Ficus finds in Pulau Tioman

I was at Pulau Tioman doing this...

And guessed what I found?


I was very excited to see Ficus species, but due to inexperience, I wasn't able to access the leaves, so I couldn't pluck branches down for IDing. We saw this HUGE fig tree! I like it a lot. :)

And after reading about ramiflory, cauliflory/flagiflory on the Floras, to be able to see it for real for the first time on a live specimen gives an incredible feeling. Look! This ficus species is both cauliflorous and flagelliflorous/geocarpic.



If it's growing on the rock, it's lithophytic as well! :)

I've been truely blessed by these chance encounters with these fig species.

Hope I can make a trip to visit specimens at the Botanic Gardens soon!

How does Statistics come in?

From "A Primer of Ecological Statistics" by Nicholas J. Gotelli and Aaron M. Ellison.

"Using statistics to test hypotheses is only a small facet of the scientific method, but it consumes a disproportionate amount of our time and journal space. We use statistics to describe patterns in our data, and then we use statistical tests to decide whether the predictions of an hypothesis are supported or not. Establishing hypotheses, articulating their predictions, designing and executing valid experiments, and collecting, organizing, and summarizing the data all occur before we use statistical tests."

What is Data Mining?

I thought the Wikipedia's description is quite good:

Data mining is the process of sorting through large amounts of data and picking out relevant information. It is usually used by business intelligence organizations, and financial analysts, but is increasingly being used in the sciences to extract information from the enormous data sets generated by modern experimental and observational methods. It has been described as "the nontrivial extraction of implicit, previously unknown, and potentially useful information from data" and "the science of extracting useful information from large data sets or databases."

Some updates

It's been a while since I've updated this blog! In fact, it's been a month. I've been quite busy coping with events and activities and work, and lost the zeal and enthusiasm I first started out with.

But may I not forget the joy of learning even when it gets routine.

So far I have typed out the traits of maximum height, sexual system (diecious/monoecious), minimum and maximum altitude, maximum and minimum dry and fresh fig diameter and position of fig on the plant. I encountered some difficulties with the position of fig, as the treatment in Malesiana and African floras are different.

In Malesiana, it clearly states whether the fig is axillary, found under the leaves, exhibit ramiflory, cauliflory and/or geocarpy. However, in the African flora, they describe the feature without using the term. This leaves me to interprete the feature to be able to assign a term. Further more, I do not know whether being found below the leaves is equivalent to growing on previous growth season's axillary spaces...

I was talking to Prof. the other day when he pointed out how some figs are geocarpic (fig underground on stolons) hence would only be dispersed by mammals or reptiles, like turtles which are much slower than dispersers like birds or bats, hence geocarpic species might be slower to spread than species that fig on axillary buds along the branches.

The next traits I would be tackling are probably growth form and habitat, which I avoided out of sheer fear of the task ahead. Figs are so diverse. They grow in so many places and they have so many growth forms. I would need to find a way to classify it so that I can quantify it in my excel spreadsheet.

My progress might be slower than I wish, as I would be away for a field trip next week to Tioman Island off Peninsula Malaysia East Coast. It would probably be the rare chance I get to do field work, since my project is datamining and deskbound. :) I hope to visit the Herbarium at the Botanic Gardens soon too. Prof. has helped me asked for permission and I am looking forward to see for myself what are all these Ficus plants I've been reading about in these floras.

What is taxonomy?

I am reading this paper by Ungricht et al. (2005) and it points out the "importance of sound taxonomy... is a prerequisite in conservation evaluation in general." (page 221) There appears to be a trend whereby the estimates of endemicity would drop "after taxonomic revisions across major regions as those in the Flora Malesiana, encompassing several centres of endemism."

This sounds entirely logical, as there can only be two outcomes when one studies two sites of endemism. One is that he realizes many of the species that are studied by different individuals and are given different names are actually the same, the other, is that they're different. So the one doing the confirmation, I presume this is called taxonomic revision, would be the one who consolidates, compares and classifies. More likely than not, some species would be classified as the same species.

Is this why these revisional studies are so important? There has been revisional studies done for Asian, Australasian and African members of the Ficus genus but not yet any for the neotropical Ficus flora. Taxonomist like Vazquez Avila and Berg are currently working on the neotropical revisions (Berg 1989).

So what is taxonomy?

Genesis 2:19-20
Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field.

1 Kings 4:33
He(Solomon) described plant life, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of walls. He also taught about animals and birds, reptiles and fish.

The naming and describing of life?

According to A Dictionary of Botany by George Usher (1966), taxonomy is " the science of classifying living things".

According to The Penguin Dictionary of Botany by Allen Lane (1984), taxonomy is "the study of the principles and practices of classification. The term taxonomy strictly applied to the study and description of variation in the natural world and the subsequent compilation of classifications...
In dealing with the flora of an area several phases can be recognized. The first phase is mainly concerned with identification and is sometimes referred to as exploratory or pioneer. Study of many tropical areas is still in this stage. Once material is better known and taxonomists have a good understanding of local and regional variation of the species it moves into the consolidation phase. These two phases are jointly described by some as 'alpha' taxonomy. Once cytological or biosystematic data are available these can be added to existing data. Taxonomy in which all available evidence is considered is described as the encyclopaedic phase or 'omega' taxonomy."

Ah, this is interesting right?

References

Berg, C.C. 1989. Classification and distribution of Ficus. Experientia 45:605-611

Ungricht, S., J. Rasplus and F. Kjellberg. 2005. Extinction threat evaluation of endemic fig trees of New Caledonia: priority assessment for taxonomy and conservation with herbarium collections. Biodiversity and Conservation 14: 205-232

Fig trees on St. John's Island

From the "Singapore's Heritage Tree Register". The ficus heritage species. Take a look at those found in St. John's island!

I believe I saw the one at Duxton Plain too. Very strong and mighty.



I saw these trees with the "Ficus superba" tags at St. John's Island during a camp. The trees at St. John's were very mature and beautiful. Really like the Tembusus that abound.

This is one of them.





I'm not sure what are these. They look like stranglers to me.

E. J. H. Corner

Mabberley, D. J. (1999) Edred John Henry Corner, C. B. E. 12 January 1906-14 September 1996. Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society

"Important in his later career was the interest that he took in figs (Ficus, Moraceae), of which he published preparatory accounts of some of the Malayan species in 1933 and 1939."

"At Cambridge, Corner built on his account of figs in Wayside trees, elaborating a classification of the genus Ficus, although his account of the Malesian species remains unpublished beacuse he fell out with the editors of Flora Malesiana. Some of his type specimens are deposited in the Cambridge University herbarium. In concentrating on so large a genus, he saw clearly, as he did in his seed work, the 'grades' of classification and the importance of clades that underpin modern phylogenetic work."

"In figs, his greatest alpha-taxonomic group, it was the development of the leaf venation that opened up new insights."

Rather than just quoting from the paper, perhaps it's better for me to interpret and analyze. As I looking through the Flora Malesiana for figs, keep coming across Corner's name, so decided to read his biography and I was captivated.

He is a man who devoted his life to furthering knowledge. The paper helped introduce me to the man behind the papers and books and names. Through the paper, you could see Corner as a son, student, as a botanist, Professor and conservationist.