinary strength and suppleness, Paul Chai, at the time a Forest Department as well as long practice. Jugah and Banyeng botanist and who frequently worked with visit- never used safety equipment even when climb- ing Harvard researchers, recalls this incident, 5 Constructing the hook end of a penyulok Maneuvenng the penyulok mto position and says that other mem- bers of the party thought Banyeng had probably been killed in the fall. When they dashed down the slope to find him, however, they discovered that Banyeng’s main complaint was that he couldn’t find his new clay pipe, which had fallen out of his mouth during his tumble down the hill. "Daily-Paid" Tree Climbers: Two Careers Begin In the early 1960s, when Jugah and Banyeng first signed up with the Forest Department as daily-paid tree climbers, they hardly expected to become full- time employees, much less Usmg the penyulok to break off flowermg branches from a neighboring tree. 7 skills required of tree climbers, to know the names the local communities gave to the plants. "I knew that what he said was true and cor- rect. I had to know the names, not only for my- self but also because of what I was doing. With little education and knowledge, I realized that if I were to be good at what I do, I had to master some of the skills needed in the trade. Over the years, I learned the local names of the plants and trees. For many trees, I also learned the species " and family names used by plant experts." Outdoing Botanists at Their Own Game Indeed, both Banyeng and Jugah are storehouses of botanical knowledge.