Hello, as my name here implies, i am in Taiwan. We travel twice a year to different locations in SE Asia, this summer is 3 weeks in eastern Indonesia, East Nusa Tenggara Province specifically. I am hoping to try and get to photographing as many target species that i already have, and maybe a few seed collections, but i am wondering how people find texts of fairly out of the way areas? We are especially interested in ethnobotanicals, especially local medicine and food plants. are there any flora texts of the area, new or old? In case anyone else is also interested, here are some things i have found so far. http://www.ecosea.org/index.html http://www.prosea.nl/ http://www.bgci.org/garden_search.php?action=Find&ftrCountry=ID&ftrKeyword=&x=87&y=11 I appreciate any help you may be able to provide. I have hard time finding information like this sometimes for some area.
*whistle* That'll be a hard task. I find it difficult enough to locate species I'd like to see in North America, and one would speculate (though perhaps not rightly so) that it would be easier here than there. I suppose it depends on how broad your list is; if you are looking for only a few specific species, then I would turn to scientific publications and herbarium records (though, for the latter, if it is a species of conservation importance it generally won't be released to the public without a valid research reason). Best bet is to contact an "in the field" botanist, really...
Hello, thank you very much for your thoughtful reply. I feel you are correct in trying to find a local botanist, we are trying to contact some students now. We often try to find a hunter/bushmen or a farmer out in the country to try and guide us if they are willing to. But cannot always count on finding someone in many remote areas. One exciting thing new for us is hoping to get to some island volcanoes. I have one more question. Cuttings in the field. i have methods for when i have access to hotel/electricity, but this trip 1-2 weeks will be without electricity and simple cover/car sleeping. So my methods i use now wont work well. I think about trying to bring in test tubes with agar pre-sterilized, but now think bad idea go through customs in case they think something is not right. bringing a pressure cooker for over a fire probably wont work either. I plan bring some IBA and IAA to try and help with some cuttings, but very interested to know what some people do in situations where there are not many luxuries we normally have. the river sand tub method is great, except only good when there is a main base to store it, cannot carry on the go. Thanks for your reply :)
