Bokor n.p.
July 2007:
First expedition: preparing to leave
When I was in Sihanoukville (formerly Kampong Som),
I asked many natives to get a look on my Nepenthes pictures. They didn’t seem
to know this plant but – what a chance! – the very same driver who led me to Kbal Chhay told me that this
“flower” also grows on “Phnom Bokor” (Bokor Hill), near the town of Kampot, in
the eponymous province. Immediately, this information reminds me of the very
little information I have about the pitcher plants of
- First of all,
Nepenthes kampotiana and Nepenthes geoffrayi,
previously described by the French botanist Henri Lecomte
in 1909 and now synonyms of Nepenthes anamensis (Cheek and Jebb,
1997) have been collected somewhere in the province of Kampot or in the town of
Kampot (there is confusion about the two homonymous names).
- Second, Nepenthes
thorelii, described from a Vietnamese type, is also supposed to be known from
- Finally, and it
was the most important thing, the driver from Sihanoukville
brings back in my mind the two Don Pirot’s pictures I’ve seen in Marcello’s
Nepenthes of Cambodia site, one of the three only wild Cambodian Nepenthes
pictures I could find on the whole internet. Marcello made the assumption that
they show some specimens of Nepenthes smilesii.
I especially
remember the photography of an elegant orange-yellowish upper pitcher with a
thorelii/smilesii-like reddish lower pitcher in a savannah-like biotope. The
presence of Drosera peltata also caught my
attention.
When the young
driver mentions Phnom Bokor, near Kampot, he sets my mind on fire. I am going
to head toward the province where almost all the Cambodian pitcher plants have
been found and collected!
I consider that the
lack of complete herbarium materials and the lack of both taxonomic and field
works are striking and it is, thus, the opportunity to help clearing the
matters. Arguably, a pretentious thought but it’s, after all, the very reason
that drives me there.
I spend some hours
in Sihanoukville’s cyber cafés watching (again) Don Pirot’s picture and reading
(again!) the very little information I can find online, almost all of which are
included in Marcello’s site. Something is not right. In my eyes, Pirot’s plants
do not exactly fit with the other smilesii shots pictured in Marcello’s site.
The upper pitchers in particular look very robust and colourful. Of course,
size and colour have almost no importance in Nepenthes taxonomy. These are just
pictures. All I can do is surmise. Field work is waiting for me and hopefully,
it will bring some answers.
The journey is
becoming very exciting now that I have discovered my first Nepenthes (N.
mirabilis) in Kbal Chhay
Waterfalls.
I have kept with me
the green mirabilis inflorescence I had inadvertently broken a few days ago as
a kind of trophy and I spend long moments holding in front of my eyes while my
thoughts are lingering on juvenile fantasies of discovery, petty glory and
triumph over the Unknown (wow!). Quite a childish behaviour one might say: but
I’m indeed feeling like John Trenchard or Huckleberry
Finn, one of those teenage characters, heroes of adventures novels coming right
from the 18th and 19th centuries.
We leave Sihanoukville and we’re heading to Kampot with my brother
and my sister. We want to spend some time together - my brother lives in the
Reunion isle and my sister in England - and they decide to hang with me on this
trip. They constitute a pleasant company.
We take a “lane
tourist” (tourist car), a mini bus with 12 seats but the profitability leads
the Cambodian driver to transport... 18 or 25 people, depending on the place
left on the roof! I’ll sure remember this drive run for a long time. We arrive,
after two long hours, and it is quite a relief. As you can imagine, the
temperatures are very high in the vehicle and, as far as I’m concerned, the
lack of privacy is sometimes hardly bearable.
Introducing Kampot
Kampot is both the
name of a popular southern province and the name of a city. This is the source
of some confusion when one studies Cambodian herbarium materials as many
samples are simply labelled as collected from “Kampot”. Kampot is currently one
of Cambodia most popular provinces thanks, among others, to its easy access and
its natural sites.
Landing in Kampot
is important to me for two reasons: I know that most herbarium materials have
been collected here and both my mother and father are born in this city.
Therefore, the town is already special to me.
Bordered by a
river, it is famous in the region for its pepper. Kampot is a pleasant place. I
find it quite peaceful when compared to the boiling cauldron of Phnom Penh or
to Sihanoukville “Costa”. We take a break in a café
owned by a nice and welcoming old lady. She is in the mood of chatting and
quickly walks to meet us. She knows at once that we are foreigners. Of course,
we are born Cambodians but we definitely don’t look like the natives. We’re
often taller, fatter, we don’t dress the same and, apparently, we don’t even
walk the same way. A Cambodian eye can immediately distinguish the “western
Cambodian” from the native one. I am quite uneasy with that: not a true Frenchman
in France and not even a true Cambodian in Cambodia! But that’s another story.
We greet the owner and find she is indeed as affable as she looks. She’s
intrigued by the raceme I have brought from Kbal Chhay. I’m keeping it in a little bottle with some centimetres
of water and I guess that, in the distance, it looks like a really strange
flower. I do know that it is pointless to keep this greenish thing but I just
can’t decide to leave it. Kbal Chhay
has been so fantastic for a sophomore Nepenthes student like me... Even when I
was in the lane tourist, where we were squashed like sardines in a can, I tried
to keep the flower intact by holding this bottle for two hours from Sihanoukville to Kampot! When I first arrived in this café,
the first thing I did was to put that unusual vase on a table and I guess we
caught the attention of the nice lady.
“What is that kind
of flower?” she asks. My Khmer is quite bad so I mumble a few words and open my
big rucksack in search of the Lecoufle’s book I have
already used in Sihanoukville. I manage to explain
that the pitchers are leaves and the raceme in the bottle is what remains of
the flowers scape.
She confidently
tells me that this plant grows on Phnom Bokor. My heart is about to explode.
A few hours later,
we’re wandering in the streets of Kampot in order to find a driver who would
get us on Bokor’s peak. My brother who has already
climb Bokor Hill summit the previous year leads us to some drivers he quite
knows. The National Park is vast and my time limited. I only want to go to the
hill peak in order to check that odd N. smilesii population.
I initially didn’t
want to climb Bokor Hill. Actually, I wanted, after the Sihanoukville
expedition, to head directly to the north-east, toward unexplored parts of
Cambodia. Nepenthes are already known from Bokor ant it is supposed to be the
widespread and variable N. smilesii.
But this one looks
so unusual. I show some Nepenthes pictures to all the drivers and motorbike
renters we meet. One of the driver, a slender, smiling, cap wearing, 35 or 40
years old man called Lok San (Mister San) told me
that he knows this “flower” and can bring me to a spot where it grows on Bokor
Hill. He will bring me there the following morning.
Bokor n.p.
Between 1917 and
1925, the French colons have built, on Bokor Hill, a road then a station which
comprises, among others, a colonial hotel and a catholic church. All of them
are now abandoned. The hill is known for its cool climate, breathtaking views
and waterfalls (the Popokvil Falls and the Tek Chou
Falls). The road up to Bokor dives into deep and thick jungle and it is one of
the most stunning I’ve ever seen but it is in shredded condition. This road
should only be covered on a motorbike or on a powerful 4x4. The abandoned hill
station is regularly visited by tourists who long to enjoy the sight and swim
in the waterfalls at the wet season. Some even sleep in the ranger station on Bokor’s summit.
Many animals,
including elephants, pythons and tigers live in the remote areas of the park
adding thus, more value to this location. In spite of this, trekking is not
developed at all: there is almost no trekking organization and, alas, the
rangers do not speak English.
Bokor National Park
is supposed to be free of mines. However I spend long moments with the Kampot
habitants, drivers, restaurant owners, passers-by and rangers, speaking about
these dreaded landmines. In Cambodia, you can’t ever be totally sure. Despite
the presence of some tourists (who just go up and down), I’m convinced it is
possible to make valuable discoveries. And there are those haunting Don Pirot’s
pictures...
A memorable Saturday morning
I could barely
sleep that night. I roam that evening in cyber cafés once again, hoping that
internet will bring me more information. I post a thread on the
pitcherplants.com forum, explaining that I will, the following day, examine a
colony of Nepenthes smilesii in the wild.
That’s when I first
meet, virtually, Marcello Catalano. I
wake up and discover from the room of my guesthouse window a cloudy weather. I
hope rain won’t ruin this important day. We leave Kampot (me, my brother and
sister and our kind driver) and quickly arrive in Bokor NP. The sun has finally
decided to join us. What a relief. We greet the rangers, pay our entry fees,
and start to climb the rocky path. I didn’t know this day would be another
intense experience: we need almost two hours to get to the peak. Just imagine
this: we’re sitting in an antic Toyota Camry (20 years old maybe), a mere
berline, and we’re driving one of the worst roads on earth! I sincerely think
that we are not going to make it.
I try to forget the
infernal road for a while and admire the surrounding jungle. I see strange
flowers emerging directly from the soil forest. Some gingers inflorescences
maybe? Bamboos, tree ferns, various palms, dragonflies, glittering damselflies
and waltzing butterflies... Having spent my youth studying insects, it was hard
not to ask the driver to stop the car in order to admire the entomofauna. The
car emerges onto a small plateau.
Lok San, our driver,
makes a first arrest. He wants to show us the beautiful view (733). I’m already charmed by the strange
habitats, its imposing rocks and its peculiar flora (735, 732, 737, 744). The presence of Sphagnum moss on a peaty soil
leads me to search for some Utricularia and some Drosera, in vain. After this
very short stopping, where I don’t manage to find any interest for the site
touristy highlights, Lok San tells me that he’s
leading us to the spot where he knows the plant lives.
He drives for about
15 minutes under a fierce sun. It’s ten o’ clock; the temperature is rising.
There are still a few kilometres before we reach the summit our driver stops
the car. My heart is bumping like crazy. “The flowers should be here”, Lok San whispers. Then he goes down to one of the road
borders, in a savannah-like meadow. I swiftly follow him, barely thinking that
there can be, after all, some landmines. “There, mister!” and he shows me... a
Nepenthes! (750)
1st spot: in the savannah
A
gorgeous specimen with colourful upper pitchers (751,
752, 753). I’m shocked by
their sheer size (
How amazing that
the same species can develop such variations in its upper pitchers. I quickly
check some taxonomical features: lid shape, glands distribution, leaf lamina,
leaf attachment and indumentum. To me, the two plants are identical from a
taxonomical point of view.
We find a few other
plants in this “savannah”. Most of the plants are mature and bear big and
colourful aerial pitchers. This is clearly the plant both Don Pirot and the
anonymous photographer have “caught” in their camera somewhere in Bokor NP a
few years ago.
I really don’t
think it’s Nepenthes smilesii. It doesn’t fit. But I need to see more.
At the extremity of
the small savannah, which was about one hundred meters long, I discover some
mature plants with seedpods. We finally find a dozen plants in this meadow. I’m
taking many pictures and decide, euphoric, to come back to see my brother and
sister. They want to see the Popokvil Falls and the rest of the Hill station
which are 15 minutes from here.
I’m not interested
at all and ask them to leave me here. The driver, my brother and sister do not
feel comfortable with the idea. The members of my tribe know that I’m a bit
adventurous (their mouth says “adventurous”; their eyes say “unconscious”). My
brother reminds me that, the previous year, he climbed the road on a motorbike
when he stumbled across a huge python (maybe Python molurus)
that blocked the whole way with its body! He’s been frightened to death.
Actually, his thoughts are more focused on the mines. The driver explains that
tourists only go to the summit, stay a moment to enjoy the view and then walk
down. They never wander on the path or in the wild surroundings. But the
rangers, and sometimes other Khmers, often walk there. Lok San makes sure
that I have enough water. I manage to convince my tribe to not worry and we
agree that they can leave me in this meadow for at least two hours. I wasn’t
interested by the Popokvil Falls. This was a mistake, but I would only realize
this a few months later, when I would be in Paris Herbarium.
2nd spot: shade growing plants
Alone. At last. I
decide to check the other road border. There is no savannah this time but
trees. A long natural ditch separates the trees from the road. This is a shady
spot where I quickly distinguish some pitchers. I go down in the ditch where my
feet dive in
There is Sphagnum
moss in the ditch and many Nepenthes lianas above me (810). The plants are huge. Some aerial pitchers, gracile and stocky, reach at least 25 or
Could it be N.
smilesii after all? Those Indochina species are so closely related that I
couldn’t state anything before I see more. With chance, I soon discover a
raceme of male flowers (799). It is borne on a
big vining plant climbing on large shrubs. In the same spot, I find many
juvenile plants, rosettes with basal shoots (811)
growing in a wet and peaty soil.
3rd spot
As you can guess, I
am very excited but very puzzled too. I didn’t know it at the time but I was
just going to discover the complexity of all those species from what was once
called Indochina. I have a little more than one hour left before my brother, my
sister and the driver come back to pick me up. I’m leaving the two spots and
decide to follow the road. After a few minutes, I stumble on another
savannah-like meadow and discover some isolated plants (842). Like in the first spot, these are mature
specimens but they do not exceed 60/80 cm high. I guess that plants growing in
full sun are quite stunted. The pitchers are very colourful and quite a number
of them are bearing seedpods.
One of the plants
draws my attention (838). There is a massive
red pitcher, embedded in the surroundings grasses, which is really spectacular
(825). It is about
I spend maybe ten
minutes with this single plant only: why are these “lower” pitchers so big? The
previous I found on a vining plant were only
Downpour
Finally, I decide
to start my short movie. I will search for another spot if I have time left. A
movie will shed another light on the plant in its habitat and I will sure enjoy
it once I go back in France. I’m trying to film as best as I can, trying to
make it both informative and entertaining document when I have the feeling that
the temperature is cooling down. I have spent so much time looking at the plants
on the ground or under the trees that I didn’t notice that heavy lead clouds
have covered the whole sky.
It’s raining! Just
a few teardrops... It won’t quench my thirst for science... I’m a teenage novel
hero, remember?
This is an
interesting task. I enjoy filming ants running on my hand while I lift up a
lid; I enjoy filming the biotope, the shrubs, the lianas, but...
It’s raining! By
mighty Zeus, it’s a heavy shower!
I have to search
for cover under the trees, under the protection of the trees and the mocking
curves of the Nepenthes lianas (857). I’m just
next to the first lower pitchers I have found in the second spot, crouched
down, smiling. I don’t know how long I’ve been here, waiting for the rain to
stop. Some 4x4 are passing by. I see white face silhouettes with raincoats. I
hope they will enjoy the view...
I hear some strange
sounds in coming from the jungle behind me. A kind of murmuring. Must be the
thunder in the distance. I can feel some drops on my chin, the moisture of the
vegetation. I’m sliding like these drops in the elongated leaves of the
Nepenthes. That murmur is eerie, merged in the threnody of the rain, the
stamping of my shoes on the peaty carpet... It is moving near. And then, I
remember a quote from the “Lonely planet” travelling guide, a quote I read many
times: “there is always the possibility of an unexpected encounter with a
three-legged tiger nicknamed Tripod who has been known to roam the ridge along
here”.
Excitement, within
a handful of seconds, turns into anguish. I now hear the purring near me, maybe
at 10 meters from me.
Ok... Man, it’s
going to take years before someone finds my corpse embedded in the vegetation
under the shade of these Cambodian trees. My wife and my three kids will never
forgive me and my younger boy, Ulysse, is not even 11
months old. Killed by a handicapped tiger... is it glorious enough? I think the
sky is clearer. It has stopped raining but drops are still falling from the
trees, of course. When has it stopped? I left Tripod in the shade of the jungle
and leave spot n. 2, with a few shivers I must confess. I look at my watch: Lok San, my brother and sister have left me for almost two
hours and a half now. I guess I should take benefit of the extra time they give
me.
4th spot: stones and sphagnum
I’m walking faster.
After a few minutes - I think I’m one kilometre from the first spot - I lay my
eyes on a strange and painfully beautiful landscape, made of large flat stones,
various mosses, grasses, small shrubs and streaming water (867, 866). The
atmosphere of the hill has drastically changed, the humidity level is very high
and the rainwater is evaporating creating mist all around me (877).
I’m diving in that
vegetal painting. There are Sphagnum carpets everywhere (869). I found a nice small colony of Nepenthes.
The majority are mature short stunted plants growing among the grasses, just
like in the first spot. Many are female with ripe seedpods. There are also some
vining plants which do not climb very high: one meter and a half, maybe two
meters (886). Arguably, this is the same
plants that those I have found on the first and third spots, in open habitats.
I can’t help thinking that those striped peristomes are very elegant.
In the Sphagnum
beds, dwell some small lower pitchers, really similar to those I have
discovered in spot 2 (891). I guess all those
plants belong to the same taxon after all. We’ll see.
It’s surprising to notice that some plants have flowered at quite a small size.
I sometimes find seedpods on
Unfortunately, it’s
time to return to Kampot. The
Second expedition: not smilesii
A few days after my
first expedition on Bokor Hill, I decide to return to the location. I have
contacted Marcello; we both think this plant is a yet undescribed species. Of
course, all those
I am back in
After long hours of
thought, I decide to return to
Back in Kampot
I’m alone this time
and I will spend the whole day on Bokor Hill. Lok
San, the amiable driver who led me to my first Bokor Nepenthes will once
again join me. I told him I need to see the plants once again to take pictures.
It’s Friday
evening. I can only think about this Nepenthes, I eat it, drink it and breathe
it. Walking along the river, all I can do is looking at Bokor Hill, at the
distance. What an incredible sight (1069). I just think that I might be
walking on Dr Thorel and Mr Lecomte’s
footsteps.
Preah Monivong NP
I enter once again
As I’m paying my
entry fee, I ask the rangers if I can collect seeds of the Nepenthes. I
want to justify myself in full details but there’s no need. The authorization
is granted. The rangers have so much to do with logging and animal poaching
that they couldn’t care less for these seeds.
Bampong Sramoch
Back
in Bokor’s jungle (1183). The temperatures
are high, the sun, fierce. The atmosphere is drastically different from my
previous expedition. We arrive at the very spot where Lok
San had led me one week ago. I’m walking down the road this time and I quickly
discover a new spot with shade growing plants. The upper pitchers are impressive
as ever. Some are covered with ants (1196,1185).
I will learn later
that some Cambodian call Nepenthes “bampong Sramoch” which means “Ants pit holes”. Unfortunately, it is
also the vernacular name of a species of Dischidia.
Anyway, I will stick with Bampong Sramoch
(pronounce “Bampongue Srramoïï”).
No time to lose,
I’m taking many pictures of taxonomic details: lid shape, spur, peristome, leaf
attachment, leaf lamina. You will find many details in an upcoming diagnosis of
that species. Once again, I’m truly impressed by the upper pitchers. Some are
huge and colourful and these are shade growing plants! (1221,1232,1224).
This damaged pitcher reaches more than
Lower pitchers
At the end of the
first trip, one thing has really annoyed me: why wasn’t I able to find some
more lower pitchers? And what about the difference of size between some lowers
(
I distinguish some
vining specimens with leaves all along the stem. Some tendrils are embedded in
the grass. I’m heavily stamping the soil all around the plants in order to
chase all the spiders, snakes and centipedes which could be hiding then I
rummage in the low vegetation. Joy fuels my mind: there are many lower
pitchers, far redder and bigger than the first ones I have discovered! These
ones are almost
Shade growing plants
I’m still in the
same spot. While I’m examining the numerous lower pitchers, I see, beneath the
tree, some nice plants, growing in filtered light (1357). As I have already noted,
the leaves are broader. The pitchers are also less stocky but they nevertheless
exhibit a nice coloration. Just compare them with the pitchers from a plant
growing in full sun (1760).
A huge colony
The car has broken
down and the driver needs to repair it. Lok San seems
worried but he tells me to go on. The problem seems serious enough but I’m too
focused on the plants to really care. I have the whole day but I already know
that I will be running out of time.
I stumble on the
very specimen which impressed me the previous week. The peristome has not
really folded further (1395, 1397).
I decide to walk
far from the spots I found before and, soon, I discover that this Nepenthes
species is thriving on the hill!
There are many
plants (a few dozens) at different stages of development (1425, 1427). Fruiting plants are numerous (1630)
and I collect a good amount of seeds following, as best as I can, the ICPS guidelines
(http://www.carnivorousplants.org/statements/seedcollect.html).
The soil is wet and
I have the pleasure to find Utricularia subulata in this habitat (1478).
I walk further and, in a savannah (1509), my eyes lay on young plants with
many lower pitchers (1507, 1498). I think that they quite
different from Nepenthes smilesii lower pitchers. They’re more robust.
I’m even wondering if this couldn’t be after all the real N. thorelii?
Flowers
I don’t know how
long I have been walking. I hope Lok San is
successfully repairing the car. It would be a shame to sleep here with the
beasts. But my thoughts focus again on the plants when I distinguish some
flowers above the grass (1673). This is really interesting. Some
flowers are borne on double pedicels but that’s an irregular feature (1763).
Peculiar specimens
I can’t stop
discovering new plants. This one is very special (1553, 1555).
The mouth is almost on the front of the pitcher like in N. aristolochioides or N. klossii.
Amazing and beautiful. Lok San has run and joined me.
He’s waiting for friends to come to help him repairing the old Toyota Camry.
They will come on motorbike. What a day! For a moment, my driver is interested
by the plants and he discovered this impressive climbing specimen (1585).
Lithophyte Nepenthes
A phone call. Lok San friends have arrived. My driver returns to his car.
Two hours have passed. I have found many interesting things in that span of
time. I have stumbled onto an open habitat with large flat stones like the one
I found the previous week (spot #4): (1600). I’m surprised to see that some Nepenthes
grow in pockets of soil between the rocks. Some plants even seem to grow
directly on the stones (1602)! In the surroundings, I have found Utricularia
once again. This is U. odorata (1610).
Mature lower pitchers
This is it! Look at
these huge lower pitchers (1639, 1649, 1638, 1657). They are almost
A new species
At the end of the
day I find some colonies of the tuberous Drosera peltata (1739, 1730). Just like Don Pirot, I manage to
take a shot of both the pitcher plant and the sundew (1745). It seems clear to me that
this new species has a rootstock system just like N. smilesii/anamensis,
N. thorelii or the Thai N. sp. “Viking”. Unfortunately, I can’t
check the roots. I tried but, without accurate tools, I just managed to harm a
few plants. This will have to be done when I come back.
I bet,
nevertheless, that this new species has a rootstock system:
-It is clearly
related to all the rootstock species mentioned above;
-
-Drosera peltata,
a well known tuberous species grows along with this species.
After this journey
I come back to
Finally, I decide,
with the help of the CPUK forum, that all seeds and seedlings will be sold to
raise funds to Meadowview biological station.
