Purwodadi Botanical Gardens preserve endangered plant species
Retno K. Djojo , Contributor , Purwodadi
A timber supply shortage in the country has resulted in a price increase in paper pulp, which is threatening the paper production industry.
The management of Purwodadi Botanical Gardens in East Java, however, says it can address this problem with the cooperation of other concerned parties.
The Sengon Buto tree, or Giant Sengon (Enterolobium cyclocarpan), can reach a height of more than 10 meters and a circumference of some 3 meters at its trunk base.
Cultivating the Sengon Buto, a soft white-wood tree, would be profitable, the management asserts, as it would boost the nation’s paper production and prevent forests from being converted into plantations by paper industries.
The Purwodadi Botanical Gardens management has been engaged in an exchange program with several countries to also enrich its collection of plant species.
The 85-hectare park houses some 400 plant species, including trees like the Jacaranda obtusifolia from the U.S. and the Kegelia africana, or Buah Gada tree, and Adamsonia digitata, or Asam Londo from Africa.
A tree originating from Guinea, the Courapita guineanensis, dubbed the Buah Kanon due to the fruit it bears that resembles a cannon ball, is also part of the exchange program.
Built in 1941 on the highway connecting Surabaya to Malang, The Purwodadi Botanical Gardens is one of four major government-owned botanical gardens in the country; the others are the Bogor and Cibodas botanical gardens in West Java and the Eka Karya dry area garden in Bali.
Horticulturists who work at the Purwodadi Botanical Gardens are currently engaged in an intensive study to improve the quantity and quality of cassava and sweet potato species; a major staple food in East Java.
Touring the garden gives visitors the chance to witness a dry landscape of hardy trees thriving in East Java’s limey soil. The trees here have less green foliage compared to those seen in the Bogor Botanical Gardens; nevertheless each tree species is thriving well at an altitude of some 300 meters above sea level.
The gardens even boast some endangered plant species, including the Kepel tree (Stelechocarpus burakel). The tree’s fruit, which is as big as an adult’s fist, is edible and can be used as a deodorant; Central Java aristocrats once used the fruit as a perfume.
Horticulturists are ever-busy enriching the garden’s tree, flower and plant collection. For this purpose, they are prepared to scour the valleys, cliffs and crevices of the dry mountainous areas of East and Central Java, or even go as far as Kalimantan, to carry out comparative studies.
Their hard work has enriched the garden with a wide collection of terrestrial orchid species; it now has 3000 orchid varieties, of which 319 species have been identified.
One of these orchids, the Paphiodellum glancophylla has been made the garden’s signature plant, as seen at the front of the gardens’s entrance gates. This unique terrestrial species has a small purple flower and was detected by Dutch horticulturist J.J. Smith. The flower, which resembles a ladies shoe, is found on the mountain cliffs, valleys and crevices of East Java’s mountainous areas. It has even been found on the slopes of Mt. Semeru at an altitude of some 400 to 770 meters.
But orchid traders, who fetched high prices for the flower during the years 1965 through 1980, depleted the area of the species and put it in danger of becoming extinct.
With a budget of Rp 500 million per year, the Purwodadi Botanical Gardens management team is struggling to preserve the area’s unique flora species.
The management cooperates with educational institutions in an effort to teach future generations to cherish the gift of nature.
It also cooperates with other institutions to prevent the arbitrary felling of trees, which damages the forests that house endangered plant varieties.
Source: The Jakarta Post
Add comment April 28th, 2008