Papua New Guinea 5. To the Frieda River

From our base along the Frieda River, forest-covered hills beckoned.

I was privileged in 1978 to be able to visit a part of New Guinea virtually untouched by humans.  The Frieda River is a tributary of the Sepik River nestled against the foothills of the central range of mountains.  In recent history at least, there have not even been villages or farms here, just the occasional hunting party.  This provided an extraordinary opportunity to see undisturbed forest with a great variety of plant and animal life.  I was not equipped to photograph birds, but the numbers of hornbills, cockatoos and other natives was exhilarating   In terms of plants it was equally spectacular.  The area yielded a number of palm species never seen by science before, and other surprises like epiphytic gingers.

Our hosts' helicopter dropped us off high in the hills.

 We were hosted by a mineral exploration company, and from their base by the river, we had helicopter service to a landing pad high up in the hills.  These upper areas are moist and mossy, what I would call a cloud forest.  Each day we were dropped off and walked down via varied routes, collecting plants as we went.  I kind of hoped that they wouldn't find anything in the pristine area, and a recent viewing on Google Earth revealed a few scattered mines in the area, but much of the forest intact.

From the air, we saw spectacular tall Livistona palms.

On the ground, the large Livistonas
eluded us.  We saw only juveniles
like this.

One of our first observations from the helicopter was of a spectacular Livistona palm poking up here and there through the forest canopy.  For several days, we looked for the palm as we descended through the forest, but found only a few juvenile individuals.  To this day, I do not know what species it is, or if perhaps it's a new species.  This was the "big one" that got away!

The inflorescence of Orania
lauterbachiana, with branches covered
with soft, orangish scales, is held by
Yakas, who worked for the Division of
Botany in Lae for many years.

Orania parva has a very small
inflorescence.

But there was plenty to see otherwise.  A  species of Orania, quite different from the one we had seen earlier at Amanab in the Sepik River valley, showed up along one of our descents.  It proved to be a specimen of the widespread O. lauterbachiana, or possibly a new species closely related to it.  In another valley, we found a different Orania, which proved to be a new species. I later named it Orania parva, for its rather small dimensions.

An unnamed Licuala held by Brad Young
Licualas have fan-shaped leaves with
leaflets spreading in a nearly perfect circle, and
red fruits.  

Hydriastele aprica, a new species found on limestone ridges.

The fruits of Hydriastele aprica, a
species new to science when we found
it in 1978.

Even more exciting was the discovery of a new species of Hydriastele, though we called it Nengella in those days.  This dainty palm was growing on a limestone ridge in the forest, and differs from similar species in its purplish rather than bright pink flowers.  My graduate student, Brad Young, who accompanied me on this trip later did his Master's dissertation on this section of the genus and named the new species Nengella aprica.  Later, we combined Nengella with Gronophyllum, and several decades later, Gronophyllum was combined, along with Gulubia into the large genus  Hydriastele.

Just downslope from the Hydriastele, we found a species of Nepenthes clambering over the limestone boulder.  This was a delightful surprise.  Limestone areas always seem to have unique species growing on them.  Another surprise was to find several members of the ginger family growing as epiphytes on low branches in the upper cloud forest.

The male flowers of Hydriastele aprica are
whitish with purple tips.  They will open first,
followed by the tiny female flowers hidden
beneath them. 

A species of Nepenthes climbs over the limestone boulders.

A dainty Riedelia in the ginger family (Zingiberaceae) grows as an epiphyte
 in the cloud forest.

Mucuna novoguineensis is a spectacular vine in the legume family (Fabaceae).

Forrestia mollisma is in the Commelinaceae.

A tiny orchid blooms in the cloud forest.

Hydriastele longispatha had not been seen since being collected by Leonard Brass
in the 1930's. Growing just down the limestone slope from the Hydriastele was a population of pitcher plants, Nepenthes.  

One day, we stumbled onto a population of Hydriastele loongispatha (originally described as Gulubia longispatha) perched on a high mountain ridge.  As we know it now, Hydriastele is one of the largest, most diverse, and widespread genera of palms in New Guinea.

The Frieda River Valley, as I remember it from 1978.

Papua New Guinea 4. North Coast to the Sepik River

The Sepik River is New Guinea's Amazon, and a popular tourist destination.  The broad ribbon of water winds through vast lowland rain forests and sago swamps.  I was privileged to be part of two expeditions to this northwestern section of Papua New Guinea, and as a palm botanist, was ecstatic to find a great variety of palms, many previously unseen and unnamed by western botanists.  The first trip was in 1971, as part of the field work for my graduate study of New Guinea palms.  The second was in 1978, which I'll reserve for my next post.

The Sepik River winds its way for
700 miles through
northwestern Papua New Guinea.

Our first stop was at Vanimo, near the border with the Indonesian half of the island, called Irian Jaya.  The island of New Guinea was divided into three parts by colonial European powers.  The western half was occupied by the Dutch, and it eventually became part of Indonesia.  The northeast was occupied by Germany, who lost it to the Australians after the World War I.  The southeast, known as Papua, was colonized by the British and later administered by the Australians.  The two eastern sections were united into the independent nation of Papua New Guinea in 1975.

The highlight of the Vanimo area was an extensive natural population of Pigafetta, a relative of sago palms and vining rattans, a group characterized by scaly fruits.  Our wanderings also led us to Wutung Village and the border with Indonesia.  

The trunks of Pigafetta filaris are remarkably
shiny.

The large inflorescence of Pigafetta contains hundreds of
flowers developing into scaly fruits.

A native of Wutung shows off his hand-made
hunting bow.

Your botany professor, impossibly young and
thin, at the marker of the border between
Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.

Turnera subulata, a native of central America, is cultivated
in Wutung.

Wild bird's nest fern (genus Asplenium) grows wild in
forests throughout New Guinea.

As we flew into the Sepik River basin in our tiny single-prop plane we could see vast populations of the sago palm, Metroxylon sagu.  We stopped at several places of somewhat higher ground to collect plants. We encountered many new palms, including a giant Orania near the village of Amanab.  I later named the species, Orania glauca.  The specific name refers to the waxy, or glaucous, covering of the inflorescence branches.

From the air we see that much of the Sepik Basin is occupied by vast stands of sago palm, Metroxylon sagu, which prefers swampy conditions.  The whitish-brown structures are the massive terminal inflorescences of the palms.  Each trunk blooms once, then dies.  As a build-up to the flowering phase, large quantities of starch are stored in the trunk.  This starch is harvested by the local people, and serves as their staple food.  

Orania glauca in forest near the village of Amanab.

Our local guide is dwarfed by the
inflorescence of Orania glauca.  Note
the whitish cast resulting from the waxy
coating.

The fruits of Orania are unusual among palms, in that up to
three one-seeded sections may form from a single flower.

Hydriastele valida was another new
species that we found.  This specimen
is growing near the village of Lumi.

This Rhopaloblaste species is similar to R. ceramica, otherwise known from the island of Ceram in Indonesia,
and differs from other New Guinea species by the pendulous (loosely hanging) leaflets of the fronds.

The bright red fruits of
 Rhopaloblaste cf. ceramica.

The branches of the Rhopaloblaste inflorescence
are tightly packed in bud, resembling a brain.

A lone specimen of an unidentified Livistona
near Lumi.