Marc G.M. van Roosmalen 

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Surinaams vruchtenboek

BOKEN "SURINAAMS VRUCHTENBOEK av Marc G.M. van Roosmalen är en betydelsefull resurs inom natur- och vetenskapslitteraturen, som fokuserar på frukter och frön från Surinam. Denna bok är resultatet av en grundlig studie som inleddes 1973 och syftar till att utforska de frukter som är viktiga för primater i regionen. Med en djupgående förståelse för växtsystematik och ekologi, har van Roosmalen sammanställt en omfattande samling av teckningar och beskrivningar av olika växtfamiljer, vilket gör boken till en värdefull referens för både forskare och intresserade läsare.

Boken är uppdelad i två delar: den första delen innehåller beskrivningar av frukter och frön, medan den andra består av illustrationer. Genom att fokusera på vedartade växter och vissa små buskar, har författaren hållit sig till en hanterbar mängd arter, vilket gör det enklare för läsaren att navigera i materialet. Varje avsnitt är noggrant organiserat i alfabetisk ordning efter familj, genus och art, vilket underlättar identifieringen av växter.

Van Roosmalens arbete bygger på material från herbariumet vid Universitetet i Utrecht, där både torkade och inlagda frukter har använts. Det är värt att notera att boken inte syftar till att vara heltäckande, utan snarare en grundläggande plattform för vidare forskning och fältstudier. Författaren uppmanar även läsare att bidra med synpunkter och kritik, vilket visar på en öppenhet för utveckling och förbättring av innehållet.

"Surinaams vruchtenboek" är inte bara en visuell upplevelse med sina livfulla illustrationer, utan också en praktisk guide som kan användas av botanister, ekologer och naturälskare. Genom att kombinera vetenskaplig noggrannhet med lättillgänglig information, erbjuder boken en djupare förståelse för Surinams rika växtliv och dess betydelse för det lokala ekosystemet.

Att utforska denna bok innebär att dyka ner i en värld av färger och former, där varje frukt berättar sin egen historia. Oavsett om du är en professionell botanist eller en nyfiken läsare, kommer du att finna värde i van Roosmalens noggrant sammanställda arbete.

INTRODUCTION

The origin of this book is somewhat unusual and deserves a little bit of explanation.

In connection with my intended ecological study of various Surinam primates, all of which are fruit-eaters to a greater or lesser extent, I started to make drawings of fruits and seeds in 1973. This resulted in a collection of drawings with descriptions of fruits and seeds of representatives of a variety of plants families which I considered as a potential source of food for primates. In the course of this work it soon became clear that many plants could easily be identified to genus and often even to species using fruit characters only. Since good examples of a systematic investigation of fruits from a certain area are very hard to find in the botanical literature, it seemed well worth to expand the scope of my work in order to make it useful on a more general level.

This, in short, made me decide to compile a book on fruits from Suriname. In order to keep the size of the book within reasonable limits, however, it appeared to be desirable not to let the number of species grow too large. This has been achieved by including the woody plants only, with the exception of the small shrubs, leaving herbaceous plants out. Yet, even so, it took two years to finish the book. The material used is that which is being kept in the herbarium of the Institute for Plant Taxonomy of the University of Utrecht, consisting of both dried fruits and fruits in spirit.

Working with herbarium material, whether dried or pickled, has the disadvantage that in the course of the conservation process deformation to some extent may have occurred. This particularly applies to soft, juicy fruits like berries and drupes. Notably in the case of less common species, fruits of which may often be of rare occurrence in the herbarium, there remains the possibility that the material available does not adequately show the shape characteristic for the living plant. Moreover, it also regularly appears to happen that collectors hesitate to take the biggest fruits and often content themselves with the smallest specimens they can grasp.

This work does not aim to be complete and finished; many drawings and descriptions need to be compared yet with and checked against living material in the field, and may have to be considerably modified in their final version. This is one of the main reasons for not including a key in this book. Moreover, the book is likely to be used primarily as a picture-book by most people anyway, this often being the easiest and quickest method to identify a specimen at hand.

The pictures and descriptions are arranged in alphabetical order by family and within each family by genus and species. In many cases brief descriptions for family and genus are added. It has been felt that many descriptions would be more effective by including inflorescence and leaf characters as well, rather than being limited to the fruits and seeds only. In addition, there are always some notes added on plant habit, distribution and habitat of the species. The indications 'algemeen' (common), 'niet algemeen' (not common), or 'zeldzaam' (rare) are solely based on the number of herbarium collections. It should be borne in mind that a species referred to as rare could have acquired this predicate because it has been collected a few times only, whereas this species may appear to be far from uncommon in nature.

I would like to express my thanks to all who have assisted so very much in the realisation of this book, especially various staff members of the Institute for Plant Taxonomy in Utrecht. My special thanks go to Dr. P.J.M. Maas whose generous help and advice from the very beginning throughout has been a great stimulus to me. His involvedness with the project and his enthousiasm were prerequisites for this book's coming into existence. I am also much indebted to Drs. E.A. Mennega who has put himself in charge of the corrections, the preparing of an index, and who dealt with all technical problems connected with making a manuscript ready for the press.

The original drawings were made at life size. In order to give the book a handy format, all drawings have been reduced to half their original size, unless stated otherwise.

I hope that the "Surinaams Vruchtenboek" will prove to be useful, and I would like to invite anybody to send me his criticisms concerning the text and/or the pictures.

Drs. M.G.M. van Roosmalen

Institute for Systematic Botany

Transitorium II

Heidelberglaan 2, Utrecht – Nederland