A few weeks ago I was writing about local plantsman Keith Adams. You may not have heard that Keith died last week. We will miss him. He was an extraordinary character who made frequent plant hunting trips to Borneo during his retirement years.
One of the plants Keith collected in Borneo, Rhododendron lowii, took 16 years to flower at Pukeiti. Not exactly speedy, but worth the wait, according to the Pukeiti team. It's a vireya or subtropical rhododendron with bright green glossy leaves and gleaming golden yellow trumpets.
I was fortunate to be given a plant of R. lowii recently by Mark and Abbie Jury and, to my delight, it has flowered twice already. It's a real collector's piece, which is understandable given that it can take 16 years to flower.
The plant is named after Rajah Low, and I thought I would tell you a bit about him. Although he should be famous for his rhododendron, he is actually better known in the orchid world. We should not forget also that he was a very able and popular administrator in Borneo and Malaysia.
As a young man he became interested in plants, not surprising given his father ran a London nursery specialising in orchids. This was the era when orchids were top of the pops and nurseries were sending brave young men all over the world to find exciting new species. When he left school, Hugh Low became one of these intrepid young men, agreeing to go out to the Far East collecting orchids for his father's nursery. Thankfully, his collections were a huge success and there are at least eight orchids named after him.
In those days, orchid nurseries would spend vast sums to obtain new species and plants were stripped from jungles all over the world. Apart from being beautiful, orchids had two things in their favour. They were expensive to maintain in heated greenhouses, plus their scarcity value meant only rich people could afford to acquire a collection. Nurserymen loved this scenario as they could name their price for new introductions. Collectors were sent to all the islands of the Pacific in search of orchids.
There were few white men in Borneo at this time so everyone knew everyone. Hugh Low fell in with Rajah Brooke who, by all accounts, was a rogue. Englishman James Brooke sailed to Borneo in the late 1830s with the intention of trading spices. His timing was perfect as his crew helped the Sultan of Brunei put down an insurrection and Brooke was given the title of Rajah of Sarawak - rajah being chief or king. Nothing like giving yourself airs.
In those days, enterprising Englishmen sailed off and claimed bits of the world and the government in London had to play catchup and paint a bit more of the map in British pink. India was the classic case where a single company controlled the country and similar things happened here in New Zealand.
Hugh Low became Brooke's secretary for the next 20 or so years. In many ways he had the perfect life living on the island of Labuan just to the north of Borneo, giving him easy access to the mainland to go botanising or exploring. Low was the first European to venture far inland and was quite at ease with the headhunting natives. In later life he wrote books about his adventures and the people he met.
In his early 50s, a time when most people in his situation were thinking about retirement, he was asked to take over the administration of part of mainland Malaysia known as Perak. Naturally, this increased his workload but he was suited to the task and gained the title of rajah for his troubles. Not long afterwards, the British government recognised his good work in Malaysia and gave him a knighthood while he was still in office which was very unusual. Normally one only got the gong after finishing a stint in the foreign office.
He initiated and completed valuable infrastructure links like phone and rail. And he was a very popular administrator because he took the trouble to listen to local people. By learning local languages and giving locals autonomy, he was a rare beast - a far-sighted diplomat in the colonies.
Despite his administrative duties, plants and nature remained his first love. He initiated the experimental planting of tea, coffee and rubber and is credited as the man who started the Malaysian rubber industry. However, it was the jungle he loved and he was never happier than exploring in the wilds where no white man had been before. He is credited with being the first European to climb Mt Kinabalu back in 1851 where he found many new orchids and some super duper insectivorous plants, later named as Nepenthes lowii in his honour. The second time he climbed Mt Kinabalu in 1858 he discovered more pitcher plants, including the biggest in the world, Nepenthes rajah, named after his friend, Rajah Brooke.
We've got some of these Nepenthes pitcher plants in our garden with the hope that they'll catch the mosquitos. These pitcher plants are insectivorous, they supplement their diet with a few passing insects. The insect is attracted by the scent to the pitcher, which is part full of liquid which dissolves and devours any insect silly enough to fall in. The tops of the pitcher are slippery to make them fall in, and inside the walls are covered in downward facing hairs to prevent an insect escaping.
What's really surprised me in recent times is seeing how the lid is held erect to allow rain to fill them up, but when the pitcher is almost full, the lid comes down like an umbrella to prevent it overflowing. How clever is that?
People ask why any plant would bother to catch insects. It's usually because these specialist plants live in boggy places and don't get enough food through their roots. There are a few insect eating plants found here in New Zealand. Maybe we'll look at them next week.
- Taranaki Daily News
One of the plants Keith collected in Borneo, Rhododendron lowii, took 16 years to flower at Pukeiti. Not exactly speedy, but worth the wait, according to the Pukeiti team. It's a vireya or subtropical rhododendron with bright green glossy leaves and gleaming golden yellow trumpets.
I was fortunate to be given a plant of R. lowii recently by Mark and Abbie Jury and, to my delight, it has flowered twice already. It's a real collector's piece, which is understandable given that it can take 16 years to flower.
The plant is named after Rajah Low, and I thought I would tell you a bit about him. Although he should be famous for his rhododendron, he is actually better known in the orchid world. We should not forget also that he was a very able and popular administrator in Borneo and Malaysia.
As a young man he became interested in plants, not surprising given his father ran a London nursery specialising in orchids. This was the era when orchids were top of the pops and nurseries were sending brave young men all over the world to find exciting new species. When he left school, Hugh Low became one of these intrepid young men, agreeing to go out to the Far East collecting orchids for his father's nursery. Thankfully, his collections were a huge success and there are at least eight orchids named after him.
In those days, orchid nurseries would spend vast sums to obtain new species and plants were stripped from jungles all over the world. Apart from being beautiful, orchids had two things in their favour. They were expensive to maintain in heated greenhouses, plus their scarcity value meant only rich people could afford to acquire a collection. Nurserymen loved this scenario as they could name their price for new introductions. Collectors were sent to all the islands of the Pacific in search of orchids.
There were few white men in Borneo at this time so everyone knew everyone. Hugh Low fell in with Rajah Brooke who, by all accounts, was a rogue. Englishman James Brooke sailed to Borneo in the late 1830s with the intention of trading spices. His timing was perfect as his crew helped the Sultan of Brunei put down an insurrection and Brooke was given the title of Rajah of Sarawak - rajah being chief or king. Nothing like giving yourself airs.
In those days, enterprising Englishmen sailed off and claimed bits of the world and the government in London had to play catchup and paint a bit more of the map in British pink. India was the classic case where a single company controlled the country and similar things happened here in New Zealand.
Hugh Low became Brooke's secretary for the next 20 or so years. In many ways he had the perfect life living on the island of Labuan just to the north of Borneo, giving him easy access to the mainland to go botanising or exploring. Low was the first European to venture far inland and was quite at ease with the headhunting natives. In later life he wrote books about his adventures and the people he met.
In his early 50s, a time when most people in his situation were thinking about retirement, he was asked to take over the administration of part of mainland Malaysia known as Perak. Naturally, this increased his workload but he was suited to the task and gained the title of rajah for his troubles. Not long afterwards, the British government recognised his good work in Malaysia and gave him a knighthood while he was still in office which was very unusual. Normally one only got the gong after finishing a stint in the foreign office.
He initiated and completed valuable infrastructure links like phone and rail. And he was a very popular administrator because he took the trouble to listen to local people. By learning local languages and giving locals autonomy, he was a rare beast - a far-sighted diplomat in the colonies.
Despite his administrative duties, plants and nature remained his first love. He initiated the experimental planting of tea, coffee and rubber and is credited as the man who started the Malaysian rubber industry. However, it was the jungle he loved and he was never happier than exploring in the wilds where no white man had been before. He is credited with being the first European to climb Mt Kinabalu back in 1851 where he found many new orchids and some super duper insectivorous plants, later named as Nepenthes lowii in his honour. The second time he climbed Mt Kinabalu in 1858 he discovered more pitcher plants, including the biggest in the world, Nepenthes rajah, named after his friend, Rajah Brooke.
We've got some of these Nepenthes pitcher plants in our garden with the hope that they'll catch the mosquitos. These pitcher plants are insectivorous, they supplement their diet with a few passing insects. The insect is attracted by the scent to the pitcher, which is part full of liquid which dissolves and devours any insect silly enough to fall in. The tops of the pitcher are slippery to make them fall in, and inside the walls are covered in downward facing hairs to prevent an insect escaping.
What's really surprised me in recent times is seeing how the lid is held erect to allow rain to fill them up, but when the pitcher is almost full, the lid comes down like an umbrella to prevent it overflowing. How clever is that?
People ask why any plant would bother to catch insects. It's usually because these specialist plants live in boggy places and don't get enough food through their roots. There are a few insect eating plants found here in New Zealand. Maybe we'll look at them next week.
- Taranaki Daily News
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