Flora of Indonesia
The "flora" consists of many unique varieties of tropical plants. Blessed with a tropical climate and around 17,000 islands, Indonesia is a nation with the second largest biodiversity in the world. The flora of Indonesia reflects an intermingling of Asian, Australian and the native species. This is due to the geography of Indonesia, located between two continents.
The archipelago consists of a variety of regions from the tropical rain forests of the northern lowlands and the seasonal forests of the southern lowlands through the hill and mountain vegetation, to subalpine shrub vegetation. Having the second longest shoreline in the world, Indonesia also has many regions of swamps and coastal vegetation. Combined together, these all give rise to a huge vegetational biodiversity.
There are about 28,000 species of flowering plants in Indonesia, consisting 2500 different kinds of orchids, 6000 traditional medicinal plants used as Jamu., 122 species of bamboo, over 350 species of rattan and 400 species of "Dipterocarpus", including ebony, sandalwood and teakwood.
Indonesia is also home to some unusual species such as carnivorous plants. One exceptional species is known as "Rafflesia arnoldi", named after Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles and Dr. Thomas Arnold, who discovered the flower in the depths of Bengkulu, southwest Sumatra. This parasitic plant has a large flower, does not produce leaves and grow on a certain liana on the rain forest floor. Another unusual plant is "Amorphophallus titanum" from Sumatra. Numerous species of insect trapping pitcher plants ("Nepenthes" spp.) can also be found in Borneo, Sumatra, and other islands of the Indonesian archipelago.
Taman Mini Indonesia Indah
Since each Indonesian province maintains its own unique and distinct cultures, shelters, attire and dialects, TMII built a model of each of the houses from Indonesian provinces. TMII attempted not only to reconstruct the homes of the various provinces, but also to create a realistic model of the environment and shelters of the various people of Indonesia. The venues, which are situated around the main lake in a similar fashion to the different islands of the Indonesian archipelago, are thematically divided into six areas in respect to the main islands of Indonesia; Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan (Borneo), Sulawesi, the Lesser Sunda Islands, Maluku and Papua. Each pavilions featured in typical vernacular Indonesian architecture of each provinces. Examples of Indonesian traditional vernacular houses are: Joglo and Omah Kudus Javanese houses of Central Java and Yogyakarta pavilion; Minang Rumah Gadang of West Sumatra pavilion; Malay houses of Jambi and Riau provinces; Torajan Tongkonan and Bugis house of South Sulawesi pavilion; and Balinese house compound with intricately carved candi bentar split gate and kori agung gate.