FWD: Excitement over new species

February 17, 2004

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Tuesday February 17, 2004

Excitement over new species

A species of Rafflesia, for years misidentified as an existing one, finally

received its rightful status when it was declared as new to science last year.

WAY back in 1993, a Rafflesia bloom spotted at Sungai Halong deep inside the

Temenggor Forest Reserve in Perak caused a stir. The Belum Scientific Expedition

to document the area’s flora and fauna was taking place then and several

volunteers had seen and photographed the rare flower. When scientists went to

the site the next day, however, the flower was gone, presumably cut off by the

orang asli.

One exasperated scientist who missed the rare sight was Universiti Kebangsaan

Malaysia botanist Prof Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Mohamad. His frustration grew upon

seeing the photographs as he found the bloom to look nothing like the other two

known Peninsular Malaysian species, the R. cantleyi and R. kerrii. In fact, the

bloom resembled the R. hasseltii, then known to be found only in Sumatra.

Latiff returned to Sungai Halong several times hoping the see the flower but it

never appeared again. Based on the photographs, Latiff published a paper in the

Malayan Nature Journal in 1995, identifying the bloom as R. hasseltii, thus

giving Malaysia a new record.

Over the years, the same flower cropped up at different sites and the name R.

hasseltii remained. In 2001, retired businessman Matthew Wong, who has been

avidly researching and photographing the Rafflesia, found a bloom also at the

Temenggor forest but towards the border of Kelantan, and gave it to Latiff.

With a live specimen at hand, Latiff was shocked to find that the flower which

he had years earlier identified as R. hasseltii was markedly different from the

Sumatran species. The new bloom has ramenta (hair-like growths covering the

central cavity of the flower) which branches at the tips whereas those in the

R.hasseltii are capped.

“I consulted other experts and all say no way this is a hasseltii based on the

different ramenta,” says Latiff who had described the R. tengku-adlinii in 1989.

After months of careful observation and comparison, it became evident that this

was an undescribed species. When the Royal Belum state park was launched last

August, the new species was named R. azlanii in honour of the Perak Sultan.

Latiff and Wong published a paper on the new species this month in the journal

Folia Malaysiana.

Latiff says although the R. azlanii has many characters closely related to the

R. hasseltii, there are differences, too. The new species is characterised by

four concentric series of large white blotches or warts that merge to almost

cover the whole perigone lobes (the petals).

The species has cropped up at various sites. In Perak, populations were found

on Gunung Ulu Sepat and Jenut Papan in Royal Belum, and in Pahang, at Sungai

Pelenting in Taman Negara and the Ulu Sungai Forest Reserve in Raub. Its habitat

is mainly primary lowland dipterocarp forest to lower montane forest of between

150m and 400m altitude.

While the species appear to be not as rare as initially thought, the population

in the Ulu Sungai Forest Reserve is vulnerable as the buds are being harvested

by a bomoh. The buds are dried, ground into powder and mixed with other

substances before being shaped into capsules.

“I advised the bomoh that this is a special plant and if he harvests

everything, there will be none left for the future,” says Latiff. “But he says

the population is thriving and he takes only the deteriorating buds. The

foresters are aware that he is collecting the buds but stopping him will deprive

him of his livelihood. I told him to use the buds sparingly and to take care of

the population there.”

The renaming of the R. hasseltii as the R. azlanii in the peninsula has not

deprived Malaysia of the record however, as the species has since been found in

the Tanjung Datu National Park in Sarawak. A paper on the discovery was

published in Folia Malaysiana this month by another world Rafflesia authority,

Dr Kamarudin Mat Salleh.

Scientists do not dismiss the possibility of more Rafflesia species cropping

up. After all, three new ones were discovered just the past decade; apart from

R. azlanii, the R. tengku-adlinii was described in 1989 and the R. speciosa,

only in 2002 from Panay Island, the Philippines.

“Even in Sumatra, we do not know exactly how many species there are because one

student has found so many blooms which could not be identified,” says Kamarudin.

“All the uncertainties go to show that we still do not know enough about this

plant although knowledge has grown steeply in recent years.”

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