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19691 DRANSFIELDAND WHITMORE: PALM HUNTING B3 Palm Hunting in MaLaya'sNational Park J. Dnlusrrnr-D1ANI T. C. WuIrMoRE2 To a palm hunter, Gunong Tahan is river boat driven by a powerful out- a mountain of great interest becauseof board motor. We were soon speeding its two endemic palms, Liaistona ta' up the Sungei Tembeling in a boat very hanensis and E ugeissona brachystachy s, heavily laden with food (Christmaspud- both describedby H. N. Ridley after the dings, steak puddings and tins and tins classicascent by himself and the zoolo- of curried chicken we soon came to gistsBoden Kloss and Robinsonin 1906. dread) plant collecting gear and nine The mountain, T,186 {eet, is the highest men-but not for long: one hundred in Malaya, a large rolling plateau sur- yards upstreamwe ran aground and had roundedby gleamingquartzite clif{s, and to disembark to push the boat off a deeply incised to the south by the spec- sandbank. No rain had lallen for two tacular, deep Teku Gorge. Tahan is months and the rivers were all ex- one of the most rernote mountains in ceptionally low. We pushed off, and llalaya and is situated in the middle three hours later reached the Park of Taman Negara, MalaYa's National headquartersat Kampong Kuala Tahan, Park-a large area of more or less un- where we stayed in a very comfortable touched forested country in the States rest-housefor two nights while arranging of Pahang, Kelantan and Trengganu, for eight porters to carry food supplies rvith a rich fauna. and equipment the walk of three full In February, 1968, we made an ex- days to Kuala Teku at the foot of Gu- pedition to Gunong Tahan in order to nong Tahan, centre of the Tahan Woods collect Liaistona tahanenszsand Eugeis- and type locality ol Eugeissonabrachy' sona brachystachys and other palms, stachys. and to study anew the so'called Tahan We finally le{t the kampong early in Woods at the foot of the mountain which the morning accompaniedby one guide, are an important locality to Malayan two young apprentice rangers, eight botany. On February t5th we left the porters, four tree climbers and Md. Forest ResearchInstitute, Kepong, near Shah, and were soon out of the scrub Kuala Lumpur, with four aborigine surrounding the village and into good tree climbers-Gerus, Gesak, Gi and {orest, following up the Sungei Tahan. Paling-and drove over the Main Range Palms in evidence included the very o{ Malaya into Pahangto Jerantutwhere common wild sugar palm, Arenga Wes' we met Mohammed Shah of the Singa- terhoutii, Calamus castanells, and the pore Botanic Gardens, and then on to attractive Arenga sp. (Didymosperma Kuala Tembeling, a village at the con- Hookerianum), a small dark greenpalm- fluence of the great Pahang River and let not growing more than two {eet tall, the Ternbeling River. Here we were met with pretty toothed leaflets and erect by two park game rangers with a Malay flower spikes. We made camp that eve- ning at Sungei Melantai, a small river in l The Botany School, Cambridge University, a deep valley. Here Oncospermahorri' Cambridge,England. durn was abundant as clusters of small 2 Forest Research Institute, Kepong, Se' The langor, Malaya. individuals on the hill slopes. cab- 84 PRINCIPES tVol. 13 (' I KELANTAN \ % PeStrs \ +,all TRENqqANU \ Rirers 6oundc5 of Nctioncl Puk St^:te bounaars Trek -fotloued to Yo^hs I d\s Q.oun& qbore 3,oooft. ffi Qnund. cboxc 5,oooft. XOALA TENAEING NATIONALPARK, PAHANG, MALAYSIA bageof this palm makesvery good eating made the second camp. Cornera is a and successiveexpeditions up Gunong very common and distinctive palm on Tahan have robbed the forest of all the valley slopes and is rather decorative old specimensnear the track. with its yellowish spines and pure white Next day we set o{f on the most lower leaf surface. Its fruit is covered dreaded part of the walk to Gunong with black scales and the flesh sur- Tahan-a high waterless undulating rounding the seed is delicious, in taste ridge like a saw, with 27 teeth, each reminiscentof the lychee. one steeper and higher than the one The map we were following proved before. The traverse took all day, and to be very inssgurals-the Sungei Puteh proved to be almost too much for us; was marked two full miles further south it was with relief that at about 4 p.u. than its actual position; this accounted we finally slithered down the last slope for the surprisingly long second day, past Sa.lacca glabrescens with bright and made the third day a much easier crimson male flowers, and.Cornera Lob- day than we had expected. On the last biana to Ulu Sungei Puteh, where we day of the walk to Kuala Teku, we fol- r9691 DRANSFIELDAND W}IITMORE: PALM HUNTING tt5 1t *'-t* ;ts, : d*', i; ,r"l.l , * r.{ 't ,..1'i :':i. .,. .i Tahan' 1. Eugeissona brachystachys. Gi sits under a fine clump on the trail to Gunong lowed the Sungei Puteh down to the The petiole and rachis are only sparsely Sungei Tahan, here a sPlendid rockY soinv and are covered with hairs and river full o{ rapids, lined with great p"ltut" scalesgiving the rachis a mush- neratn trees (Dipterocarpus obl'ongi' room pink tinge. The lea{letsare broad in a long drip-tip, and foliu;) leaning over the river and oc- and acuminate casionally meeting overhead. The trees are of a lovely rich dark green. Vege- o{ten have a rich epiphyte flora of such tatively it makes a strong contrast to plants as Cymbid'ium' atropurpureurn, the dingy common bertam, Eugeissona Grammatophyllum speciosurn,P siloturn triste. In flower, it is strikingly different -instead cornplanatum, Ly copo d,ium nummula"ri' of the funereal dark brown flowers the flowers have shiny green foliurn, Med,inilla spp, and a wealth of the other plants. We followed up the Tahan, petalsof the samewoody texture and sometimestaking short cuts over small pollen is clear yellow as opposed to ridges, and it was on one of thesethat purply-brown. The curious egg-shaped we first caught sight o{ the Tahan ber- fruits covered in minute scalesare very tam, Eugeisso na brach'ystachy s, looking similar to those oI bertam. From Kuala remarkably different from the common Puteh north to Kuala Teku we found weedy E. triste which is found all over the Tahan bertanr' very common on the west of Malaya but is known in the hill slopes. park from only one hillside. Eugeissona Climbing down one of the last hills brachystachys is a stemless palm with we discovered a fine colony oI d'aun beautiful leaves arching up to 25 teet. pdyong or ltoh (umbrella leal) Iohan' B6 PRINCIPES lVol. 13 3. Iguanura geonomaejormis-broadly pinnate stemlessform, Kuala Teku: 6-inch rule as scale. We planned to spend three days col- lecting around Kuala Teku. and then to shift camp partlv to Wray's Camp at 3.000 {eet at the lorver limit of the 2. Close-up of the infructescence of Eugeis- sona brachystaciys. Note the minutely scaly fruit, and the paucity of spines on the leaf rachis: 6-inch rule as scale. nesteijvnannia altilrons, that most regal of all Malayan palms, in old flower and young fruit. We later saw this palm in great abundanceon the slopesof Gunong Tahan. After losing our way for half an hour, we finally found Kuala Teku, the most idyllic camp site imaginable. All around us the great neram and Tristania trees soared,the rivers Teku and Tahan joined in a deep pool full of fine fish, and the sandstone rocks were lined with the delicate tern, Dipteris Lobbiana, forming 4. Iguanura geonomaet'ormis-entire-leaved a beautiful fringe to the river. stemlessform, Kuala Teku: 6-inch rule as scale. 19691 DRANSFIELDAND WHITMORE: PALM HUNTING .; ".,:; l:'.r Neram 5. The Sungei Teku at Kuala Teku-our camp was on the right bank in the backgrotnd'. trees lean over the river. PRINCIPES tVol.13 , r;". ir.,. i t$ *j ' ': .;,i', ":i r,"i"<*i :i${ :d'jr. *;' 6. Wray's Camp, ait. 3,000 feet on Gunong Tahan, is graced by a beautiful old tree oI Dacryd,iutn: the mountain fierns Matonia pectinata and Dipteris conjugata below, a:rd Paling as scale. r9691 DRANSFIELDAND WHITMORE: PALM HUNTING B9 7. The view from Wray's Camp, over the slopes of the mountain-acres oI Liuistona tahanensis on the slopes below. Upper Montane Forest,and then to work out from there collecting plants. The weather was superb-in fact, almost un- precedentedlygood for expeditions up the mountain; we had only onehalf-hour shower the whole time we were in the Park-this kept at bay the leeches {or which the Park is notorious. Eugeissona brachystachysproved to be very abundant all around us at Kuala Teku, on steep hill slopes and ridge- tops. Other common palms in the same habitat includedLicuala triphylla, avery sra;'allLicuala with three- to five-partite leaves,the whole plant not more than 40 centimeters (16 inches) in height, Licuala glabra, a common rather vari- able species,Pinanga d,istichncommon on slopesjust abovethe river, the young Ieavesbeautifully mottled with pale and dark green, and often flushed purple, and P. simplicifrons. Among the rat- tans we fiotnd Calnmus jauensis and C. ramosissimu.sand many speciesoI Dae- B. A fine Liuistona tahanensis silhouetted. Note tJre stiff leaves. 90 PRINCIPES IVol. 13 '.,,,, "rs' +:Wl;;''''-,r , '{j$.!* 9. A group of Liuistona tahanensis in the mountain Iorest: Gunong Perlis in the background. tnonorops. On the lower slopes and pectinata and Dipteris conjugata, and riverside alluvium was the decorative many typically montane plants.

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