The Island of Borneo — divided by three countries, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam — is home to both a vast lowland tropical rainforest, and Mt. Kinabalu, Southeast Asia’s tallest peak. Nobody knows how many ferns and lycophytes occur on Borneo, but I estimate around 1400 species. In this talk, I recount two recent expeditions conducted for the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, to the Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah. In Sarawak, we survey karstic limestones in Niah National Park, and then head into the Hose Mountains in the heart of Borneo. In these lowland forests, ferns exhibit a diversity of growth habits which I document as part of my research on the evolution of epiphytic ferns. In Sabah, we ascend Borneo’s high peaks, Mt. Tambuyukon and Mt. Kinabalu. We document ultramafic endemics, and then form hypotheses about the historical biogeography of ferns along these elevational gradients.
Michael Sundue is a fern taxonomist at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. His research combines field work, herbarium study, and molecular phylogenetics to understand broad patterns of diversity and evolution. He regularly conducts field expeditions to tropical biodiversity hotspots.
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