I think if there was any rating for findings for the year 2006, this would be one of it. Imagine finding a HUGE population of Cryptocoryne minima…not in some far away jungle in some far away land..but in an area just 5 min away from bustling IKEA, IKANO and Bandar Utama.

I remember very well while I was still in uni back in 1996, pursuing my studies, that my lecturer told me of finding broad leaf aquatic plants in the forest reserves of Sungai Buloh while he was doing his fish surveys. Since than I used to dream of finding it but somehow or rather never actually ventured into that part of the forest although I live very nearby. Well I thought it had all gone since the area was rapidly being developed. I remember passing by huge tracts of forests and rubber estates back then. Now most of them have become housing estates (Kota Damansara) and highways.

Late 2006 my colleague informed me of her orang asli friend who found something which looked like crypt in the swamp forest when he was there fishing. So what else? We go lah! We made plans to meet a TESCO, Kota Damansara and soon  after we were walking in this small jungle path into this hidden paradise.

My staff Spencer and I walking to the secret crypt paradise (now this path is someones final resting ground!)

Checking out the downstream section of the artificial lake.

A view of the flooded swamp with dead trees in them

A carpet of crypts

The find was so amazing. I was just awe struck…again as always by the sight of crypts….  Crypts everywhere! Just couldn’t believe that they were soo.. close all this while. Literally under my nose…Can you see the crypts carpeting this part of the lake?

Aroh, our orang asli informer getting ready to pounce on any crypt found escaping, while I harvest some.

We kept this freshwater swamp site a secret as long as we could. The swamp was actually dammed during the construction of a road further downstream. This made the swamp flood with water and soon the lower stream section of the swamp became a small lake. The original swamp can still be found further upstream. We found many other plants as well in this forest including  3 speices of orchids. Prof Manshor of USM (the crypt expert) visited this site with his students when the article of conserving this site was in the local newspapers.

An unidentified ground orchid which initially I though was some kind of ginger because the leaves (at back) looked like common ginger leaves

We were so happy with our find that we would visit it as often as we could. Plans were also on the way to protect them since the forest was under the watchful eye of the Kota Damasara Residence Association. They were working together with the Malaysian Nature Society on conserving the natural greenery and the forest around the town.

While all of this was going on, little did we realize that trouble was brewing not very far away. While on our trips to this little paradise, we noticed sign and marks made on trees and stakes at every location along the pathway. Red and white tape were tied at certain intervals along the path and off it. This made us very worried. By the fist half of 2007 we got the bad news that the area was designated to be turned into a Muslim cemetery and the forest behind it was to be a low density housing development.

Just like harvesting spinach…the aquatic version of it though…just marvelous!

Here I am examining the different crypts. The funny thing about the population there is that there are two varieties growing side by side. Literally on my left leg was the green form which had large green leaves and no flowers, while on right were another patch of smaller redder leafed plants with plenty of flowers. Both grew side by side and were very obvious even from the top view. I wonder why?

Ayo yo thamby…hurry up lah, gua sudah lapar lah!! (..I’m already hungry). Aroh watching me collect crypts.

The red form of C. minima with smaller red leaves and plenty of flowers

A comparison between the larger green variety and smaller redder leaf C.minima

The stream inside the swamp forest. Very clean water and full of fish. Both sides of the stream are swamps and if you take a wrong step, you can be sure of getting yourself stuck in knee-deep mud

My friend Majdi checking out the Barclaya found alot in the stream and lake

This is where the forest stream ends up in the artificial lake. Notice the Barclaya‘s growing along the stream. Vanilla orchid was found growing as a climber on the trees around here

Flowering Barclaya motleyi

I prayed hard and I mean really hard. I asked God to help me somehow save this beautiful paradise from the hands of such developers.  God is good! Somehow or rather the Zoo (myself basically) was called in to advise on the development around the artificial lake and the freshwater swamp behind it. Thanks to my staff and a few buddies from the MAC club, we managed to at least ‘save’ a few bags (rubbish sized bags) of crypts to be transported back to the zoo.  From here several bags were passed on to FRIM (Forest Research Institute of Malaysia) and  Angela Hijas, a long time member of MNS who stayed at Rimbun Dahan, Kuang. FRIM had a collection of crypts several of which were given by us and Angela had a beautiful and very,very large garden that came with a ‘swamp’ in which the crypts were planted in.

C. minima in the swamp forest floor

Close up of the bullated leaves

Flowering plants

After a few days in a tied up plastic bag, the flower opened revealing this beautiful spathe

Well so far the cemetry is up. Large tracts of beautiful forest had been sacrificed, but thank God that they took my advice and of the residence association and built it downstream of the lake and swamp and not upstream as initially planned. There have been some drastic changes to the area, but the population of C.minima in the pool and swamp is still intact. Monitoring is still going on and hopefully it would be made into a educational forest.

Cheers form the team!

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