Re: [Aroid-l] Edible Araceae, Aroid art, Wild Bovines,

**&* B* <b*@malesiana.com>**

Hi Julius

Sorry for the rather fast reply this morning; was in a rush.

Aside from Schismatoglottis leaves, the young emerging leaves of Lasia

spinosa and the young inflorescences are both used here as a cooked veggie.

The young leaves are picked at c. 4 - 6 cm long are stir-fried with garlic

and ikan bilis in the same was as the ferns midin (Diplazium esculentum) and

paku (various fern spp. from Nephrolepis and Christella).

Schismatoglottis leaves that I have tried still leave a mildly tingling feel

in the mouth, especially in the soft palate and the back of the throat. I've

never tried them cooked but imagine that after cooking the tingling would be

much less, as is the case with Colocasia esculenta leaves and C. gigantea

petioles. The latter are sometimes added to bak ku teh, a rich soup made

from pig - every part of the pig (the uterus, ears and tail are my

favourite).

A local Homalomena with a resinous mango-like smell is sometimes chewed to

freshen the breath (it is VILE...) and there are all manner of micro-uses of

aroids in various forms as medicines (especially terpenoid-rich Homalomena).

Moving away from aroids, another popular addition to ulam is the leaves of

several Begonia; all have a lemon-acid taste similar to that of rhubarb.

Peter

----- Original Message -----

From: "Julius Boos" <ju-bo@msn.com>

To: <aroid-l@gizmoworks.com>
Cc: <hboos@tstt.net.tt>
Sent: Sunday, December 17, 2006 9:13 PM
Subject: Re: [Aroid-l] Edible Araceae, Aroid art, Wild Bovines,

From : Peter Boyce <botanist@malesiana.com>

Reply-To : Discussion of aroids <aroid-l@gizmoworks.com>
Sent : Saturday, December 16, 2006 5:00 AM
To : "Discussion of aroids" <aroid-l@gizmoworks.com>

CC : Wong Sin Yeng - yahoo <sinyeng99@yahoo.com>, Wong Sin Yeng - UNIMAS

<sywong@frst.unimas.my>, Dr Timothy Hatch <tim@pop.jaring.my>

Subject : Re: [Aroid-l] The Saola and the Araceae

Dear Pete and Ted,

Thanks for a great discussion and much information on two of the subjects

I have a lot of interest in, the edibility of the Araceae AND wild Bovine

species!

Does anyone know if perhaps the genus Schismatoglottis may contain less of

the crystals/compounds that make most other aroids so very unattractive to

browsing animals or man?

What is 'ulam', Pete, a type of curry or stew??

The blooms of Spathiphyllum canifolium are reportedly used and cooked as

an ingredient in curies in Surinam/N. S. America, and I got a recent

record of the blooms and young leaves of Caladium bicolor being cooked and

used as a food in Arima, N. W. Trinidad, W.I., the name used for them

there was 'ca-chew'. I`d also like any input from you guys 'out there'

on a slide I saw at the MOBOT conference several years ago, it showed a

crudely put-together table of veggies somewhere in field in Asia

(Thailand??), and amongst them were tied-up bundles of the unmistakable

purple-colored blooms of Lasia spinosa with their spiralled tops.

On another note of interest to some of us, "Aroids in Art" (Steve Marak

and other collectors!), just by pure chance and only this morning while I

was browsing through the illustrations in a book ("The Body", Edward

Lucie-Smith, 1981, Thames and Hudson Ltd., London, ISBN 0-500-233339-X

10-81) (this book turned up after my major home repair), and in it on pg.

91 I came across a reproduction of an old painting by Albert Van Der

Eeckhout (active 1637-1664), "A Tarairiu Woman", c. 1641. It shows a

woman in Brazil who is carrying a basket attached to her forhead by a

tump-line, the basket contains the lower leg of a human, she also carries

a severed lower human arm and hand in her right hand. On the left border

of the painting are shown the unmistakable 'canes/stalks' (erect rhizomes)

of the giant aquatic aroid species Montrichardia linnefera, these canes

are bearing three pineapple-like infructesences, and several leaves.

Other aroid leaves are shown along the bottom right of the painting, but

are shown too dark in the copy in the book I have to be identified. It

reports that van der Eeckhout accompanied Count Johan Maurits of

Nassau-Siegen, who led a West India Company expidition to Brazil, and that

v. d. E. illustrated in paintings, watercolors and drawings and 'on the

spot' the flora and fauna, an early type of scientific and anthropological

record.

(Pete, you told us that the seeds of this plant are roasted, and that

while visiting Brazil you tried them, and that they were in fact very good

food!)

It would be of great interest to search in the records (in Holland?) and

see what other plants and aroids from Brazil were illustrated by Van der

Eeckhout! (come in, Wilbert H., "Lord Phallus???).

I look forward to comments and any information from you guys out there!

Sincerely,

Julius

Hi Ted

Was interested to see your posting on the saola and aroids. In the late

1990's I was involved with a UNDP/Lao Forest Department project training

parataxonomists in the northern part of the Lao PDR as part of a NTFP

project funded by UNDP & Danida. While in Lao I met up with Bill

Robichaud, then of WSC, who was studying saola and was one of the first

westerners to successfully get photographs from camera traps. Bill asked

me to identify plants that he had collected from saola grazing sites and

these proved to Schismatoglottis calyptrata (Roxb.) Zoll. & Moritzi, a

variable and widespread species and is common in everwet forest in

IndoChina (its full range is from tropical northeastern Myanmar to New

Guinea).

It now seems likely that the saola's primary range is the remote and very

precipitous, not to say very wet mountains along the border between

Bolikhamxay and Nghe An provinces in Lao & Vietnam respectively with

increasing evidence that it most saola and saola habitat in Laos probably

lie outside of Nakai-Nam Theun, in areas of Bolikhamxay Province (and to a

lesser extent Savannakhet and Xekong Provinces) the area (Nakai-Nam Theun)

traditionally considered its main range

Reverting to the aroid aspect, here in Sarawak leaves of Schismatoglottis

motleyana (Schott) Engl. are occasionally sold as a vegetable. used to

make ulam and are favoured for the astringent/sour taste they impart. In

Sabah I have seen leaves of another Schismatoglottis (possibly S. venusta

A.Hay) sold for similar purposes.

Peter

----- Original Message -----
From: ted.held@us.henkel.com
To: Discussion of aroids
Sent: Friday, December 15, 2006 11:36 PM
Subject: [Aroid-l] The Saola and the Araceae

This is a distraction from our usual fare, but I saw an interesting

article on the little-known saola, an exotic bovine. The current Science

magazine (December 1 cover date) contains a picture and written reference

of an unidentified Araceae, which the rare animal is believed to eat. The

saola, also known as the Vu Quang ox, is the last new large animal to have

been discovered. It was unknown to science before 1992. Although they say

it is related to the cow, it looks more like an antelope. The few

remaining individuals live in Vietnam and Laos. The article contains some

interesting information on the animal and its bleak prospects, but nothing

about the aroid save the following:

"The forest ecologist finds safe footing on the slick slope and grabs a

handful of broad, dark-green Araceae leaves. 'Saola like to eat these,"

[Do] Tuoc says. 'At least, we have seen bite marks.'"

There is a photograph of Mr. Tuoc holding some nondescript taro-like

plants in each hand (fibrous roots, perhaps 30 cm petiole height).

The saola diet is unknown, save for the hints that it might like tucking

into a luscious aroid. Much of the remainder of the article is a

discussion, pro and con, of the idea of attempting to clone the beast in

an attempt to preserve it.

Anyone having a liking for extremely rare animals can e-mail me separately

and I will send them a pirated scan of the article. I don't think anyone

will mind this violation of copyright as long as we don't sell copies.

Ted.

ted.held@us.henkel.com

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