Exhibition "In the Forests of Borneo"
Plants
Research in the forest | Bornean orangutan | Birds | Mammals | Plants (you're here) | Men
Extra content:
video transcription
The trees all had colossal trunks (...) Abauria excelsa (...) which is probably the largest and most majestic in Borneo, and, indeed, must take rank among the giant trees of the world.
Odoardo Beccari, 1902
Beccari was a well-rounded naturalist, with interests spanning many disciplines, but Botany was his greatest passion from youth, and it is to Botany that he devoted—and would continue to devote, without any doubt—the majority of his work, both during his travels and after returning to Italy.
The main series of his precious collections is now preserved at the Central Herbarium in Florence and is extremely rich in type specimens—the unique samples that serve as universal references for naming the new species discovered by Odoardo, since much of what he collected had never before been studied by any Western scholar.
As one would expect from a large tropical island, Borneo’s plant diversity—both in terms of habitats and species—is astonishing. Today, about 15,000 plant species are recorded there, including 3,000 species of trees alone. According to the most recent estimates, at least 6,000 of these species are endemic, meaning they occur exclusively on this island.
The showcase of plant diversity offers a small window into this remarkable range of variation through the original specimens collected by Beccari, preserved almost perfectly for 160 years thanks to various conservation methods: from a vial keeping a tiny Venus’ Lantern in alcohol solution, to the original sample of the Tapang, Borneo’s tallest tree; from the spiny fruits of wild durians to the winged ones of certain Dipterocarpaceae; and finally, a whole folder from the Malaysian herbarium, a treasure chest containing dozens of pressed samples.
A giant of the Asian tropics. Found in Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia. Photo from near Sukau, Borneo, where it is known as Tualang or as Tapang, by Dick Culbert from Gibsons, B.C., Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
