A technique for collecting botanical specimens in rain forest

I. Introduction — The need for a simple method of collecting botanical material from rain-forest trees became evident during the construction of a field key to the rain-forest trees of North Queensland. Many collecting techniques have been developed, e.g. throwing sticks and stones, severing branches with rifles and shotguns, felling trees with axes and saws, breaking branches with hand thrown lines and using monkeys to climb and pick twig samples. However, the collection of botanical material from rain-forest trees is a difficult and time-consuming task. The problem is not as great in forests consisting of a small number of tree species. In such forests it is generally possible to visually group the trees into species assemblages without knowing the identity of each species. When a low branched individual of a particular species is sighted, botanical material can be collected. This approach does not work satisfactorily in rain forest because of the large number of tree species and the long slender trunks on most trees. Although these trees may reach 60 m in height they usually have at least part of their crown within 20-30 m of the ground. II. Technique — The basic aim is to loop a strong nylon cord over a branch in the crown of the tree and to break a branch by pulling on the cord. There are two steps: 1. A lead sinker weighing 50-70 g, attached to a monofilament nylon fishing line with a breaking strain of 7 to 9 kg is propelled over a branch with the aid of a catapult and allowed to fall to the ground after passing over the desired branch. 2. The sinker is removed and the end of the nylon cord is attached to the monofilament line and hauled up and over the branch and back down to the operator. One or more operators pull on both ends of the heavy cord until the branch breaks.