On Rafflesia and Rhizanthes

1. With the demise of Dr. Kamarudin Mat- Salleh in October 2009, the Malesian rafflesias expert, we see very little activities in Rafflesiaceae research except

2. Dr. Harry Wiriadinata of Bogor had sent me a manuscript on Rafflesia meijeri, an interesting new species from Sumatera. I've yet to respond to him though. I found this species intersting in having no processi similar to R. rochusenii of Jawa. At first I thought they are conspecific but on a further detailed investigation they differ in pattern of warts on the perigone lobes, filiform ramenta and small in size. This species is named after the late Dr. Willem Meijer, the world's authority on Rafflesia. Some times ago Dr. Jef Veldkamp of Leiden proposed if there is a new species discovered it would be great to name after Dr. Meijer. Now it is done. Congrats Dr. Harry

3. Recently, Shamsul Khamis of Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia reported the observation of Rafflesia azlanii from the Lenggong area in Perak, a locality parallel in geographical location to Sg. Halong in Teneggor Forest Reserve where the species was first observed. According to Siti Munirah of FRIM and the late Dr. Kamarudin Mat Salleh, R. azlanii is known from Royal Belum State Park and Gerik area, amongst other localities. This new observation by Shamsul is interesting phytogeographically.


4. Ms Donna Jackson is about to write a description of Rhizanthes kamarudinii sp. nov. from Lanjak-Entimau, Sarawak. This species when discovered was thought to be R. lowii a species from Brunei and Sabah. But on detailed observation may prove to be a new species, initially Dr. Kamarudin wanted to call it R. jambulipa, a local name for its bud. However, I suggested to Ms. Donna to name in commemorating the man who had spend many years of his time studying the Rafflesiaceae in South-east Asia.

Diversity Within WWF1Malaysia

1. Last week I attended the WWF staffs retreat at Port Dickson where the staffs from Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak offices came together to discuss the WWF Strategic Plan, amongst other agenda. I met most staffs at the evening show cum dinner and also at the morning session chaired by Sudeep Mohandas.

2. I was personally excited at the way the staffs worked during the sessions and enjoyed themselves from evening to the early hours of the mornings. They worked hard and they thought hard and they expressed their concerns, wishes, anxieties etc by jotting them on big paper spread and pinned them on the wall. In a way they demonstrated their pleasures and displeasures well and democratically.

3. In the evening show I realised what a family WWF Malaysia is. We came from all states including Singapore and the Philippines and we belong to various ethnics. On one evening I was told all staffs came in their sarongs expressing their unity within WWF Malaysia and the next evening they came in their fancy dresses expressing their diversity. I couldn't help by noticing that the Indians came in baju Melayu, the Malays came in their baju Punjabi and Opera Chinese Opera dress, the Chinese came in baju Melayu and baju Bajau and Iban, and the various ethnics of Sarawak and Sabah came in very fantastic attire, glittering to their necks. I called this scene a WWF1Malaysia. And I expressed clearly how I wished our Prime Minister could be among the audience that evening and realised what 1Malaysia means and exudes.

4. As Chair I am terribly happy with the WWF Malaysia family and encouraged them to work harder, especially next year we are going to host the WWF International Conference at Kota Kinabalu. It is going to be a very memorable one as we are going to welcome the new WWF International President and WWF Council.

5. I am particularly impressed with the success stories and asked our CEO to show the tape to the next Board Meeting when we welcome two new trustees. The success stories were of turtles, tigers, forest, marine, governance, education, outreach, networking, public awareness, etc.

On Phytogeography

1. This morning Datuk Seri C K Lim talked to me about his collection of Trichosanthes emarginata from Krau Wildlife Sanctuary. According to him that species was just described by Rugayah (BO) from Sumatera. This is a good example of floristic affinity between Sumatera and Peninsular Malaysia and I'm sure there are many examples like this.

2. A couple of years ago I described Cissus sumatrana from Gunung Leusser, Sumatera and two years ago Sani Miran collected a similar species from Bukit Labohan, Terengganu. I have wanted to believe that these two species are conspecific, but how could the montane species of Sumatera is distributed to a coastal low hill of Terengganu?

3. Other taxa showed north-south distribution and this is easily understood. Ampelopsis cantoniensis, an Asiatic species is found throughout Peninsular Malaysia; Parthenocissus semicordata, another Asiatic element has been found on Larut hills, Perak and Cissus aristolochiodes, yet another Asiatic species has been found in Kelantan and Terengganu.

4. Tenstroemia magnifica, a species of Borneo has been collected from Bangi forest; Cayratia pterita, a species known from Minadano has been located on Pulau Sipadan, Sabah; Kibatalia macrophylla, a species from Thailand was collected from Pulau Langkawi. There are many more examples of phytogeographic phenomenon to study and understand.

5. In my earlier post, I talked about zoogeography of Kelantanese. For human and other animals it is easier to understand their distribution and dispersal, but the immobile plants (except for their fruits and seeds) it is harder to explain. How could an African mangrove species, Annona glabra been found in Matang, Perak and Mersing, Johor?

6. This is a lesson in biogeography!

On the diversity of Kelantanese

1. Lately there were Kelantanese bashings. Firstly, when the Kelantan fans were said to damage some chairs at the Bukit Jalil stadium; secondly when Kelantanese went home to celebrate the Hari Raya Haji and caused mad traffic jams; and thirdly there were people creating some political instability in the PAS government. I would like to share some thoughts about who the Kelantaese are and why their behaviour has been misunderstood.

2. These Kelantanese share many things in common among themselves. They speak a great dialect; they love sweet food; they are famous for their budu (fish sauce); they love songket and shadow play; they did many crazy things; they are said to be very religious; they love to fight; they work very hard to survive; they are very competitive; they dominate good schools and universities etc etc

3. There is the royal Kelantanese whose names begin with Tengku. They are the royal households who were said to migrate from Pattani, South Thailand some years ago. When the Tengku married the commoners, we have the Engku and the Tuan. The Raja are also said to be royal in origin but they were not the ruling elites.

3. The Syed who were thought to have brought Islam to Kelantanese via Pattani were reverred as royal too.

4. Then there are the Nik. There two kinds of Nik, the first were the Chinese origin who became the workers and slaves in the royal households then there were the Ni' who originated from Pagar Ruyong in Sumatera who also were the workers and slaves in the palace. Since then they had inter-married among their kinds and also with the commoners and they are very localised in their distribution.

5. There are the Wan whose origin is uncertain for there are Wan all over the country notably in Terengganu, Perak, Negeri Sembilan etc

6. Then there are the Che, whose origin is uncertain too.

7. Then there are the others without the title in front of their names. They are mostly from Pattani. The Javanese came to Kelantan to build the Kampung laut mosque and the Minangkabau came to open rice restaurants. There are Chinese too and many of them had assimilated in the villages. Of course there are also Chinese in towns. Then there are the Siamese especially in Tumpat, Bachok, Jeli, Pasir Mas and Tanah Merah districts. Kelantanese has very few Indians. The Orang Asli or Pangans are the Bateq and Temiars who are found in the districts of Kuala Kerai and Gua Musang. Then of course there are those from other states who made Kelantan their homes.

8. After all there is nothing special about us!

On SCOPUS and Impact Factor

1. Three days ago I met a friend who told me the journal, Tropical Life Science Research (formerly Journal of Bioscience" has been extracted by SCOPUS. I congratulated him and his university.

2. Today I met another friend who thought the demand by the Vice Chancellors of local universities for their staffs to publish their research findings in journals with Impact Factor is over-emphasised. So much so the local journals have been side-lined. After all only two Malaysian journals have IF, one a mathematical journal and the other is the forest science journal. And Malaysia has more than 100 journals, mostly in-house.

3. The surge to get extracted by SCOPUS and SI Thomson has been blown to the levels so unacademic that affect most of the researchers in local universities. If they don't publish they will perish. My friend told me both SCOPUS and SI Thomson are business enterprises. The more we pay attention to these the more they will make money at the expense of the third world universities. THES is also in the same category! The competition to serve THES and other surveys had taken so much academic times and efforts, that could better used for teaching and supervising students.

4. Local universities are supposed to serve the Malaysian communities first and regional communities second, and lastly the global communities. My friend thought we have been serving the global communities at the expense of the Malaysians, and I tend to agree with him. We publish to inform our Malaysian communities not to accumulate personal IF values, though there are scientists who serve themselves.

5. Somebody ought to tell the Vice Chancellors Council of the dungeon we have dug for young academics. The seniors have serve their dues and they are the one who set new rules for the young academics.

Gunung Benom Expedition

1. From 9th-16th November the Academy Science Malaysia and the Department of Wildlife & National Park (PERHILITAN) organised a week-long scientific expedition to Gunung Benom, the 10th highest mountain in Peninsular Malaysia. It is situated at the north-west end of the Krau Wildlife Sanctuary, Pahang. It was cemoniosly declared open on the 10th morning by the Director-General of PERHILITAN.

2. 100 particpants were specially invited but only 86 scientists registered and took part in the expedition together with PERHILITAN annual inventory work. They came from Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Malaya, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Forest Research Institute Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi MARA, WWF Malaysia and of course PERHILITAN.

3. The fields covered were geology, hydrology, water quality, flora, fauna, sociology and ecotourism potential. The participants were divided into two groups; one group of 23 went to Jeneroh Camp via Jenerih and the rest went to Lata Bujang Camp via Perlok. The former group also consists of 13 who successfully climbed the peak of Gunung Benom.

4. I was informed that in 1965 some scientists went up there to conduct some research projects and among them were the late Dr. T. C. Whitmore, Prof. Emer. Dr. Yong Hoi-Seng, Dr. Lim Boo Liat and several former lecturers from Universiti Malaya.

5. The reports are yet to be presented but from the discussion on the evening of 16th revealed many new finds. The geology of the mountain is granitic, with some patches of mountain peat. The water quality is superb though it rained the whole week. The mountain top was cold and one one day it was bright sunny that those with cameras took many scenic anad panoramic scenes.

6. The small mammals trappings were not good and the scientists blamed the weather. The birds were aplenty, catches of insects were not that good either but the beetles group from Universiti Malaysia were quite pleased with their collections. Herpetofauna group also reported bad catch, however, on gigantic caecilian was brought down.

7. There were at least 2 species of Nepenthes, four species of Rhododendron, Rafflesia cantleyi, Balanophora, many palms and gingers, including Baeckia frutescens, Leptospermum, many Ericaceae and Lauraceae. On the lower altitude there were many dipterocarps and Mr. Kamarudin Salleh of FRIM made a list of more than 300 species of flowering plants along his rounds.

8. The findings will be discussed in a seminar to be organised next year and a proceeding will be published.

Bintang Range - Gunung Inas Expedition

Photo from www.asiaexplorers.com

1. From 2-6 November more than 100 scientists and foresters gathered at Sungai Sedim Recreation Forest, Kulim, Kedah to participate in the year end scientific expedition organised by Forestry Department Peninsular Malaysia and Forestry Department Kedah. It was officially opened by YB Dato' Wira State Secretary on the morning of 2nd.

2. This morning a group of more than a dozen participants led by muscologist En. Damanhuri tried to scale the Gunung Inas. He was accompanied by the orchid group from Universiti Putra Malaysia and by the forestry group of the same university. We were told half way up there is a place called "Dataran Bunian" literally translated as Concourse of Elves. The forest is stunted and infested by grasses. I got the feeling it is one of those flat-topped peaty forests, like the one on Gunung Chamah, Gunung Gagau and Gunung Keriong.

3. Datuk Seri C K Lim and Qammil Muzzamil reported the observation of an elusive Costus oligophyllus (Costaceae) from Ulu Paip Recreational Forest and also Gunung Inas Forest Reserve. This the third species, other that C. speciosus and C globosus, which was once collected around Taiping-Gunung Hijau area some 60 years ago, recollected by Dr L G Saw from Ulu Langat area in Selangor.

4. Dr. C Y Choong reported the observation of 18 species of odonates on the first day of expedition, 7 species of dragonflies and 11 species of damselflies, including a rare species, Indocnemis orang.

5. En. Damanhuri himself was fascinated by the existence of one Pogonatum sp. which is known from montane habitats on the bolders at about 150 m above sea level.

6. I will report again after the 6th of November when the expedition is closed.