Fauzi in Star Newspaper

[David]

Fauzi is in the papers again. This time in The Star, Section 2 Front and first page... two full pages. The third page is on the growing nepenthes market.

Here's the articles on The Star newspaper (Tuesday, 17 March 2009):


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Epitome of Exotica

Exotic and enigmatic, the pitcher plant is a deadly beauty that has been mesmerising enthusiasts for centuries.

IMAGINE a plant whose leaves can grow into elongated cups complete with lids; cups that ooze sweet nectar to draw in insects which are then feasted upon by the plant. That is the carnivorous pitcher plant, or Nepenthes,for you.

This enigmatic plant, with its bizarre characteristics and wide-ranging colours and shapes, has besotted people ever since a species in Madagascar first caught the attention of Europeans in 1658. Over the following centuries, European collectors scoured the tropics in search of the plant that is the epitome of exotica and eventually, succeeded in growing them in greenhouses.

Fast forward to present day and the fervour for nepenthes has waned not one bit.

One ardent fan is Mohd Fauzi Abu Bakar, who has amassed 58 species and over 40 hybrids in his small nursery in Selangor. His collection includes species which are not commercially available and are owned only by collectors. He has 30 of the 38 Malaysian species, as well as Thai, Australian and Papua New Guinea endemics.

At his nursery in Lembah Jaya Selatan, Ampang, pots of nepenthes crowd every square inch. Visitors have to thread carefully along a narrow pathway to avoid stepping on the many prized pots or bumping into those hanging overhead.

Fauzi’s eyes glint with delight when he talks about nepenthes. “It is a unique plant, with leaves that grow into a pitcher. There are so many variants and each species has its own characteristics. Some have fangs,” he says, referring to protrusions beneath the lid of the N. bicalcarata. “Some have eye spots inside the pitcher. One species, the albomarginata,has different-coloured pitchers depending on where it grows. The one in Penang Hill has red pitchers, while those in Bako (Sarawak) are green and purple. And the pitchers ... you’ll be amazed at how big they can grow to ... some to overhalf a metre. The biggest Nepenthes rajah found apparently could hold 3 litres of water,” gushes Fauzi.

A chance purchase of a nepenthes from a plant nursery in 2002 was what got the bank manager-turned-horticulturist started on the hobby. That first plant died and from then on, growing nepenthes became a personal challenge. “I kept buying new plants to try and grow them. But most did not survive,” says the forestry degree-holder. His luck changed when he chanced upon Malesiana Tropicals at an agriculture show. The company sells artificially propagated nepenthes that have been acclimatised to nursery conditions, and so are suitable for home-growers.

Fauzi bought over 100 plants from Malesiana and even visited its nursery in Kuching, Sarawak, to learn all about planting nepenthes. By 2004, he had cultivated enough pots of nepenthes to sell at a weekend market. Two years later, he accepted the voluntary separation scheme offered by his banking institution and delved into his hobby full-time.

Nepenthes buyers

Taking part in floral shows and Internet sales have seen Fauzi’s business grow. But he also draws satisfaction from introducing the plant to the uninitiated. “Many people don’t know that this plant is found in our country and is our heritage. Once, during a floral show, an elderly lady was so fascinated with the plant that she cried. She said she had never seen it before.”

His clientele is divided equally between locals and foreigners, the latter coming mostly from Indonesia, Singapore, China, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Philippines. Fauzi says the plants are exported together with Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (Cites) permits and phyto-sanitary permits from the Agriculture Department. His best-sellers are N. bicalcarata and N. ampullaria because of their unique features and wide variety. The N. ampullaria, for instance, has more than 20 variants, each a different colour.

In the wild, nepenthes propagate through pollination of the female and male plants. That’s difficult to achieve in a nursery as it requires both plants to flower simultaneously. Growing the plants from seeds also takes time. Hence, Fauzi finds it easier to propagate the plants through stem cuttings of tissue-cultured plants which he has bought from breeders. Lacking a laboratory, he does not do tissue culture himself.

Most of his initial plants came from Malesiana Tropicals but he now sources for them from Borneo Exotics (based in Sri Lanka), Exotica Plants (Australia), and companies in Germany, United States, India and Thailand. Nepenthes lovers now have the benefit of Fauzi’s knowledge whereas he himself had to start from scratch.

“When I started out, the knowledge was basically in temperate countries. So how they cultivate is different,” says Fauzi. “It was from trial and error that I learnt the best growing media, light conditions and watering regime. I drove all over the country to buy nepenthes, talk with other enthusiasts, and visit any site where nepenthes grow to see the environment which they thrive in.”

Growing nepenthes is not all that difficult, Fauzi assures. “Different species will require different treatment but what they all need is humidity. How often you should water them depends on the growing media. If you grow them in porous material, you should water them daily. They also need a fair bit of sun, otherwise they will not pitcher.”

Because of the changed environment, the sizes of the leaves and pitchers of cultured nepenthes differ from wild ones. Highland species are usually stunted if grown in the lowlands.

Fauzi’s collection has expanded through exchanges with other enthusiasts. He counts, among his most prized possession, his single N. macrophylla plant, which grows only in Mount Trus Madi in Sabah and which he bought for RM500 from Borneo Exotics. “I must check it daily as it’s a highland species which I’m growing in the lowlands.”

His other treasured species are the endemics and newly discovered ones, such as N. faizalina (endemic to Mulu park in Sarawak), N. platychila (known only from Hose Mountain, Sarawak), N. neoguineensis (a Papua New Guinea endemic), N. Phillipinensis and N. mindanaoensis (both from southern Philippines) and N. maxima (Sulawesi). He also grows species of the North American pitcher plant, Sarracenia.

Collection threat

Despite the availability of artificially propagated nepenthes, collection from the wild persists. Nepenthes are protected only in Sabah and Sarawak, and not in Peninsular Malaysia.

“I’ve seen people with a gunny sack of nepenthes at Genting Highlands,” says Fauzi, shaking his head in disbelief. “Some places used to have a lot of nepenthes but not anymore,” he says, citing Mersing, which is known for the N. rafflesiana that is found just by the roadside. “The N. albomarginata Penang grows on the roadside in Penang Hill, and so is widely collected by visitors.”

The casual nepenthes grower, Fauzi believes, might initially pick from the wild but would eventually learn that such plants seldom survive. It would be better to buy propagated plants. To get wild N. gracillima, for instance, one would have to scale Gunung Tahan, the only place where it grows. Fauzi is not about to do that – he finds it easier to buy culturedplants.

But to begin artificial propagation, he says one would have to start with wild plants or seeds. He says this could be done “as long as you have good conscience, know what you are doing, and you just want to multiply the plant.”

Genuine nepenthes enthusiasts, he adds, pose no threat as they only take cuttings. He says casual collectors, on the other hand, are known to dig up the entire plant, thereby disturbing its roots and killing it.

Fauzi’s nursery, small though it may be, is a sort of refuge for nepenthes which are threatened by illegal collection and habitat loss. He believes that growing nepenthes in nurseries contributes to survival of the species for if left in the wild, they may be lost to forest fires or cultivation. "In Bau, Sarawak, I once saw lots of pitcher plants but on my next visit, they had been wiped out by fires that were lit to clear the land. The ampullaria is a species that is difficult to find in Selangor but it can be found in Rawang (Selangor). But that place has been cleared for a road.”
Fauzi also sees his effort as plant conservation work. “I’m multiplying the plants so that people can see them and grow them anywhere. So they need not get them from the wild.”

Now that he has met the challenge of growing the plant, what is his next target? He replies: “I hope my place can be a place of education for people to visit and learn about nepenthes, like a sort of nepenthes centre.”

To find out more go to www.dapat.net/4zeplant.


Growing Nepenthes Market

GOOGLE “nepenthes” and you will get a string of hits on companies selling the plant. Fascination with Nepenthes has always been great but with the Internet, it has grown immense and selling the plant has never been easier.

f_02platychila.jpg One company is offering the N. platychila, described only in 2002 and known only from Hose Mountain in central Sarawak, for US$72 (RM266) for a small plant and US$144 (RM420), a large one. This species is prized for its funnel-shaped pitchers with unusually wide and flat peristome (the rim at the mouth of the pitcher) which is beautifully striped with red, yellow and purple.

The N. gracillima of Gunung Tahan, Pahang, has been in cultivation for years and so is selling for only US$18 (RM66). One of the most expensive and sought-after nepenthes currently is the N. jamban of Sumatra, named such because of its large toilet bowl-shaped pitchers. Described only in 2006, a small plant is selling for US$129 (RM477) and a medium one, US$180 (RM666).

In fact, many foreign companies are selling endemic and recently described Sarawakian nepenthes species – which begs the question: How were these obtained? Queries to several web-based companies on the source of their plants went unanswered.

Sarawak has 25 nepenthes species and all are protected; permits are required to keep, propagate and trade in them. The Sarawak Forestry Corporation says only one company, Malesiana Tropicals, has been given a permit from Forest Department Sarawak to propagate nepenthes, and only second generation (F2) propagated plants can be exported. Trade in nepenthes in Sarawak peaked in 2005, with 22,483 plants exported. Numbers have since fallen to 15,220 in 2006 and 12,055 in 2007.

Dr Timothy Hatch, director of Kuching-based tissue-culture company Malesiana Tropicals, says the company was issued permits to collect wild nepenthes seeds and plants for artificial propagation when it was established over 10 years ago.

“We have since collected seeds of nearly all Sarawak nepenthes and have even found new species during our expeditions. As we have most species in the nursery producing their own seeds, we no longer need to collect from the wild,” he says.

Malesiana sells its plants globally but Hatch says that once the nursery-propagated plants have been exported, Malesiana has no control over what foreign buyers do with them.

He believes that artificial propagation has greatly reduced wild-collected nepenthes as plants can be made readily available. “But that is not to say that the problem of wild collection has been solved. Some take from the wild as they want plants with big pitchers and unfortunately, some people take pride in stealing, they get a buzz from it. It is really easy to take these plants out as they are small and the seeds are tiny.”

Easily grown

v12spotlight_03pitcher1703.jpg The easy availability of Sarawakian nepenthes overseas is not unusual for Kuching-based biologist Lee Ch’ien Ch’ien. He says once nursery-propagated plants have been sold and exported, private collectors in foreign countries can produce seeds of their own and eventually, propagate the plants.

“Also, even though a species has only been recently described, such as N. vogelii, plants have actually been in cultivation in other countries for many years, though they were unidentified. There are also occasional visitors to Malaysia and Indonesia who collect some seeds (illegally) and distribute them to labs.”

Lee, who has discovered several species of nepenthes, says not long after his description of the N. jamban was published, collectors were already scouring north Sumatra for the plant. So it does not surprise him to see the plant already propagated and offered for sale. But he believes that artificial propagation has played an important role in in-situ (on-site) conservation of nepenthes. “Before artificial propagation was widespread, such as in the 1980s and early 90s, a great majority of nepenthes on the world market consisted of wild-collected plants. This was driven by demand and buyers who were willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a rare species.”

The wide availability of tissue-cultured plants has seen prices dropping dramatically. The N. rajah (from Mount Kinabalu) used to cost some US$500 (RM1,850) for a single plant in the 80s.
Now, healthy propagated N. rajah plants can be had for as little as US$5 (RM18.50).

“There is therefore not much profit for people who collect them in the wild. Also, properly grown nursery propagated plants are much healthier than wild-collected ones,” says Lee, formerly a senior botanist at Malesiana Tropicals.

Fortunately, there is less demand for wild nepenthes plants as mother stock compared to something like slipper orchids as nepenthes have not yet reached the level of selective breeding as seen in the orchid trade as the market for them is much smaller, explains Lee.

Although no species of nepenthes has been wiped out in the wild from over-collection, he says species which are endemic to a small area or are highly desirable for their ornamental quality are vulnerable.

“Perhaps the most critically endangered species today is N. clipeata, which is on the verge of extinction in the wild at the single mountain on which it occurs (in Kalimantan), having suffered from both wild collection and habitat loss by fires.”

Another concern is the growing popularity of nepenthes in some Asian countries in recent years. “With this new market, a huge surge in wild collecting in those countries has begun by locals. This problem is compounded by easy access for locals who can repeatedly visit sites to collect plants, lack of concern about the conservation of the plants, very strong economic drive, and the fact that there are very few artificially propagated plants available locally. As a result, the quantity of plants now being collected in the wild is larger than ever before,” says Lee.

Scant control

Commerce in nepenthes is governed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) but in reality, the protection is patchy. Only two species – N. Rajah and N. khasiana (of India) – are on Cites Appendix I. This listing allows trade of only artificially propagated plants and not wild-collected ones. The remaining 90 or so nepenthes species are on Cites Appendix II. This listing allows trade of wild-collected plants so long as the commerce poses no threat of extinction to the species. The thing is, no studies have been done to show this.
The critically endangered N. clipeata is a victim of this weakness. The area where the species grows, Gunung Kelam in west Kalimantan, is not protected. Prized by collectors, it has been over-harvested and yet, remains a Cites Appendix II species. Many other species deemed to be imperilled suffer the same fate: N. boschiana (Borneo), N. macrophylla (Mount Trus Madi, Sabah), N. murudensis (Mount Murud, Sarawak) and N. pilosa (Sarawak).

Also, under Cites, exporters can ship plants under the name “Nepenthes sp.” and not identify them according to species. This means a Cites Appendix I species can be disguised as an Appendix II species and exported.

Another niggling point is that Cites regulates only international trade; it does nothing to protect wild plants from being collected within the country.

Lee says effective conservation of wild nepenthes will require more enforcement, education and promotion of artificial propagation. “Authorities in parks and protected areas need to take an active role in preventing collection of wild plants in their areas of jurisdiction. Enforcement also needs to be done at borders and airports. People must understand the long-term value of preserving their local natural biodiversity. This will result not only in less people willing to sell off their natural heritage for a quick buck, but also more people keeping an eye out for illegal plant collectors and traders.”