| S/V
Tethys |
Significant Plants and Trees of Mount Talau |
| The forest of Mt. Talau is dominated by tropical
hardwood trees which once flourished throughout the islands. Many of the trees and plants
in the forest are used to make traditional Tongan medicines. |
| Along the road up to Mt Talau, we spotted several Longolongo
trees (Cycas circinalis), which resemble fat, short palm trees. These
are cycads, members of an ancient plant family that existed when dinosaurs roamed the
earth, and which are often referred to as 'living fossils'. Fossilized imprints of the
cycad's palm-like leaf have been found all over the world but now these trees are only
found in a few locations. We saw a similar species on the side of the volcano 'Soufriere'
on Guadeloupe in the Eastern Caribbean. |
| An abundant canopy tree is the Motou
(crypocarya glaucescens), believed only to be found in Vava'u. Young
leaves emerge as a group from a leaf sheath and are bright red or pink, and very limp and
waxy in appearance. They look something like the plastic ribbons used to mark trails back
home. Eventually the leaves stiffen and turn dark green. |
| Among the trees in the forest one can see a twining
network of thick woody vines formed by the Valai (Watervine, Entada
phaseoloides). The large brown seeds of this plant, grow in huge bean-like pods,
called lofo, and they are traditionally used to make noisy anklets and bracelets worn by
men during energetic traditional dances. This plant is also known as the Pa'anga (Money
plant) because early missionaries thought that the coin shaped seeds were used as
currency. |
| The beautiful seeds of the Lopa (Adenanthera
pavovina), are supposed to be found in abundance through out the park, however it
must be during another part of the year because we did not see any. The meat of the seed
is edible, but the red hard shell is very difficult to break. Lopa seeds are used for
jewelry making and decoration, and the hard wood is used for carving. |
| There are also supposed to be
young sandalwood trees but we were unable to identify them. Sandalwood is now very rare in
the wild having been wiped out by the greed of European traders and native chiefs who
traded sandalwood with China in the 19th century. We hope to see these trees at the
Wildlife centre in Nukualofa when we get down to Tongatapu. |
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| Much of the information on this page is taken
from the Mount Talau National Park brochure. |