HABITAT & FLORA IN BERA LAKE | TASIK BERA PAHANG
Lake Bera is an inland riverine swamp, which supports a biological community unique to Malaysia, and possibly represented nowhere else in the world. Of the 6,800 hectares of wetlands inside the Ramsar site, the main habitats comprises of freshwater and peat swamp forests, transitional open-forested swamps and open water, with a highly diverse algae community and beds of submerged macrophytes.
The world’s only species of submerged plant, the purple water trumpet is found in the swamp forests along the river banks, whilst bladderwort and floating water lilies are found in the main open water. Pandans and emergent plants such as the rare sedge are abundant in large open swamps.
The forest of the drier lowlands is dominated by dipterocarps, which include some of the commercial timber species. The canopy can reach heights of between 30-40 metres, but some emergent can reach a height of more than 50 metres.
A total of 374 plant species have been recorded at Lake Bera, of which 10 are known to be endemic to Peninsular Malaysia.