In August, myself, Jimmy Wanma and his Universitas Papua team, Ayub, Frans, Almendo, Citra and Fani, did a week of plant collecting in the Bird’s Neck of Indonesian New Guinea. This area connects the western part of the island, the Bird’s Head, with the main central mountain range and southern lowlands. The neck is bordered to the north by the Cenderawasih bay of whale shark fame and to the south Bintuni the world’s largest mangrove. The neck itself is mostly limestone, and we collected in the valleys of Weriangi and Idoor. This was a must as months of drought meant little to no flowers and fruit on the ridges. We also collected Macropsycanthus, like a jade vine but bluer and rarer.

We then moved on to the concession PT Widjaya Santosa, working with Pak Mail and Universitas Papua forestry graduate Grandis, we first visited stunted white sand vegetation, known as Kerangas, with lots of Melastomes, Myrtaceae and Nepenthes. This was so similar to Bako on Borneo and the lineages really felt like we were at the Anggi lakes of the Arfak Mountains, even though we were 1500 m lower down! We also surveyed an unlogged area of the concession, defined by big Intsia and Vatica, both valuable timber trees, these forests appear to be a conspicuous feature of the lowlands of the Bird’s Neck.

Around this brief trip we cracked on with delivering Jimmy’s PhD thesis which brings together a comprehensive elevation network of forest plots on the Bird’s Head. Really looking forward to how these papers will develop!

As ever, I am grateful to Prof Charlie Heatubun, Haerul Arifin and BRIDa staff for support. BRIN crucially provided research permits.