AS SELANGOR CONTINUES TO BE DRIVEN BY CARELESS ACTS TOWARDS THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NAME OF ‘PROGRESS’, MORE AND MORE FOREST COVERS ARE THREATENED BY EXTERNAL FORCES SUCH AS LOGGING, DEFORESTATION AND POOR LAND MANAGEMENT.
This brings us to one of the most pressing and common problems worldwide — loss of biodiversity.
This site is a small attempt to document and highlight the very much overlooked residents of the forest — the plants — in two locations; one in Kuala Langat and another in Gombak. Native plants are part and parcel of the vast Indigenous knowledge concerning areas of medicine and sources of food.
The forests and the soil represent specific ecological niche and are inextricably linked to the Orang Asli identity where both generate their traditions and worldview, all depending on their rapport to a particular land. The inability of external parties to see traditional resources as a necessity to the wellbeing of Orang Asli often leads to destructive approaches in land management, leaving them out of the equation.
[Tap on each plant illustration to enlarge]
Aerial views of Hutan Simpan Kuala Langat Utara
01. Hutan Simpan Kuala Langat Utara, Selangor.
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Dubbed as the richest state in Malaysia, there is no short of land here in Selangor, yet most 'developments' tend to stir with indigenous territories or what's left of an untouched ecosystem, demanding for legal rights over one's ancestral land. This is an ethnobotanical documentation of selected forest plants of the primary peat swamp forest — Kuala Langat North Forest Reserve — one of the remaining lowland forests that still stands the course of time, held by its indigenous guardians, the Temuan people. A constant uproar clouds over the Orang Asli villages in Kuala Langat, in efforts to defend their customary land and a 7000 year-old forest. Tensions rose before the first lockdown was implemented in March 2020, and solidarity efforts from Selangorians grew throughout the year — condemning the state government's desire to degazette and deforest a large part of the land for a mixed development project.
One of the villages, Kampung Busut Baru, is a product of a resettlement scheme to make way for the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) back in the 90s. Samsul Senin, a Temuan recalls being relocated to Kuala Langat when he was just a young boy and told us that his community was not granted access to water and electricity until much later in the early 2000. He remembers following his parents to forage and hunt in the forest, of what is now only a meagre 958 hectares from its original size of over 7000 hectares.
Peatlands such as Hutan Simpan Kuala Langat Utara are major carbon sinks as it serves as an accumulator of organic matter and locks away carbon as it has been for thousands of years. Its naturally high water-table is an important regulator of water flows in the region, minimizing flood risks and drought. A disastrous fate might lie ahead for not only the Temuan people, but also neighbouring communities if the plan to degazette and develop the forest reserve remains in the pipeline — spelling another ecological catastrophe and human displacement.
Latest updates on the regazettement of the forest reserve here.
Hutan Simpan Kuala Langat Utara; home to gibbons, endemic Malayan sun bears and Pygmy flying squirrels.
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The Temuan people are traditional forest dwellers and foragers; making them naturally bound to the world of plants and wildlife, co-existing in a respectful relationship with one another. The knowledge of plants is an essential part of their lives, as it is closely related to generational wisdom of the land and forests, food security, folklores among other things.
Samsul recounted plants that serve as fresh memories from the Temuan botanical knowledge reservoir. Below are some of the either useful, edible or medicinal plants that were described by Samsul in the forest during a foraging excursion.
Poikilospermum suaveolens
Local names: Akar Tawar, Akar jangkang, Akar kayas, Tentawan
Samsul pulled out a broad leafed plant and explained that this plant is particularly special in the Temuan knowledge as it can be used to treat fever. If one ends up lost in the forest, one can obtain water from the roots of this plant to drink. The water is nutritious though tasteless, as its given name Akar Tawar. It is a large epiphytic climbing shrub, growing on other trees with its vines wrapping the bark and dangling from branches. It is also known that many birds such as the Purple-naped Sunbirds (Hypogramma hypogrammicum nuchale) and the Plain Sunbird (Anthreptes simplex) feed on the purple-coloured flowers to get to the nectar. Refer to video by Dr. Amar-Singh HSS.
Eugeissona tristis
Local name: Bertam
Bertam is by far, one of the most versatile palms to exist in the forest, only its exterior appears of just another massive tree if you pass by them. However, you can never miss its fiercely barbed stems and definitely would want to be cautious around them. The fruit is very similar to buah salak, but the insides are noticeably different. Its cut middle section looks like a three-leaf clover or that of a flower. Only the young fruits are edible and grow higher on the cluster of fruits. The taste of the fruit is almost similar to that of an almond with hints of coconut flavour.
On another note, the inner fibres of the stems can be used to make a fire torch. Break the stems to a few, clump the fibres like a broom and light them with a match.
Phyllagathis rotundifolia (Jack) Blume
Local names: Daun Malam, Tapak Sulaiman
The Forest Reserve possesses an abundant trail of widespread understorey plants called the Tapak Sulaiman, with its distinctive red stems covering the forest floor and sometimes showing off its iridescent blue tint when light hits the leaf surface. It also has pink coloured flowers found in between the beautifully shaped leaves. Just like the ocean, the forest too has a vast floor covering of beautiful diverse plants such as Tapak Sulaiman, which is also a local herb used to treat various illnesses. An indigenous herbal mixture which includes part of the plant is used by the Temuan Indigenous people as natural contraceptives and postpartum analeptic.
Reference: Malaysian Journal of Medical Sciences, Vol. 14, No. 1, Jan 2007, pp.23-27
Solanum nigrum var. patch
Local name: Pucuk Meranti, Taok Merantik (Temuan)
Considered to be one of the many Old World species in the Morelloid clade of Solanum, it is known to be a source of food since the early times of humankind. It is also naturally very bitter in taste and needs to be cleaned and blanched or thoroughly boiled the right way for consumption. The leaves are collected by the Temuan women and they prefer to pair the blanched vegetable with anchovies or dried shrimps upon frying for added flavour. Due to its’ rugged nature, it thrives on fresh swiddens, cleared plots of land and grow wildly on its own.
There is little to no demand for this plant elsewhere, hence making it hard to come across in local wet markets — leaving them abundantly available as one of the sources of Indigenous food.
Elettariopsis curtisii
Local names: Daun Semomok (Temuan), Daun pepijat, Daun kesang, Kemumuk
Long before onions and other relishes were exported into the country, the Orang Asli relied solely on plants such as Daun Semomok to season their food. The distinct odour of the leaves is very much similar to the smell of bugs, hence the name pepijat. It serves to reduce the strong smell of fish and meat in dishes. Eventhough it would easily repel some, but once the leaves are cooked, they would release a strong scintillating aroma.
Daun Semomok belongs in the Ginger family and it is known as a wild plant which survival depends on the forest, given the right amount of humidity and shade. It thrives on the dark forest floor of healthy ecosystems, sheltered by tree canopies. Taking the appearance almost similar to that of the Daun Kunyit (Curcuma longa), one way to distinguish between the two is through the smell and their significantly different flowers.
02. Kampung Batu 12, Gombak
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The second part illustrates a view of a secondary forest located in the periphery of Selangor, bordering the state of Pahang.
What appears to be a mundane place of dwelling barricaded by valleys and highways, Gombak holds a lot more history than we think. Built in 1915, the dwindling road of Jalan Gombak stretches from Kuala Lumpur to Karak and later replaced by the Kuala Lumpur-Karak Expressway in the 1970s. In 1957, a special hospital helmed by Dr. J. Malcolm Bolton was built for the Orang Asli — the Aborigines Hospital in Gombak to house more wards and to train more staff, many of which include the Orang Asli themselves. Settlements began sprouting up on the foothills of the valley, primarily by the Orang Asli communities from different states.
Raman, a Semai originally from Cameron Highlands, Pahang, is a vibrant personality in the community here in Batu 12. He made a home out of this place and always seeks refuge from the forest behind his village. A path leads to a forested nook where he plants most of his time farming, foraging and in isolation. He relies on his ancestral knowledge of plants to survive in the forest, brought down to him and his children through generational wisdom of living among the forest. The wisdom of nature goes hand in hand with the Orang Asli’s worldview, as they navigate their lives exposed to the unforgiving tropical climate, witnessing growth and decay, changes in the landscape — even the slightest — giving birth to a pool of precise adaptation of indigenous knowledge which some may even be still hidden from scientific discovery.
A fallen Balau tree impeding our path towards the upper hill.
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Raman, our guide, often brings his students into the jungle to teach basic survival skills, indigenous ways of living, cooking and basically appreciating Nature. Little streams paved in between thick foliage and small rocks as we made our way deeper. The valleys would dry up a little during the hot season, welcoming animals towards the lower side to look for food as most fruits and plants would flourish during this time of the year, whereas the wet season incurs beautiful running streams soaking the Yellow Saraca trees and low-lying plants, leaving most trees fruitless.
He greeted every plant he knew by heart along the dwindling path and patiently taught me what they were for. The lower part of the valley is where he plants his own kebun, though oftentimes intruders would come in and snatch the last bit of pucuk manis, pucuk belhau and many others. Malaysia being one of the most mega bio-diverse countries in the world, it is also woefully threatened by plant poaching which is said to be ‘deforestation on a small scale’ and could drive wild plants to their extinction.
True, the forest produce ought to be shared by many, however it frustrates him to see some simply takes to meet the growing market and heightened demand for “valuable” wild plants as home decorations and highly priced medicine. The uniqueness of our rainforests is that it exists as a web of close-knitted relationships between plants, soil, animals, air, bacteria, etc. If one of these elements is abruptly interfered, it functions less effectively as a thriving ecosystem. Having lived here most of his life, he sees the impacts of the declining availability of forest resources.
“Di lembah ini, memang banyak sumber makanan tapi makin susah nak cari sekarang,”
Translation: There are plenty of food sources in this valley, but it is getting harder to find them nowadays.
as explained by Raman while basking our feet in the cold stream.
Amischotolype griffithii
Other name: Tabar (Semai), Setawar, Setawar tebu, Tebu gogok
Endemic to the Peninsular Malaysia (H. N. Ridley 1907), Tabar grows immensely either along the cold streams, partially submerged in the water or lying low on the damp forest floor. It is known that the umbut of this plant, though quite difficult to obtain, carries drinkable water that is good to treat stomach ache and fever. Its stem has a similar appearance to that of Tebu (Sugarcane) — hence the generic name Setawar Tebu — although much softer and the mucilage from the stem is used to neutralize poison from snake bites. Refer video by Walkabout Asia on Jungle Herbs (6:28 - 7:42), as narrated by Haji Sazilan.
However, as a Semai Indigenous like Raman himself, he would look for this plant for its' young shoots. He recalled back in the day, “Dulu masa anak saya kecil, saya suka bawa dia cari umbut pokok ini”, Translation: Back when my children were younger, I enjoyed bringing them along to find the young shoots of this plant. He would remove the skins on the umbut and squeeze the water out to drink.
Reference: Duistermaat H., 2012. A taxonomic revision of Amischotolype (Commelinaceae) in Asia, p. 26-27.
Etlingera coccinea
Local names: Tepus
Tepus poses a beautiful long pink-green hued pithy stalk and bright red flowers with yellow margins only found on the ground, and often pollinated by smaller birds. It very much resembles its twin sister, Kantan (Etlingera elatior) in size and appearance. Though tall in nature with shoots growing up to 7 metres high, it also bears edible fruits that taste sweet and sour. The umbut (young stalk) is the much rather popular edible part of the plant, which is a common vegetable eaten by the people of Sabah and Sarawak — often consumed raw or cooked in delicious sambal dishes. In Borneo, it is more commonly known as Tuhau.
On the other hand, the fruits — the much lesser known component of the plant — contain tiny black and oily seeds that exude a strong fragrant smell, enticing those nearby. Raman mentioned that the Orang Asli community here eat the fruits that are either concealed underground or half-buried in soil.
Donax grandis
Local names: Bemban
Bemban leaves are customarily used as rice wrappers when cooking food in bamboo, particularly due to its glossy and sturdy broad leaves. The surface area is enough to carry the weight of rice without leaking or tearing, most of the time. Once placed in the bamboo stalk, they would fill it with water and place the bamboo near fire to cook the rice inside. There you have it, a natural rice cooker.
On a different setting in Kampung Pulau Kempas, the Temuan women mentioned that the ubik (rhizomes) is not only edible, but can also be mashed and made into cooling powder or as natural relievers for itchiness and skin blisters. In the olden days especially during war times, the Orang Asli women often make these during their free time.
“Bemban ini isi ubi dia, tumbuk-tumbuk boleh buat jadi bedak sejuk..”, Translation: The Bemban rhizomes can be mashed to make a cooling powder paste.
casually explained by Lopo, a Temuan elder, over the verandah.
Refer to this video crafted by the Orang Asli youth on Bemban.
Phyllanthus amarus
Other names: Retmet (Semai), Dukung anak
Commonly mistaken with the Semalu, this small herb is extremely lightweight and the thin green branches bear two rows of oval-shaped leaves, usually accompanied with tiny green coloured fruits on the middle of the stem. He went on to explain that traditionally, the roots of the plant are boiled in water bath and it can be used to treat jaundice in new born babies.
Scorodocarpus borneensis Becc.
Local names: Kulim
Kulim trees are tall and grow on the steep valleys of the forest. Raman casually plucked some of the leaves that were hanging on branches protruding in our direction. The aroma is especially memorable as it gives out a bit of spice and a lasting fragrance. Daun kulim is great for dishes that involve fish, this is to counter the stale smell of dead fish.
As part of Recalling Forgotten Tastes, Lisa of Kampung Pulau Kempas shared her Paeh Ikan Keli recipe — an Indigenous Temuan dish containing the use of Kulim which can be found here on Periuk.
Foraging in a forest in Gombak