KINABALU PARK

KINABALU PARK

Our first stop, well after a can of milo and Mum’s thick black coffee with the locals, was Kinabalu Park.

UNESCO declared it as a World Heritage site in 2000. I was at 2 other World Heritage sites in April: Angkor Wat temples and Luang Prabang. 

It’s one of the few places in the world where you can walk 10 km and pass through tropical lowland rainforest, montane temperate forest and alpine meadow ecocsystems. This is why there are more than 5000 plant species in the park because there are different ecosystems and huge altitude range and climate from hot humid to freezing alpine. 

We didn’t see 5000 species of plants, although we saw a LOT. The usual epiphytes, lianas and ferns, but I did learn about some of their different types. We saw the world’s tiniest orchid and one worth USD10,000 because it’s so rare. 



The signs around the park were different colours symbolising which plants were endemic (native to the place), common, or medicinal. 

Mum & I wondered how people found out which flowers or berries or leaves were medicinal or edible and I guess it was trial and error. So, some people might not have done too well with the errors! We saw a kerosene tree - if you squeeze the seed it will keep a fire alight. 

Don the guide kept telling us the long species names of plants, like Nepenthes X. Kinabaluensis and Nepenthes Villosa, for different types of Pitcher plants. How are we meant to remember these? (BTW - I copied these from a book). AND he kept telling us numbers, like how many different types of rattan vines there are, or how many types of orchids there are. What is the point of telling us that when we don’t know how many there are in the world. He should have used percentages, like more than 50% or about 20% etc. 

USD10,000 orchid

The Pitcher plant is amazing though. I’ve seen it on Animal Planet & Nat Geo but I didn’t realise how huge some of them are.  


Spencer St John worked for the British Crown in the mid 19 century, and in in 1858 he wrote that he found a gigantic pitcher plant which held 4 liters of water and one that contained a dead rat. Pitcher plants are carnivorous - obviously with dead rat decomposing in it.