50. Discovering Jungle Plants in North Bali
Hiking through waterfalls and wild jungle gardens!
Hello! This week I will be taking you on a Jungle tour of a few plants discovered on a hike to the Kroya Waterfall and it’s smaller siblings in Northern Bali <3
We visited Bali in the rainy season, although it was drying up near the end of our trip. So during this hike we moved through: misty raindrops, scorching sun, and jungle breeze all in the span of one morning. The plants that grow around here are mainly for hikers, wild animals and nature to enjoy. Some of them have been around for eons whereas others were planted recently in the hopes of luring future hikers to enjoy their fruit. And thank you to our guide Putu, who put up with all my plant questions and showed us a great chill time :)
Mycetia Sinensis (or Lateng) is a plant that tends grow along mountainous/jungle springs, as it was doing so here. It fruits white/clearish berries that are beautiful and almost like mistletoe. But don’t be fooled, this plant can cause a lot of skin irritation in humans so it’s best to avoid direct contact.
Technically a shrub, it thrives in damp climates so in this rainforest it had thrived itself all the way to tree status. Stretching across the rushing stream and flourishing with many berries.
The beautiful Shining Bird of Paradise (in the Lobster Claw family - how great of a name), a prized rarity with bragging rights in a lot of greenhouses in European botanical gardens and yet a completely common whatever plant seen growing absolutely everywhere across Bali.
Some Balinese people actually harvest the young roots of the bird of paradise to cook and eat them :)
This pink plant grows everywhere you look in Bali. It’s easy to grow and ornamental. It is part of a group of garden plants that the Balinese call ‘gamal’, but we normally call it a Ti Plant. It’s of the Asparagus family and is known to bring good luck, perhaps why it grows so plentifully on the island. My plant app tells me it represents the magical connection between the living and the dead. It can also be used for making plant-based dyes due to its strong pigmentation.
These are also another type of gamal (Ti Plant).
Look at those lines <3
Chinese wedelia (creeping oxeyes) a pretty weed that is unfortunately very invasive.
Crepe ginger (also called wild ginger and many other names). A unique plant that grows the most gorgeous white flowers. It is used in Ayurvedic medicine to help with fevers, intestinal issues and skin-related woes.
Blue porterweed (or by it’s much cooler alias - blue snakeweed). It can be considered an invasive species and originates from the Caribbean. The leaves can be harvested and brewed into a tea. It can also be used to make beer (or maybe even kombucha) due to the foaming tendencies the plant has when fermented or in contact with hot water.
I believe this is a young mangosteen plant.
A dragonfruit plant growing as a rooftop accessory - if only we could manage that in Amsterdam, how stunning would that be.
We saw someone harvesting paku pakis, which is a fern that is used in cooking Mie Goreng (stir-fried noodles). They only harvest the baby greens as they are the most tender. He was very sweet and agreed to pose showing off his harvest!
Cluster fig, only the monkeys eat these here. Hindus consider it a sacred tree and from what I understood, Balinese people don’t normally harvest from these trees. But actually cluster figs are edible for humans and in some cuisines are considered a rare and expensive kitchen ingredient. Putu referred to it as the Kroya tree - same name as the majestic large waterfall in the area.
Putu called these Kresek trees - could not find a proper translation to English and any AI I use tells me they are just another cluster fig, but I don’t think that is the case. Maybe in the same family? But anyway - these are mainly eaten by the birds and do look like adorable miniature figs.
Post-hike coconut of course..
The view from the ‘parking lot’
Some things nourishing me recently:
Coco at Refresh Café in Uluwatu
Making a Sunday Ragù back in Amsterdam as I catch up on everything from the last few weeks <3
Breakfast in South Bali
Elixirs
The ocean - no filters if you can believe. If anyone knows a legal way to bring your pets into Bali please let me know since that is currently the only reason we have not packed our bags and moved over there.
Thank you so much for being here! <3 See you next week as we venture over to West Bali and run into macaques, mangrove flowers and more!
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our last sunset on the island
