"Eyes on Indonesia"

UNusual angle for waterfall

2009-06-27T21:22:00.000-07:00

Photo credit: Alex Sumadijaya

Curug 1000.

This angle was common, yes, i found it was the best angle for waterfall without any trash object ie. plastic!!

like 2 -faced sword, plastic important for human being, but act as dominant trash as well
so sad :((

kawah ratu "queen crater"

2009-06-27T21:13:00.000-07:00

fumarole field, evidence of magmatic activities near earth crust.

unpleasant smell for human nose, but brings benefit for life. It will fertilize javan soil when eruption comes.

That's why so many peoples live on this island, near to the source of food from various paddy field & any other plantation.

grasses

2009-05-11T01:58:00.001-07:00

Photo credit: Alex Sumadijaya

Grass(es), one of the largest flowering plants family in our planet.

At least 20% of landmass covered by various species of grass. On Indonesia, it comes with variable local language such as: rumput, suket (Sundanese), and Jukut (Javanese).

It comprises rice (our daily food), corn (of popcorn, vegetable, maizena flour), wheat, barley, oat, as well as bamboo, the giant & woody grass.

And now, from more than 17.000 island scatter on Indonesia, how many grasses species dwells our home country,

well, nobody knows...

largest canopy dweller on earth

2009-04-21T03:27:00.000-07:00

Sumatran Orangs, known as Pongo pygmaeus abelii, or Pongo abelii, if you consider there are 2 species of Orang Utan (Dweller of the forest) on this planet.

Apart from disagrement among primatologist, this beautiful creature has arboreal (living on tree) habit. Looking for food, the male living solitary, looking for female around his territories.

Their role are crucial on forest as seed dispersal agent, on the other hand, it is one of the endangered animal species. (& i heard in Thailand, there was a orang utan boxing show)

kembang sungsang (upsided down flower)

2009-04-17T03:27:00.000-07:00

Kembang sungsang, Gloriosa superba L. i always remember the name because its unique habit on one of my subject (plant morphology) on University.

If u notice, the flower has upside down appearance. with stalk at the upper part, corolla with stamen and ovaries on lower part. can you imagine how could u life your live upsided down? unimaginable...

natural skyscraper

2009-04-17T02:26:00.000-07:00

Photo credit: Alex Sumadijaya

Cocos nucifera L., scraping blue sky on Borneo.

the sole species on genus Cocos, which means "ugly face".

It derived the names from 3 point on the fruit, resembling the monkey face.

Lowland & coastal natural distribution of this species is a great enigma on plant taxonomy.

Did it wild, or descendand of long-human domestication intervention?

any comment?

symbol of Malesian Flora

2009-04-16T21:47:00.000-07:00

Photo credit: Alex Sumadijaya

Rafflesia hasseltii Suringar,

or Rafflesia merah putih (Red & White rafflesia).

1 of the nature wonder on Sumatra,

hidden deep under rain forest canopy, relying its life on merciness of parasitic Tetrastigma (which also parasitic plant).

The bloom will last for several days before rotten & visited by insects as the pollinators.

The Genus Rafflesia, described by Robert Brown, perfect symbol for FLORA MALESIANA

field excursion

2009-04-16T21:30:00.000-07:00

Field excursion from Tukirin Partomihardjo, one of the BO's prominent ecologist.

In this picture, he explain about general ecology & galls on forest.

The attendant were newcomers on Research Center for Biology, with Darjono (ornithologist from MZB)

Unfrotunately, i forget the name of waterfall, near Tjibodas Botanical Garden, Cipanas.

rengas flower

2009-04-16T21:25:00.000-07:00

Not like any other beautiful flower,

this one was so boring.

but it was attached to one of dangerous tree in the forest.

Renghas as the vernacular name. (instead of it, 3 genera were included in Renghas: Gluta, Semecarpus & Buchanania)

& now guess, which one was the tree?

water drops at spikelet

2007-12-31T21:41:00.000-08:00

Photo credit: Alex Sumadijaya

Isachne globosa (Thunb) Kuntze

first, it's described as Millium globosum by Thunberg (Carl Peter) on 1784..

than Kuntze (Otto), made it as new combination that belonging to Isachne on 1891

inhabited lowland, forming mat under canopy and could be found at 2400 m asl in Java.

water drops hanging at spikelet resulted from waterfall spray in curug 1000, part of Salak mountain complex.

web of trap & food

2007-11-25T22:20:00.000-08:00

Photo credit: Alex Sumadijaya

spider with the web of food
easily traped unaware insect..

then, material and energy transfer will occur in the food chain

!Great cycle of Biogeochemistry!

i'm alive

2007-11-25T22:13:00.000-08:00

Photo credit: Alex Sumadijaya

could you imagine...
this sedge grows at substrate on hole of dead tree
so amazing.. small-sized, light-weight seed made it possible to distributed all over the world part..

even on this remote place.. , it established its own way to produce another diaspora. indeed.. Cyperaceae is group of the world's worst weed..

grassman

2007-10-15T06:31:00.001-07:00

it is my shadow with my friend.. from plant kingdom, grasses family..(ouu yeahh, grass could also make gigantic size.., remember sugar cane?)
after arrive at Herbarium, finally i know, that it is Sorghum propinquum..

Waigeo at Raja ampat Archipelago is an island in change.. people effecting forest directly.. they make road, buildings, and other infrastucture for civilization. then the impact was obvious.. land cleared for agriculture or shifting cultivation, means the area is colonized by grasses, sedges, fern and other secondary vegetation.. and it makes the pristine jungle retreat... (if not extinct)

sunset at U K

2007-10-15T06:27:00.000-07:00

Sunset at the border of Ujungkulon National Park.. with 2 figure of undergraduate Biology student from University of Indonesia. Mariska Astrid (with hat) and Maria Swastika..dorsal view.

facing west, Tanjung Lame must be had serius (and also destructive) contact with tsunami occured at August 1883.. when the world shaked, by the migthy Krakatoa (but native speakers said Krakatau)

nowaday.. after time furious more than century... it's a nice place to spend weekend.. and hv a tea time.. looking at the yellowish sky

panicum repens

2007-10-15T06:22:00.001-07:00

again..... grass-forming mat at abandoned area.. it's Panicum repens.
With extensive network of rhizome..., took my intention to observe this species..
gosh.. just another species of javan grasses

Stilt root

2007-10-15T06:16:00.000-07:00

Stilt root of Rhizophora mucronata..
actually it has function to absorb oxygen from air through hole named lenticel. (that's explain the meaning of the genus.. rhizo: root, phorous: hole) and also become the unique character of the genus.

when reaching ground, it transform into massive and woody root,that supported the stem in unstable environment with muddy substrate..

taken at Pulau Dua, Nature reserve, Banten Province..
it houses hundreds of mangrove stand, consist of Rhizophora, Sonneratia, Bruguiera and Avicennia. & also warehouse of wading birds like herons, egrets, cormorants, and ibises.

harmoniously live

2007-09-02T02:40:00.000-07:00

most birdwatchers recognise it as purple heron..
for biologist (especially ornitologist), they know it as Ardea purpurea
but for of Indonesian people, they call it Cangak ungu.. or most of them only know that the object in the image is a birds.. not a fish.

i found them at Perumahan Cemara Asri, in Medan.. Capital city of North Sumatra..
they co-existed harmoniously (i hope) with the people surround it.
they lived at the heavily changed pond, now covered with exotic species of Mimosa pigra dan lots of grasses. the number may be reaching 400-500 individuals from this species at this site. And ... they lived with another obvious species, which are Black crowned-night heron (Nycticorax nycticorax/ in lokal language: kowak malam kelabu) and Cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis/ Local language: Kuntul kerbau)

this place should be act as 1 good example of co-management where people can lived harmoniously with nature.. well again.., I HOPE...

ki hujan at parung

2007-09-02T02:38:00.000-07:00

May, 20th 2007.. i take the picture that should memorize for lots of people..

the great tree of Trembesi or Ki Hujan (Samanea saman) from Fabaceae.
for people who oftenly passed location named parung, (Bogor regency, West Java Province), this scenery is so memorable.. with the astonishing canopy .
it should be existed there for more than 100 years.. and become the silent witness of Indonesian independence in 1945.

and now, at this time, when people became overpopulated, and we need more space to occupied, i'm not so sure that the tree in my image will be everlasted.

fresh track from sumatra

2007-09-02T02:35:00.000-07:00

fresh track from Sumatran Jungle.. Kerinci Seblat National Park
of u notice, this is the track of Sumatran Tiger (but i'm not that good, so i can't tell what is the gender, front or rear, or how old is it?) i could only know that this is the right pad.
luckyly, i,ve get this image when joined Sumatran Tiger Monitoring Project, a long term collaboration project of DICE, BTNKS, and FFI..
cool adventure, got lot of experience, and thank to GOD, i still alive and health..

nangka waterfall

2007-08-19T01:58:00.000-07:00

small waterfall called curug nangka.. (in vernacular name means jackfruit waterfall)
eventhough.. i didn't find any single tree of jackfruit there (Artocarpus heterophyllus), only found A. elasticus (people known it as teureup)..

by vegetation aspect, not so special.. lots of Urticaceae, Gesneriaceae, and of course Poaceae. Fern & bryophytes dominated at wet places. Boulders of igneous rock carved by stream and created small river

the habitat is already converted to open track for recreational purpose & unfortunately.. there are to many garbage at this place... (coz of careless visitor) .. what a pity..

tree fern in the mist..

2007-07-30T08:52:00.000-07:00

Dicksonia blumei, unfortunately i forgot the vernacular name.
it has yellowish-gold scale encircling the trunk and lower part of fronds.

Gunung Gede Pangrango NAtional Park, West Java
is one of two remaining pocket of mountain forest in West Java. the other in Gunung Halimun Salak National Park, with lower elevation

salak mountain

2007-07-30T08:46:00.000-07:00

Mount Salak... taken from old building of HErbarium (BO)goriense
beautiful morning, perfect time to take the picture, clear blue sky, only cirrus cloud accompanying the weather.
thin fog raised from cold earth as the sun goes up. it shadowing deep trees- carpeted valley between main ridge.
& now coz BO already moved to Cibinong, the chance to get this magical moment would be very rare.. well i miss those moment...

Heavy storm effect at Bogor Botanical Garden

2007-07-22T04:38:00.000-07:00

correct guys....
this image was real.. not manipulated by AdoBe Photoshop

at mid of 2006, big storm crushed the beatiful face of Bogor Botanical Garden.
and the result is obvious, Myristicaceae section is like a mess.. lot of big trees unrotted from their massive soil. and like te root this picture tell, the soil anchored to the root so tight and at last exposed the the air.

ujungkulon

2007-07-05T22:20:00.001-07:00

(picture was taken at Kalejetan, 1 remote location side by side of Indian Ocean)

2000 A.D. Februari
3 young men from Biology UI from class of 98 make a "great" (i prefer that word than "stupid") trip to UjungKulon national park at the west part of Java.

why?
sensation? to curious bout UK? or doesn't have anything else to do in their lives? i think they just wanna step their foot on new place.. that's it
let's see at left side is Prasdianto with yellow and green bag, in the middle is Deden, our native speaker of Sunda (thank God we have them), and at right side is myself, a simple person

and guess what is the result?

well at least when they get home...
1 people get malaria
1 people get dengue
& 1 other people write the story and let the world know

both of them is still live.... until now

neap tide

2007-07-05T17:50:00.001-07:00

guess what hapenned when neap tide come...

correct... everything exposed !!!
even this beautiful sponge on Pramuka Island, (part of Kepulauan Seribu National Park, also known as thousand's island)

else... green area of seagrass, dominantly by big-sized, edible-bearing fruit Enhalus acoroides and small sized, carpet forming Thalassia hemprichii.

it scrapping the sand beneath with help the root. in Ecosystem, rule of the seagrass meadow is very important. it make the ocean wave slower and helps stabilize the substrate. and become feeding ground of dugong (Dugong dugon), very fragile sea mammals.

red-shirt man on the picture act as background is my friend Halim.. at 2003, he was a student of Public Senior High School 69 Jakarta, based on Pramuka island (as the only public school at the Jakarta bay). oftenly he accompany myself to explore the biodiversity of Pramuka, especially coral reef area

river of kalitoko

2007-07-05T02:22:00.001-07:00

so pure...
the nature of kalitoko...

landscape image of river..
flowing slow.. from the source at the jungle to the gulf of mayalibit...
creating 1 special ecosystem: riparian (means: river-side forest)...

Blyth's hornbill

2007-07-05T02:13:00.000-07:00

1 of the magical bird at Papua..
yes it's hornbill, Uniquely bird group from Sunda shelf which occupying high and open canopy of Indonesian forest..

Blyth's hornbill, a.k.a Rhyticeros plicatus is the sole species from the group that reached Papua and adjacent island

oftenly found couple, male and female, with loud flaping sound

2007-07-05T02:08:00.001-07:00

coral reef...
yeah that word make raja ampat so famous as diving site.
no wonder, the location apart only c 50 nautical miles from Bird's Head Peninsula of Papua is a result of plates collision (Philippines, Asia, and Pacific)
and great diversity of this creature is one of the direct consequence

unfortunately.. even going snorkling, i didn't know how many species dwelled in the area

star fish

2007-07-05T01:55:00.000-07:00

Protoreaster nodosus...
the name belongs to this beautiful creature..
yes my friend.. it is a sea star.. but with lot of spine at aboral (back) side
& trust me .. it's big (diameter c. 25 cm)

i found it at Mayalibit gulf, part of Waigeo teritory..
at some part of Indonesia, local people know it as "Bintang Jendral", means Star of the General

2007-07-05T01:46:00.001-07:00

Soo.. this is me..
my self: Alex Sumadijaya

this photo was taken when i joined Widya Nusantara Expedition
from Indonesia Institute of Science..a.k.a.
LIPI in bahasa version

..... & the location is Warsamdin village, Waigeo island, Raja Ampat island, West Papua