Plantation Walk
A very useful plant, the Coconut Palm (Cocos nucifera), is cultivated throughout the tropics. The palm grows to a height of 30 m and has a lifespan of about 90 years. A Sanskrit name for Coconut is ‘kalpa vriksha’ or ‘the tree that provides all the necessities of life’. The trunk is used in the construction of houses, while the leaves are traditionally interwoven into roofing or thatching material. The midribs of the leaflets are used to make brooms and satay sticks. The fibrous husk surrounding the nut yields a much used and well known commercial fibre or coir, used for ropes and cordage, matting, brushes and as a substitute for horsehair in staffing. From the hard shell, which is itself a useful domestic utensil, charcoal of good quality can be made. The flesh of the coconut is edible and used in cooking. Coconut oil is one of the most extensively used of vegetable oils, being employed in the manufacture of margarine and edible fats, soap, candles, pharmaceutical and other preparations. It is extracted from the dried flesh of the ripe coconut, or copra, an important articles of world trade. Coconut water within the young nut is popularly drunk and tapping of the young growing stems produces the intoxicating toddy as well as gula melaka.

Mangrove Forest
Mangrove forest occurs along the coast and the edges of rivers between the highest and lowest tide levels. At high tide, the roots of the mangrove plants are fully immersed in seawater, while at low tide they are exposed to the sun The soil is very fine-grained and soft, rich in organic matter, but lacking in oxygen below the surface. Many mangrove plants have special roots, fruits and leaves to adapt to the fluctuating water environment & the condition of the soil.

Screwpines are found only in the Old World Tropics. Usually found along sandy seashores, the Seashore Screwpine (Pandanus odoratissimus) occasionally established itself along river banks. It is a formidable plant to encounter as it has dense clusters of long, stiff leaves armed with three rows of short spines. The compound fruit resembles a pineapple and are dispersed by water. Like many other screwpines, the leaves are used to make mats and baskets.

There are three types of trees here that are know collectively as Api-Api (Avicennia alba, A. officinalis, A. rumphiana). A mangrove pioneer, the Api-api grows in soft mud on the gently sloping banks of estuarine rivers and on newly formed mud flats near river mouths. The tree produces numerous finger-like pencil roots that are linked to a massive cable root system below the surface of the mud. These pencil roots allow the tree to breathe in oxygen. The timber is hard and moderately heavy, very coarse grained, brittle but difficult to split and hence not very useful, even as firewood. Fishermen like to use it for smoking fish, however, as the wood smoulders when burnt, giving the smoked fish an agreeable flavour.

The Sea hibiscus (Hibiscus tiliaceus) is found throughout the tropics along seashores, at the back of the mangrove forest and further inland along rivers and streams. The tree is low and spreading, growing up to 12m tall. It produces flowers the whole year round with bright yellow petals and a maroon eye. Each flower opens at about 9 am. In the morning and closes up by about 4 p.m. The flower then drops off and the petals turn reddish. In the past, this had been one of the most important fibre-plants in Malaysia. Fishermen used the fibre of the bark to make strings and cords, as well as for caulking or sealing boats. The bark can be used to make paper while the timber is useful for planking and building light boats. It is believed that tree with smaller leaves produce better quality wood. A decoction of the roots or shoots and leaves is reputed to be a good treatment for fever, while the leaves and shoots can be boiled with to treat cough and bronchitis.

A common mangrove plant, the Bakau Kurap (Rhisophora mucronata) has stilt-like prop roots and produces fruits that look like upside-down spears. The seedling germinates while the fruit is still attached to the tree and when almost fully developed, this propagule falls into the mud below, ready to grow into another plant. Bakau wood is a valuable source of firewood and charcoal. It has been stated that five tons of the Bakau firewood is equal in calorific value to two tons of coal. The timber is hard and durable and the poles are popularly used for foundation piling, scaffolding and fish traps. The bark is rich in tannin and leather tanned with Bakau extract is known to be resistant to darkening.

Lororng Pinang
Commonly cultivated in villages for its seeds, the Betel Nut Palm or Pinang (Areca catechu), is thought to have its origins from South-east Asia. It is fast growing, attaining a height of 20m. The seed or nut is usually chewed with the leaves of Betel Pepper (Piper betle) and other species. Betel-chewing is losing popularity, however, as the nut contains the alkaloid, arecoline, which is toxic to the nervous system, and studies have linked oral cancers to the practice. Betal Nut has been used in traditional Malay medicine to treat a string of ailments including diarrhoea, fever and dysentery.

From Ubin Tides, an NParks Publication