Hi fellow Nepaholics
I have been in Padang, in west Sumatra, for the past 3 days and returned only about 2 hours ago.
When I arrived the city was "recovering" from the shock of a series of fairly strong earthquakes that sent most of the people into the mountains as they were scared of the possibility of a tsunami.
At about 3PM yesterday someone sms'd me and said that Mt Talang had erupted! I was incredulous as I wasn't actually that far from it and I have been up it many times and to date haven't seen any evidence of volcanic activity.
It turned out to be true and this morning I met with some people from the University in Padang, who are specifically involved in surveying Nepenthes in west Sumatra, and they confirmed (much to my astonishment) that it is the "talangensis" Mt Talang that has erupted.
Apparently one side of the mountain now has a fuming great hole in it and obviously everything on that side is (literally) toast!
The local volcano people feel that "bigger things" are on the way and the University people are of the opinion that, even without much additional activity, most of the remaining habitat of talangensis is in danger of being destroyed from the ash that is spewing from the new crater.
I would recommend that anyone that has this plant might want to take extra care of it, get it into seed whenever possible and share the seed around as much as possible. There may not be a lot more where it came from.
Troy.
I have been in Padang, in west Sumatra, for the past 3 days and returned only about 2 hours ago.
When I arrived the city was "recovering" from the shock of a series of fairly strong earthquakes that sent most of the people into the mountains as they were scared of the possibility of a tsunami.
At about 3PM yesterday someone sms'd me and said that Mt Talang had erupted! I was incredulous as I wasn't actually that far from it and I have been up it many times and to date haven't seen any evidence of volcanic activity.
It turned out to be true and this morning I met with some people from the University in Padang, who are specifically involved in surveying Nepenthes in west Sumatra, and they confirmed (much to my astonishment) that it is the "talangensis" Mt Talang that has erupted.
Apparently one side of the mountain now has a fuming great hole in it and obviously everything on that side is (literally) toast!
The local volcano people feel that "bigger things" are on the way and the University people are of the opinion that, even without much additional activity, most of the remaining habitat of talangensis is in danger of being destroyed from the ash that is spewing from the new crater.
I would recommend that anyone that has this plant might want to take extra care of it, get it into seed whenever possible and share the seed around as much as possible. There may not be a lot more where it came from.
Troy.