THE STORY
... secret in deep forest
...secret in deep forest
Deep in the rainforest of Pahang, Malaysia. The largest treasure of nature there are some people who risk thier life seeking a rare treasure. This treasure is hang from the branches of the tree. The tree tall is about 70 metres. No one knows what can really happen in the moonless night walking through the jungle surrounded with untouched nature protected by indigenous people. This people walked until they fine this tree.
The tree is called Tualang !
Tualang grows in lowland rainforests, and like most tall rainforest trees, it has huge buttress roots, necessary to support its weight. The roots widely spread at the surface, not very deep, because in the rainforest, the nutrients are more at the surface. Tualangs have branches above the canopy around 30 metres and have slippery trunks.
The giant bee (Apis Dorsata) like these kind of trees, because they can build their nests very high and out of the reach of animals and humans. The trees offer the bee a home and the bee protect the trees from the loggers. What this bee create is more valuable than the timber the tree can offer. This treasure hunter carry 15 inches nail, torch and bucket. They dare risk thier life climb for what this giant bee create.
The treasure that come from this giant bee is.....Honey !
The giant bee is a aggresive bee and has never been domesticated. The size is also twice bigger than normal bees. They can fly until 5 kilometre away from the hive. The giant bee collect thier pollen and nectar from around 180 various of flowers (multifloral) such as tualang, ketapang, medang, seraya, meranti and cenerai. The giant bee play a big role to pollinate 50% of flowers in the forest. The honey brought by the giant bee in this way is all worth thing for us. The wild flowers live untamed and that's why the honey quality is very high.
The honeycombs can be up to 2 metres across, and the nest can contain up from 30,000 to 50,000 bees. On one tualang tree sometimes can be more than 100 nest. It will mean almost 450 kg (about 1,000 pounds) of honey. Tualang honey have different colors and tastes too, depending on the region where the bees collect the pollen and nectar. The honey color is dark at the bottom area of the honeycombs. The acidity is stronger than normal honey bee and also change due to rainy or dry season. The taste of black honey is mild bitter sweet taste.
Tualang honey is rich in nutrients, enzymes, vitamins, minerals, amino acids and other supplements that is required by the human body on a daily basis especially antioxidant. It is a "Blessing of Nature".
As ecomonic development advances, wild tropical rainforest decreases and replaced to the plantation of palm oil and rubber tree. Wild animal and bees are difficult to find thier home in the future. It is very difficult to stop them, but we can hope for this nature survival.
We would like to send this "Treasure" of Malaysia Tropical Rainforest to yoU.
References :
http://healthywithhoney.com/tualang-honey-what-is-tualang-honey/