Primitive Tree Out of the Jurassic

Okay that was a lie. Or if true just a lucky guess.

But look at this strange tree. The tree does not flower at the ends of its leafy stems, but has a separate flowering system that lies close to the trunk. At first glance and unless you walk up under it, you are unlikely to know that it is in flower, as it is now, here in Cambodia.

Though the leaves look like a typical tree's, dense and glossy, those flowering stems snake and twist over and around each other and the trunk -- a dense, messy hydra-head mass hidden in the heart of the densely leaved canopy. And they bear thorns, numerous enough for a saw. Moreover, the flowers are fat and fleshy and though that may be no sign of 'primitiveness' at all, they look suspiciously like a venus fly trap. I imagine them snapping up insects that have nonchalontly blundered into their lair.

Cambodians tell me that it is called Daem Reang Phnom. Daem means plant or tree, Reang refers to the dry season and Phnom means mountain or hill where they are often found. It is said that Buddha slept under this tree, so it is often grown on temple grounds. I found this tree on the grounds of a modern Cambodian Buddhist temple when I made a rest stop on a recent road trip between Kampong Cham and Phnom Penh.

I had a tense conversation with the monks there about tree cutting on temple grounds. The monks were cutting up several downed coconut trees and one Koki tree when I arrived and as I rested over a bottle of water. This was the first time I had ever seen this done and I told them that. (I have seen older Eaglewood trees cut down at two Koh Kong temples, but that might be powerful outsiders rather than the monks themselves, since Eaglewood, or Agarwood, can be very expensive).

The monks were very unhappy when I asked them who they had to ask to cut the trees down. They said they had not asked anyone but that they needed the wood for cooking. Of course it was none of my business, and it was perhaps wildly inappropriate for me to ask, but my, up until now, well-founded belief that Cambodians don't dare cut trees on school or temple grounds was under threat. Moreover, most temples I am aware of have a 'constituency' or a 'congregation' or supporters who provide necessities like firewood. Cambodians are so very much more likely to plant trees at their temples than to cut them down.

The fibrous coconut stem is likely to make a hot, but inefficient fire; with their very blunt axes they made very slow headway on each columnar chunk after two monks had sawn it free of the long trunk. I felt a little sorry for them except that the Koki tree was the very dense and beautiful wood of the Red Koki. And none of the trees were cut because they were dead; that might have been a useful fact offered in mitigation. :)

But they were working hard. You have to give them that. Most often you see monks begging along the roads in the morning, studying or contemplating (resting) back in the temple in the afternoons.

In Phnom Penh there is a Reang Phnom Tree on the grounds of Wat Svay Popi (the site of the Preah Sihamoniraja Buddhist University). The first example of this tree I ever saw sits on at the top of Phnom Wat Svay in Ban Lung Town, Ratanakiri, over-looking the national road coming into town from Stung Treng. Pass through the temple and climb the hill behind. That impressive tree shadows the concrete reclining Buddha you will find when you reach the top.

Note: Its seeds are contained in hard-covered, near softball sized globular pods.