The Guide to The Wild Fruits of Borneo

by Anthony Lamb

Many years ago, I sat in a meeting in the offices of Natural History Publications in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia with Charles the owner and Anthony Lamb and we discussed way back then, in 2010, doing a book on the Wild Fruits of Borneo. In subsequent years, I had a couple of follow-up communications and then forgot about it.   To my pleasant surprise, Anthony published this book with Charles At NHP (Borneo) in 2019.

Literature on the fruits of Borneo is sorely lacking, there was a work published on the Fruits of Sarawak by the Forest Department staff and another work on edible plants of Malaysian Borneo by MARDI (Malaysian Agriculture Research and Development Institute), printed in the 80s and 90s but these obscure works were/are almost impossible to find 

I had privy, prior to this work by Lamb, to a very rare book on the fruits of Brunei, which naturally covers species from Malaysian Borneo because Brunei is just a land island nestled inside its bigger neighbor.  It was an interesting book that amazes you with the strangeness of the fruits of this region, the photos were quite mediocre, but they at least opened a window to an obscure world.  This new book by Tony Lamb is a nice portable book, (not exactly a pocket book) that treats over 100 species and gives a useful account of each species.   

The book is nicely laid out with a predictable template format that includes; Name, Description, Distribution and Habitat, vernacular Names, and Notes.

Photos are suitable, not particularly artistic, but useful for identification.

Due to the real lack of other material, this book really fills a need. Borneo has an immense edible fruit diversity, according to my estimates over 1000 edible species, start with this book and discover a hidden world. Thank you Anthony for your efforts!

(Natural History Publications (Borneo))

Language: English, 296 pages