A short field trip to Malay Peninsula

I had the great fortune to join my explorer friend on a short field trip to Malay Peninsula. Below are photographs of the habitats of some cryptocorynes seen during the trip.

This Malay combination rice (Nasi kerabu) was really nice, consisting of keropok, rice stained with butterfly pea flower, fried chicken, sambal, fish flakes, salted egg and assorted vegetables. 

Mix all the ingredients throughly, then slowly enjoy...

A short day trip around Kota Tinggi

I recently went for a 1/2 day trip with my explorer friend back to Kota Tinggi area to visit 2 cryptocoryne habitat. To beat the causeway jam, we set off at 0530hrs.

As usual, we started the day with some roti prata after crossing the custom.

 

 

The first habitat we visited was that of C. sp. 'Sedeli 6' which suffered massive destruction a year ago when the plantation owners nearby dug up the river to increase the water flow from the nearby oil palm plantations. After a year of peace, the cryptocorynes were still trying to re-establish themselves. Well at least they were not totally wiped out.

 

 

 

 

 Next location was the habitat of C. schulzei 'Panti'. I was lucky to spot a blooming spathe.

 

After this we spent the rest of the morning walking around the waterfall area and had some mud therapy for our tired feet.

 

 

This is nature's highway for the ants:

Some wild ginger flowers and fungus:

 

 

 

Specimens of some fishes and shrimps found around the waterfall area:

 

 

 

 

One of them ended up in in the claypot as curry fish head for lunch together with wild boar meat, sweet potato leaves and homemade bean curd:



 

 

 

That's the end of the short day trip...

Roaming the forest of Mersing where C. nurii and C. schulzei could be found

My explorer friend and I went roaming inside the forest near Mersing after a simple traditional Malay lunch comprising of my favourite tapioca leaves curry and fried chicken.

 

 

Both C. nurii and C. schulzei could be found in this forest. I took a photograph of the spathe of the C. schulzei found there.

 

 

 

 

I found a "flower mushroom" there too.

 

The below are signs of other creatures roaming together with us inside the forest, likely that of an elephant and of a very large predator cat...

 

Seeing the spathe of C. schulzei 'Kota Tinggi' finally

I had the good fortune to finally see the spathe of C. schulzei 'Kota Tinggi' during my recent trip to Peninsula Malaysia. After having a quick lunch of spicy cucumber + carrot salad, chilli brinjal, and curry squid with rice at a Malay stall near the jetty area at Mersing, we headed down to Kota Tinggi to visit the habitat of C. schulzei.

The habitat was a small stream running out of the forest. Both emersed and submersed specimens could be found in this stream with peat swamp bottom and pH of about 5.5

I had visited this habitat many times as we frequently passed by this area during our cryptocoryne hunting trips in Peninsula Malaysia but never had the good fortune to find any opened spathe during my previous visits. 2 spathes were found this time round. The kettle of the spathes was submersed in water or peat with the tube extending out to expose the limb.

The limb was yellowish in colour with slightly crumpled surface with a large (as compared to the surface of the limb) throat which was reddish in colour. The spathe looked rather typical when compared to the photographs shown on 'the crypt pages'. Below are some close up photographs of the external and internal of the spathe.

A small insect was flying out of the throat and later many escaped through the cut kettle. I had to borrow the photograph from my explorer friend as my hands were tied up with the cutting of the kettle while he focused his camera to take the shot once I opened up the kettle.

From this posting onwards, I will have to upload my photographs onto photobucket and then insert the photographs into this blog through adding the URL links as I have reached my free photograph storage space of 1.0GB allowed by google e-blogger website.

Happy 2011 Chinese New Year to all fellow cryptocoryne enthusiasts!