The JUMA’ANI In Vitro Orchid Micropropagation (JIVOM) Laboratory and the Mini Orchid Botanical Garden (MOBG) was officially opened by Patron, Datuk Amar Hajah Juma’ani Tun Tuanku Haji Bujang.

Day 6 - Santubong

Day 5 was a day exploring Kuching and its museums, shops and waterfront. Very refreshing and setting us up to return to the forest. 

Day 6 we set aside to revisit Santubong. Santubong is a dramatic forest clad mountain that rises at the mouth of the Kuching River about 40 minutes out of Kuching.

The forests of the national park sweep down to the sea and there are resorts for tourists as well as the Sarawak Cultural Village. We opted to have a quiet explore of one of the easily accessible treks starting in the Rainforest Resort.

The Blue Pool trail climbs through the lower slopes of the mountain and returns through forest close to the coastline. The forest was enchanting with trees growing amongst giant sandstone boulders.  We met some of the forests most charismatic inhabitants including Proboscis monkey and Bornean Forest Dragons.

We also found orchids although the area doesn't support extensive epiphytes. These included a beautiful shade loving Bulbophyllum, still to be identified, dendrobiums, a terrestrial possibly Calanthe and Cymbidium findleysonianum.

Just before the end of the trail we found ourselves with a little beach all to ourselves with a backdrop of forest sweeping up the mountain. Below the high tide line the only footsteps in the sand were 'cat' foot prints probably from one of Sarawak's five wild cat species searching for food.

Day 8 - Singapore Botanic Gardens

We had the honour of visiting the projects new Patron (The Premier's Daughter) on Day 7 and discuss the exciting future for the project in Sarawak  (More on the future and photographs to follow when we can go public)

Today we have flown to Singapore to meet Dr Gillian Khew at the Singapore Botanic Garden to draw lesson's from Singapore's experience that can inform the Sarawak Project.

Our first stop was the in-vitro laboratory where we were able to discuss Dr Khew's methods and discuss ways to optimise success for in-vitro work at MRSM School. The set up at the botanic garden is really impressive and we have some exciting tweaks to try both at MRSM and at our propagation laboratory on Portland.

Dr Khew then showed us around her molecular biology labs and described both the impressive results her team are achieving and the inspirational effort they go to to engage, especially with students. 

A tour of the Botanic Garden and National Orchid Garden followed offering the opportunity to discuss many aspects of horticulture, public engagement and botanic garden logistics.  

We believe that todays visit has been invaluable as we work to ensure the success and future for the Sarawak project and we would like to express our deep gratitude to Dr Khew

Day 9 - Exploring Singapore and a Wagler's Pit Viper

Today we have continued exploring Singapore to help plan for the proposed Orchid Botanic Garden in Sarawak. Singapore is famous for its Botanic Garden and Garden by the Bay and it was fascinating to visit and identify lessons we could learn.

Our first stop was Garden by The Bay with its iconic 'Trees' of epiphytes and domes. There were impressive crowds and where ever we went we were struck by the quality of horticulture on show - the plants were beautifully grown.

The trees expressed a fascination with the plants of the Americas (mostly bromeliads) and this continued into the Cloud Forest Dome.  From afar the thought of a giant air conditioned greenhouse seemed quite extreme but of course all indoor spaces in Singapore are run cool as so the Cloud Forest Dome is very in keeping. The beautifully grown plants up a steep tower were really impressive with orchids mainly representing the Americas (species and hybrids) with some particularly lovely miniatures that we grow at home in Portland in a glass display area on the lowest level.

The Flower dome largely features Mediterranean and Arid plant zones, again with wonderfully grown plants although we kept well away from exuberant annual bedding tenuously linked to Switzerland!

There was some labelling and some information boards but the Garden by the Bay felt very much like a very successful plant based theme park and this was emphasised by a rather old hat noisy dinosaur animatronic thing.

The theme park vibe left us desperate to see real tropical forest and so we directed our taxi to take us to Bukit Timar Nature Reserve across the city.  Bukit Timar is one of the largest areas of rainforest left in Singapore (where only 0.3% old growth forest remains).

We found Bukit Timar enchanting. It is a far cry from the enormous primary forests of Sarawak but it is lovely regrowth forest that is being heavily 'gardened' to improve and support its establishment. The area was mostly granite quarries until the 1970s and is now returning rapidly to a valuable forest ecostystem. The site has a small but informative visitors centre that tells the story of Singapore's loss of species (Tigers hunted to extinction in the early 19th Century when the gonernment offered $20 for each tiger killed) and the efforts by staff and volunteers to look after the forest at Bukit Timar.

The success of Bukit Timar was evident not only in the huge number of locals walking, jogging and running along the main track but the wonderful Wagler's Pit Viper sleeping in trees just feet from the track. A remnant of Singapore's wild environment that works as an effective ecosystem.

After lunch we returned to the Singapore Botanic Garden. We explored the excellent Hybrid Orchid Heritage trail telling the story of early orchid hybridisation at the gardens from the 1930s onwards. We also had time to enjoy the varied orchids collection (species and hybrids) that is presented behind the big displays of hybrid vandas and introduces visitors to the orchids of the Americas, Africa, Australasia and Asia - well grown plants throughout and a reminder of our collection at home.

The was also a section dedicated to local orchid species but better information and focus would help visitors engage with the mostly non flowering species after being dazzled by the hybrids.

We have really enjoyed our visit to Singapore and have learnt a lot but are looking forward to returning to the wild untamed forests of Borneo.

Day 11 - SORORSO's Sabaki Farm Community-Based Orchid Project

We were excited today to go and visit our partner's rural community project. This initiative that is new since our last visit explores ways for community enterprise to support orchid conservation education and engagement.

At the farm local villagers work with orchids legally rescued by SARORSO from building projects and the current focus is on the species Arundina graminifolia - a plant we have seen growing on roadside verges around Kuching.

The first project has been to develop Arundina tea. Arundina graminifolia is grown and propagated by division at the farm. The team collect flowers every morning and process them by taking apart the flowers and drying the sepals, petals and lip in a desiccator. The dried petals are then sorted and packed as tea.

We have now drunk Arundina tea several times and its subtle taste combined with attractive purple colour is really growing on us.

The team is committed to training new members and all the participants are mentors or mentees. It is one of the more recent mentees who is responsible for the development of the second product - orchid chocolate which used the flowers of rescued Dendrobium crumenatum flowers.

The project has a special opening ceremony today by SARORSO's new Patron and the ceremony was attended my many significant Sarawak Agencies including the Forest Department and Sustainable Development Department. It is very clear that Community Based Orchid Project is quickly becoming a beacon for what is possible in Sarawak and has the potential to have a global impact on sustainable development around indigenous orchids as well as conserving Sarawak's Orchids through education.

We returned to Kuching full of hope for the future of Sarawak's Orchids only to find that the trees along the waterfront were having their natural orchids stripped off along with any other epiphytes such as ferns. We had heard that this was common practice (apparently in the mistaken belief that epiphytes are parasites) but seeing it first hand was heartbreaking. Kuching is one of the few cities in the world where you can see several orchid species growing on city centre trees - and here they were stripping them off. We let our friends know and hopefully our photographs and their protestations can stop this practice and keep Kuching's orchids thriving.

Day 12,13,14 and 15 - Exploring Mulu National Park

This has been our third visit to Mulu and again it didn't disappoint. This wonderful lowland rainforest on a mixture of limestone and sandstone is the most intact lowland rainforest we have found anywhere in the tropical world. The wonderful flora and fauna is added to by the lovely people of the Penan Tribe that we have the pleasure of sharing our days with as they guide us around their historic home forest.

Where shall I start - the animals of Mulu are a joy and we are always bumping into new things. Particular highlights include a Pangolin during a night walk. She bumbled out of the forest towards us looking for ants (of course) bumbled under our raised walkway and carried on into the night.

We saw three snake species - two of them new to us. In sharing pictures of these majestic animals with friends (especially here in Sarawak) we see that there is still work to be done in helping everyone to love snakes but we adore them.  Two of the species, the Banded Flying Snake and the vine snake, are only mildly venomous while the Bornean Pit Viper is very venomous but we have met the species before and know that they are very lazy and not aggressive so happy to let one take photos and walk quietly by.

The Banded Flying Snake actually glides from tree to tree rather than flies but our was on the boardwalk either by design or by missing a tree - we didn't ask. More on the animals in another post.

The orchids of Mulu are also fantastic. My first impression in 2019 was that the forest was not that good for orchids but as we have got to know it better we find more and more. I will add more about the orchids of Mulu once I have down loaded and sorted all my photos but a real star was Coelogyne rochussenii that was particularly abundant along the Mulu River.

Special thanks must go to our Penan guides, John who we spent two brilliant days with and Undi who led the night walk - their knwoledge and oneness with the forest is an inspiration.

Day 16 and 17 Turtle conservation and around Kuching

Back in Kuching we have had a couple of relaxing days exploring Kuching and the surrounding area with our friends from SARORSO.

We started with a boat trip to Satang Island where we were able to see turtle conservation in action. The beach was covered in turtle excavations and green turtles that had hatched that day were waiting for release once darkness fell.

The eggs are collected by the conservation team and reburied in a protected area of beach to protect them from being eaten by moitor lizards. Releasing them at the far end of the beach at night also reduces early predation both on the beach and in the sea.

There were a few orchid species near the beach but there are now paths from the beach into the forest which leaves the centres of the tropical forest covered completely undisturbed. Above the beach White Bellied Sea Eagles glided on thermals. 

We then explored little pockets of orchid habitat west of Kuching. We came across lots of species either by streams or in patched of heath forest. 

We were particularly pleased to find Dipodium scandens growing alongside Bromheadia findlaysonianum in scrubby heath. While Bromheadia findlaysonianum is a true terrestrial, Dipodium scandens is a very low growing epiphyte with very stiff alternate overlapping leaves. We found a plant growing from the base of a small shrub with roots travelling down into the surrounding leaf litter.

Another joy of the day was enjoying the flowering of Dendrobium crumenatum. D. crumenatum is the most common orchid in Kuching and we have seen it growing abundantly on street trees in the city as well as in every habitat we have visited locally. The flowers only last a  day but are magnificent. Plants coordinate flowering by bursting exactly nine days after a rapid afternoon drop in temperature caused by heavy rain - we remember the afternoon rain on Day 7.

Day 18,19 and 20 Exploring Bako National Park - Some animals

This was my second time at Bako and Annie's first. Since having a brief visit with students I have been desperate to return to this old national park (set up in 1957) with its diverse habitats and wonderful flora and fauna.

The visit was greatly enhance by our brilliant guide Lee. Lee had grown up in the forest and has a wonderful knowledge of birds, snakes, spiders, frogs and Nepanthes (pitcher plants). He is now  has become very knowledgeable in the orchids of Bako - we found 28 different species , many of them in flower.

However I will start with the animals of Bako. We saw all three monkey species several times - Proboscis Monkey, Silver Leaf Monkey and Long Tailed Macaque

We had seen Proboscis Monkey briefly in Santabong but here in Bake we have really got to know them. A large family group in the forest, two young brothers that stick together, and a wonderful old lone male on the cliff forest near the beach.

Silver Leaf Monkeys are smaller monkeys with a very quiet nature. They live of leaves and we always met them in large groups. The babies are particularly sweet especially the young ones that are bright orange in contrast to their grey elders.

The Macaques are the only monkeys that really interact with people, being very aware that humans offer an opportunity for food and we did see one Macaque venturing into the canteen kitchen and being chased out again.

The Long Tailed Macaques also seem to spend a lot of time foraging on the beaches. The Beaches at Bako are wonderful with wave carved sandstone cliffs and diverse plants nearly down to the sea. Unfortunately crocodiles are a real threat on the beaches and swimming is definately off the agenda. We saw three very large looking crocodiles between Bako Village and the reserve and so agrre wiht the warning sign - Beware Crocodiles.

We did find several other less threatening reptiles including two snakes species - The bornean Pit Viper (Male and Female) and the rarely seen Wolf Snake - this tree climbing snake was thin but over six feet long. Watch a video of our Wolf Snake here (Thanks Lee for filming it)

Day 18,19 and 20 Exploring Bako National Park - Orchids

We are very excited to report finding 28 different orchid species in Bako National Park during our two night stay. 

We are preparing a full list with images of all the orchids for our partners in SARORSO and for our guide Lee (now that he has become an orchid expert)

Some of the non-flowering species are not 100% confirmed and we are eagerly awaiting flower images from Lee to confirm these and also identify species we missed.

Here we will present some of the highlights

Day 22 SARORSO Graduation Day

We had a special day on Friday at UNIMAS (The Sarawak University Kuching) where we celebrated the graduation of both JIVOM Orchid Students from MRSM and Community Members from the Sabaki Farm Community-Based Orchid Project that we visited on Day 11.

The presentation was led by the Patron Dayang Norjihan (Daughter of Sarawak's Premier) who movingly described both the work and passion of her mother (the founding Patron), and her own commitment to community conservation and the Orchids of Sarawak. Here is a link to the Sarawak Tribune's report on the event if you want more details.

Catch up - Orchids of Mulu National Park - part 1

I promised to describe some of the orchid species we came across in Mulu National Park and have now had time to process camara images that couldn't be processed in the forest.

Despite not being renowned for its orchids, we found Mulu to be both diverse and abundant in orchid species. An issue for recording orchids is of course the height of the trees present in this wonderful lowland forest making the orchids visible from the ground but not easily identified even with binoculars and a proficient zoom. We will start with this lovely Vanda species we spotted flowering on our first walk in the forest. (below) - this giant dipterocarp is clearly packed with epiphytes including orchids but can you spot the Vanda?

Catch up - Orchids of Mulu National Park - part 2

Continuing with the Orchids of Mulu we will focus on the orchids we found along the Mulu river with the help of our wonderful guide John and his little fishing boat. We will start off with some more photos of the Coelogyne rochussenii that was abundant along the river

On the same trees as the Coelogynes were Eria species including this Eria densa just coming into flower.