The Expedition was directed to find the answers to many fundamental questions about the vegetation of the unique island of Palawan and to suggest a suitable area to be set aside for the gene conservation area project.
Expedition
How it started, how it was run.
Palawans botanical history
Palawan was first illustrated in John Whiteheads "The Exploration of Kina Bali" in 1893.
For more detail check the story of why the expedition was run
The Collections
A total of 1870 herbarium specimens mostly in sets of ten (so, over 18 000 individuals sheets), 861 bark and wood samples and 239 living plants were collected from 47 localities in the primary rain-forests of Palawan. As specimen identification to species and to a lesser extent generic level still continues, only an estimate of the number of species is possible. This estimate is 750 species. In addition, 35 marine and freshwater diatom samples were collected. 348 species were recorded dams 4 new species have been described.
Superficial Analysis
- 43% of the collected plants have a known use or are closely related to those with a known use. 8% of these produce timber, 15% timber and food and 77% food, cane, resins etc..
- 28 vegetation types were described. The Irawan R. valley - Mt. Beaufort area was richest both in vegetation types and in species composition. Lake Manguao (Danao) and Mt.Victoria were the next richest areas,
- 151 of the collected plants are known to be new to Palawan. This represents a 10% increase in the known flora. This was the status in 1985. Since then selective reviews have shown that up to 2024:
- Orchidaceae: 40 new species were added, including 13 new genera. The genus Bulbophyllum alone went for 3 species to 15.
- Arecidae: 16 species were added to the 38 known palm species (a 42%) increase.
- A new palm, Heterospathe dransfeldii, a fragrant shrub (Fagerlindia emanuelsonii) and 3 new diatom species were quickly described after the expedition.
- 40 years later, new species continue to be described from the collections.
Virgin Rainforest Value
This was written in 1982! 'There is every indication that with the growing rarity of intact vegetation and forests, there will be a dramatic increase in the commercial value of wild genomes. Twenty years hence they will constitute a considerable source of revenue for those in control of the areas in which they are found. Nor will this be a temporary source of revenue, since the purchased genomes will become integrated by means of sexual reproduction with the genomes already present in cultivated plants. Thus for every improvement it will again be necessary to resort to the virgin forest' (Oldeman & Boerboom, 1982).
Background research, networking, permits, team members, inclusion of national researches, medicines, supplies, logistics, politics and an advance recon mission are needed.
With no practical way to commute to remote rainforest areas we had to setup camp using local materials and crafts. The only luxury was using a tarpaulin for a roof instead of palm thatch!
Collecting in rainforest presents the challenge of bringing specimens down from the top of 40m trees, preserving the material for transport, and avoiding ants and snakes.
13.2 cubic meters of collections were shipped from the Philippines to the Riksherbarium in Holland!
Prior to this expedition, the known flora of Palawan was represented by 1519 species in 649 genera and 138 families of higher plants. The known flora has now been expanded by 153 species, an increase of 10%
A study of the flora of Palawan had to start with the production of lists of the species already collected on the island. Lists were compiled for the very first time 1982 for Monocotyledons, Dicotyledons, Pteridophyta, Gymnosperm.
This story guides users to the where individual specimens were collected in the field, which herbaria have sets of the specimens and how to search the digital systems.
