Exotic? Clidemia hirta, Sendudok Paksa, Bukit Tabur West Trail, Klang, Malaysia
Well, I wanted to walk some trails in the Bukit Tabur area for views of the Klang Gates Dam but everything had been hermetically closed off with big fences acrosss roads and trails and maintained by serious guards. 'It's too dangerous', so it was claimed; 'why?', no idea; perhaps rock or mud slides... But in years past I've walked here without problems. Now cirumvention was not an option. Nothing to do but turn back. There was, though, still enough to be seen.
Here's Clidemia hirta, Köster's Curse, originally from the neotropical Americas. It's still called an 'exotic' but has been around in these parts for a long time. How long does it take for a plant no longer to be termed as 'exotic'? Anyway, it usually goes by the English vernacular 'Koster's Curse'. For a long time it was unclear how it came by that name but in 2014 things were cleared up by Neal Evenhuis in an astute article from which it is also evident that 'Koster' is a misspelling of 'Köster' (hbs.bishopmuseum.org/pubs-online/pdf/op115p3-6.pdf). So let me keep here to the local common name.
Exotic? Clidemia hirta, Sendudok Paksa, Bukit Tabur West Trail, Klang, Malaysia
Well, I wanted to walk some trails in the Bukit Tabur area for views of the Klang Gates Dam but everything had been hermetically closed off with big fences acrosss roads and trails and maintained by serious guards. 'It's too dangerous', so it was claimed; 'why?', no idea; perhaps rock or mud slides... But in years past I've walked here without problems. Now cirumvention was not an option. Nothing to do but turn back. There was, though, still enough to be seen.
Here's Clidemia hirta, Köster's Curse, originally from the neotropical Americas. It's still called an 'exotic' but has been around in these parts for a long time. How long does it take for a plant no longer to be termed as 'exotic'? Anyway, it usually goes by the English vernacular 'Koster's Curse'. For a long time it was unclear how it came by that name but in 2014 things were cleared up by Neal Evenhuis in an astute article from which it is also evident that 'Koster' is a misspelling of 'Köster' (hbs.bishopmuseum.org/pubs-online/pdf/op115p3-6.pdf). So let me keep here to the local common name.