PALMS Petoe et al.: Heart of Borneo Vol. 64(2) 2020 PETER PETOE*1,2 Lanjak BENEDIKT G. KUHNHÄUSER*1,3 CONNIE GERI4 AND Entimau WILLIAM J. BAKER1 1Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Wildlife Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3AE, UK 2Department of Biology, Aarhus Sanctuary – University, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark a Palm 3Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3RB, UK Hotspot in 4Sarawak Forestry Corporation, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia the Heart of *
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[email protected]. Borneo ac.uk, equal contributors. With over 300 species, Borneo has the richest palm flora of any Malesian island. Here, we describe an expedition to Lanjak Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary, a remote region of Sarawak in the heart of Borneo and provide a checklist of the 46 palm species that we found there. Our expedition started in Kuching, the expedition to the remote and incom- state capital of Sarawak in western pletely known Lanjak Entimau Wildlife Malaysian Borneo. We used the city as a Sanctuary (LEWS). LEWS is the largest of base from which to access nearby Sarawak’s 66 Totally Protected Areas and localities including Gunung Matang in is only accessible to scientists and local Kubah National Park, which is known for people living within its immediate its astounding palm diversity and for vicinity (Forest Department Sarawak Beccari’s efforts to describe it during the 2020). It is probably most widely known 19th century (Beccari 1904), and Bako for its significant role in the conservation National Park, home to several of the critically endangered northwest populations of the iconic palm Johannes- Bornean orangutan (Ancrenaz et al.