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----- Original Message -----
To:
Cc:
Sent: Sunday, December 17, 2006 9:13 PM
Subject: Re: [Aroid-l] Edible Araceae, Aroid art, Wild Bovines,
Reply-To : Discussion of aroids
Sent : Saturday, December 16, 2006 5:00 AM
To : "Discussion of aroids"
CC : Wong Sin Yeng - yahoo , Wong Sin Yeng - UNIMAS
, Dr Timothy Hatch
Subject : Re: [Aroid-l] The Saola and the Araceae
Dear Pete and Ted,
Thanks for a great discussion and much information on two of the subjects
I have a lot of interest in, the edibility of the Araceae AND wild Bovine
species!
Does anyone know if perhaps the genus Schismatoglottis may contain less of
the crystals/compounds that make most other aroids so very unattractive to
browsing animals or man?
What is 'ulam', Pete, a type of curry or stew??
The blooms of Spathiphyllum canifolium are reportedly used and cooked as
an ingredient in curies in Surinam/N. S. America, and I got a recent
record of the blooms and young leaves of Caladium bicolor being cooked and
used as a food in Arima, N. W. Trinidad, W.I., the name used for them
there was 'ca-chew'. I`d also like any input from you guys 'out there'
on a slide I saw at the MOBOT conference several years ago, it showed a
crudely put-together table of veggies somewhere in field in Asia
(Thailand??), and amongst them were tied-up bundles of the unmistakable
purple-colored blooms of Lasia spinosa with their spiralled tops.
On another note of interest to some of us, "Aroids in Art" (Steve Marak
and other collectors!), just by pure chance and only this morning while I
was browsing through the illustrations in a book ("The Body", Edward
Lucie-Smith, 1981, Thames and Hudson Ltd., London, ISBN 0-500-233339-X
10-81) (this book turned up after my major home repair), and in it on pg.
91 I came across a reproduction of an old painting by Albert Van Der
Eeckhout (active 1637-1664), "A Tarairiu Woman", c. 1641. It shows a
woman in Brazil who is carrying a basket attached to her forhead by a
tump-line, the basket contains the lower leg of a human, she also carries
a severed lower human arm and hand in her right hand. On the left border
of the painting are shown the unmistakable 'canes/stalks' (erect rhizomes)
of the giant aquatic aroid species Montrichardia linnefera, these canes
are bearing three pineapple-like infructesences, and several leaves.
Other aroid leaves are shown along the bottom right of the painting, but
are shown too dark in the copy in the book I have to be identified. It
reports that van der Eeckhout accompanied Count Johan Maurits of
Nassau-Siegen, who led a West India Company expidition to Brazil, and that
v. d. E. illustrated in paintings, watercolors and drawings and 'on the
spot' the flora and fauna, an early type of scientific and anthropological
record.
(Pete, you told us that the seeds of this plant are roasted, and that
while visiting Brazil you tried them, and that they were in fact very good
food!)
It would be of great interest to search in the records (in Holland?) and
see what other plants and aroids from Brazil were illustrated by Van der
Eeckhout! (come in, Wilbert H., "Lord Phallus???).
I look forward to comments and any information from you guys out there!
Sincerely,
Julius
Hi Ted
Was interested to see your posting on the saola and aroids. In the late
1990's I was involved with a UNDP/Lao Forest Department project training
parataxonomists in the northern part of the Lao PDR as part of a NTFP
project funded by UNDP & Danida. While in Lao I met up with Bill
Robichaud, then of WSC, who was studying saola and was one of the first
westerners to successfully get photographs from camera traps. Bill asked
me to identify plants that he had collected from saola grazing sites and
these proved to Schismatoglottis calyptrata (Roxb.) Zoll. & Moritzi, a
variable and widespread species and is common in everwet forest in
IndoChina (its full range is from tropical northeastern Myanmar to New
Guinea).
It now seems likely that the saola's primary range is the remote and very
precipitous, not to say very wet mountains along the border between
Bolikhamxay and Nghe An provinces in Lao & Vietnam respectively with
increasing evidence that it most saola and saola habitat in Laos probably
lie outside of Nakai-Nam Theun, in areas of Bolikhamxay Province (and to a
lesser extent Savannakhet and Xekong Provinces) the area (Nakai-Nam Theun)
traditionally considered its main range
Reverting to the aroid aspect, here in Sarawak leaves of Schismatoglottis
motleyana (Schott) Engl. are occasionally sold as a vegetable. used to
make ulam and are favoured for the astringent/sour taste they impart. In
Sabah I have seen leaves of another Schismatoglottis (possibly S. venusta
A.Hay) sold for similar purposes.
Peter
----- Original Message -----
To: Discussion of aroids
Sent: Friday, December 15, 2006 11:36 PM
Subject: [Aroid-l] The Saola and the Araceae
This is a distraction from our usual fare, but I saw an interesting
article on the little-known saola, an exotic bovine. The current Science
magazine (December 1 cover date) contains a picture and written reference
of an unidentified Araceae, which the rare animal is believed to eat. The
saola, also known as the Vu Quang ox, is the last new large animal to have
been discovered. It was unknown to science before 1992. Although they say
it is related to the cow, it looks more like an antelope. The few
remaining individuals live in Vietnam and Laos. The article contains some
interesting information on the animal and its bleak prospects, but nothing
about the aroid save the following:
"The forest ecologist finds safe footing on the slick slope and grabs a
handful of broad, dark-green Araceae leaves. 'Saola like to eat these,"
[Do] Tuoc says. 'At least, we have seen bite marks.'"
There is a photograph of Mr. Tuoc holding some nondescript taro-like
plants in each hand (fibrous roots, perhaps 30 cm petiole height).
The saola diet is unknown, save for the hints that it might like tucking
into a luscious aroid. Much of the remainder of the article is a
discussion, pro and con, of the idea of attempting to clone the beast in
an attempt to preserve it.
Anyone having a liking for extremely rare animals can e-mail me separately
and I will send them a pirated scan of the article. I don't think anyone
will mind this violation of copyright as long as we don't sell copies.
Ted.
ted.held@us.henkel.com
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