Author Archives: David Tng

About David Tng

I am David Tng, a hedonistic botanizer who pursues plants with a fervour. I chase the opportunity to delve into various aspects of the study of plants. I have spent untold hours staring at mosses and allied plants, taking picture of pollen, culturing orchids in clean cabinets, counting tree rings, monitoring plant flowering times, etc. I am currently engrossed in the study of plant ecology (a grand excuse to see 'anything I can). Sometimes I think of myself as a shadow taxonomist, a sentimental ecologist, and a spiritual environmentalist - but at the very root of it all, a "plant whisperer"!

Stalking the stalkless – discovering Acaulon

Posted on September 10, 2018 by David Tng

Few moments in moss hunting are as exciting as finding an ephemeral species. One such moment was years ago when I stumbled upon Acaulon (Acaulon integrifoium in this case) on a small exposed soil patch in a peri-urban park in Tasmania. … Continue reading →

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Cocoloba – largest in the world

Posted on September 9, 2018 by David Tng

The dream of any botanist – to see the biggest of any particular category, or form, of plants. One such dream for me was fulfilled in the campus grounds of the National Institute of Amazon Research, known among botanists and … Continue reading →

Posted in Appreciation, Brazil, Must see plants, Plant Facts & Figures, Plant Morphology | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Leaf whispering in the tropics at the School for Field Studies

Posted on September 1, 2018 by David Tng

“A traveller should be a botanist, for in all views plants make up the chief embellishment”. Although Charles Darwin said this almost two hundred years ago, his recommendation remains as valid now as it was then. Students of The School … Continue reading →

Posted in Botany, Flora FNQ, Knowing Plants, Plant Morphology, Tropical Australia | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

A forest in a savanna – the yin in the yang

Posted on January 20, 2017 by David Tng

Seasonally dry tropical forests are a globally significant biome for biodiversity and conservation. Globally speaking, Brazil is one of the strongholds of seasonally dry tropical forests, and Brazilian SDTFs may primarily be found in the country’s northeast semiarid region, in … Continue reading →

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Ecology and wood anatomy of tropical rainforest plants

Posted on October 19, 2016 by David Tng

Tropical rainforests have been an obsession for me for as long as I can remember, and in particular how tropical rainforest plants have found solutions to living in a common environment. Just like people having a diversity of professions to … Continue reading →

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Dry forest succession in Brazil – still much to learn

Posted on September 17, 2016 by David Tng

Understanding how a plant community recovers (i.e. succession) in tropical forest is important for managing and conserving these ecosystems, and indeed, tropical ecologists can no longer justify their existence with the claim that successional processes in tropical forests are poorly … Continue reading →

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Mapping the world’s savanna and rainforest – a citizen science project

Posted on September 10, 2016 by David Tng

Would you be a modern-day cartographer, to help map the world’s vegetation? Understanding the distribution of the world’s savanna and rainforest is going to depend on the world’s citizens! Like you and me. Citizen science, i.e. science done with the … Continue reading →

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The Call of Little Plants – a short Brazilian reverie

Posted on August 3, 2016 by David Tng

I have heard stories of magical creatures, crows, dears, bears – animals often featured in animistic and shamanistic themes. In such stories, people feel a close affinity with these animals, and attribute great personal significance to them. They might say … Continue reading →

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Meeting one of the world’s largest Philodendrons

Posted on July 22, 2016 by David Tng

Meeting giants is a major preoccupation in my life, but some plant giants come in all forms. One of these is in the form of a hemiepiphyte, a root climber that is found in the tropical jungles of south America. … Continue reading →

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Pilgrimage to an ecological mecca – the Connell plot

Posted on October 26, 2015 by David Tng

Ecologists are pious nerds, and from time to time we embark on pilgrimages to visit sites of ecological significance. This post is on one such site. The year 1978 marked a significant advance in ecological science. It was the year that saw … Continue reading →

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