langkawi magazine

Nature SECTION

Knowing the Palm Plant

Few groups of plants can match the splendour of palms. From minute forest plants to lofty trees with leaves twice the height of a man, palms have an exotic appeal which makes them a perennial favourite. As many species in Malaysia can only survive in the wild, conservation of these evergreens has become a pressing concern. Malaysia is home to hundreds of palm species that come in attractive and unusual leaf shapes and sizes.

To date, 410 species have been identified: 228 in the peninsula and 300 in East Malaysia (some palms grow in both areas), and more species are expected to be discovered in East Malaysia. Due to their exotic qualities, palm trees are a popular choice for landscaping. Most palms have pleated feather or fan-shaped leaves which are unique to the species. They are sometimes mistaken for cycads or some tree ferns. The latter have feather-shaped leaves but not pleated ones and they do not bear flowers, said Dr Saw Leng Guan, senior forest botanist at the Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM).

Malaysia has about 15% of the world?s total palm species. With a diversity rate of 600 species per square kilometre, it has possibly the highest diversity per unit area in the world, said Saw who presented his paper, Palms of Malaysia, at a recent seminar, The Forest and its Biodiversity and the Role of Foresters in Selangor.

Worldwide, there are about 2,700 species and 200 genera of palms. They are most diverse in the humid tropics of South and Central America, and South-East Asia and West Pacific. ?Palms range from minute forest plants without obvious stems to lofty trees with massive trunks which reach the canopy of the forest,? said Saw. Palms in Malaysia can be categorised under four major groups ? fan-leafed, feather-leafed, rattans and Nypa ? based on the fronds (or leaves), inflorescence and flowers. Palmate-leafed (Coryphoid) palms This group of palms has palmate fronds and they range from miniature to large arborescent palms. They are widely found in Malaysia and are represented by eight genera.

The Corypha utan or gebang or ibus is a spectacular sight as it is one of the largest palms in Malaysia, said Saw. Commonly found in the padi fields of Perlis and Kedah, these palms grow in abandoned areas or on bunds between padi fields. The Corypha utan produces thousands of seeds, one of the largest number in the plant kingdom. After producing flowers and fruits, the plant exhausts its food reserves and dies. This is unlike most palms ? such as the coconut ? where inflorescences are produced even after the stem dies. The most diverse genus in the Coryphoid group is the Licuala (daun palas) which is a miniature to medium-sized palm.

Except for the L. spinosa and L. paludosa, they are all species of the forest floor and must be grown in the shade. Species from Sarawak that are much sought after for their unusual unbroken fronds are the L. orbicularis and L. cordata. Another highly sought after Licuala is the variegated L. mattanensis or ?mapu?, said Saw. Ever seen leaves twice the height of a man? That is the Johannesteijsmannia (daun sang) species. Due to its magnificent beauty, it is being increasingly cultivated. Each huge diamond-shaped leaf takes nine months to grow and like any palm, only one leaf is produced at a time. This genus was named after Johannes Elias Teysmann, a Dutch botanist working in Indonesia in the early 19th century. The four species known in the world today are all found in Peninsular Malaysia; three of these (J. lanceolata, J. magnifica and J. perakensis) are endemic to the peninsula. J. altifrons has a wider distribution; it is also found in Sarawak and Sumatra. Johannesteijsmannia are plants of the forest shade and they perform rather poorly when grown in too exposed conditions, said Saw. A small genus within the medium-sized palms is Maxburretia.

Worldwide, there are only three species; two of these are endemic to Peninsular Malaysia.?Maxburretia are limestone palms with a narrow distribution range. The M. rupicola, for instance, is only known to be found in Bukit Takun in Templer?s Park and Batu Caves in Selangor. The other endemic species, M. gracilis, is only found in Pulau Dayang Bunting in Langkawi. More recently, it was sighted in the limestone hills of Bukit Kaki, Perlis. These are very attractive palms but unfortunately, they are very difficult to grow,? said Saw.In Malaysia, there is only one native date palm, Phoenix paludosa, a swamp date palm. ?This species is highly threatened because its natural habitat is on the edges of mangrove swamps and they are often subjected to land conversion,? said Saw.

Feather-leafed Arecoid palms. This group of palms is very diverse. There are 11 genera in Malaysia. Particularly diverse genera are the Pinanga, Areca and Iguanura. Other smaller genera include the Rhopaloblaste, Nenga and Cyrtostachys. These six genera comprise mainly small to medium-sized palms. They look quite similar but they can be distinguished through their different inflorescence and floral characters. Cyrtostachys renda, also known as the sealing wax palm, is extensively grown for its attractive dark red crown shaft and has found its abode in many gardens.

Many Pinanga such as the P. disticha and P. aristata have very attractive variegated fronds. Some species or varieties of Iguanura ? such as I. mirabilis and I. wallichiana var. spectabilis ?have fronds that do not split. The inflorescence of the Areca tunku has very attractive colour and structure. Rattans (Calamoid palms) and Nypa More than half of the Malaysian palm flora can be classified as rattans (climbing palms). One key feature of this group is the scaly fruit. Collectively, the rattans include Calamus, Daemonorops?halsia, Plectocomia, Plectocomiopsis, Pogonotium and Retispatha.They range from high-climbing rattans to short, almost stemless species. Calamus manna or rotan manau produces large, high quality cane for the furniture industry.

In Sabah and Sarawak, small rattans are used in basket and mat-weaving. The non-rattan Calamoid palms are Eleiodoxa (kelubi), Eugeissona (bertam) and Salacca (salak). Salacca is particularly diverse in Malaysia with about 15 species. The kelubi and salak are quite closely related. They have edible but sour fruits. Nypa is a monotypic (one species only) genus. Nypa fruticans is among the first palms known in the fossil records. Interestingly, Nypa fruit fossils have been collected in South England as well. Nypa is a strictly mangrove palm but occurs sometimes in river deltas. Traditionally, the fronds are used for thatching and sugar is tapped from the inflorescence.

Conserving palms Many Malaysian palms only survive in the wild. As such, the idea of conservation is crucial. Threats to palms and other animal species are many. In the past, large areas of the forest were cleared for tin-mining and agriculture, first for rubber trees and subsequently oil palm.

Limestone hills are quarried for cement and rocks and this poses a danger to palms that are only found in that area. Swamps have also been cleared to pave way for development projects. ?We don?t know what has disappeared because we don?t have enough information. Of the huge area of lowland that had been converted to the Felda agriculture scheme in Johor and parts of Pahang, we don?t know much about what was in there,? said Saw. Dwindling forests could threaten palm species that are endemic, he said. ?If we do not do anything about it now, they will become extinct.

We need to find out the species that are threatened, and hand the information to the departments involved in policy-making,? said Saw. Saw pointed out the need to come up with a threat assessment of plants in Malaysia. Malaysia does not have its own list of threatened plants except for Sarawak. However, Sarawak?s list is not based on the International Union of Conservation of Nature red list of threatened species, said Saw. He said the IUCN red list uses the same standard in defining threat to all organisms, and that can be tricky. Between one organism and another, the biology is very different and the population and reproductive structures and ecology are also different.

So you are applying the same criteria to a fly, which has a life-cycle of two weeks to a month, compared with a turtle which can live up to 200 years, he said. Moreover, the IUCN standard is restrictive. For example, an organism is deemed critically endangered if 90% or more of the population is lost, and endangered if the population size is reduced to 70% or less over the last 10 years or three generations, whichever is the longer, where the causes of the reduction are clearly reversible.Half of the Malaysian forest trees had been destroyed in the last 80 years, and since our land conversion was carried out in the 1960s, most trees would be deemed threatened, said Saw. But Malaysia needs development. We came out of Third World condition because of agriculture. We needed to convert our land to give us enough cash crops such as rubber and palm oil, he said.

The important thing is to ensure that the plants or tree species that we have now will continue to reproduce, he said. The word threatened is also open to interpretation as current assessments carried out in Malaysia are based on individual scientist?s knowledge. Saw said a better system should be based on peer review assessment.?Malaysia should develop its own definition since the IUCN definition can be limiting, said Saw. For plants that are threatened, efforts are needed to protect them or highlight them so that development can be carefully planned. If we do not know where the threatened plants in a logging concession are, designate a few compartments to protect these plants. This would serve as a reservoir. There are ways to protect threatened plants, added Saw.

Malaysia 6/1/2004