Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
PLANTS
The stats on Borneo's flora are astonishing. The island has as many species of flowering
plants as the entire continent of Africa, which is 40 times larger. In Lambir Hills National
Park scientists found an astounding 1200 species of tree in a single 52-hectare research
plot, and the island is home to more than 1000 species of fern. Of Borneo's 2000 species of
orchid, over 1000 live on Mt Kinabalu.
Many of Borneo's plants struggle to survive
in thin, nutrient-poor soils. Some trees hold
themselves upright with wide, flaring buttresses
that compensate for shallow root systems.
Strangler figs start life as tiny seeds that are
defecated by birds in the rainforest canopy,
where they sprout and then send spindly roots downward in search of the forest floor.
Eventually, some figs grow large enough to embrace their host tree in a death grip. Once
the host tree dies and rots away, the giant fig stands upright on a fantastic hollow lattice-
work of its own interlaced air roots. Orangutans, wild pigs and birds are only some of the
creatures that feed on the fruit of the strangler fig.
Borneo has about 15,000 species of flowering
plant. All of North America - from the Panama
Canal to the Arctic - only has about 20,000.
