Mount Kelam ( id, Gunung Kelam) is an exposed

granitic dome Granite domes are domical hills composed of granite with bare rock exposed over most of the surface. Generally, domical features such as these are known as bornhardts. Bornhardts can form in any type of plutonic rock but are typically composed o ...

West Kalimantan West Kalimantan ( id, Kalimantan Barat) is a province of Indonesia. It is one of five Indonesian provinces comprising Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo. Its capital city is Pontianak, Indonesia, Pontianak. The province has ...

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

, with an elevation of 1,002 m. In 1894, German botanist

Johannes Gottfried Hallier Johannes (Hans) Gottfried Hallier (6 July 1868 – 10 March 1932) was a German botanist born in Jena. He studied botany and zoology at the University of Jena under Christian Ernst Stahl (1848–1919) and Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919), and contin ...

became the second European to climb Mount Kelam, after a certain Dr. Gürtler.McPherson, S.R. 2009. ''

Pitcher Plants of the Old World ''Pitcher Plants of the Old World'' is a two-volume monograph by Stewart McPherson on the pitcher plants of the genera ''Nepenthes'' and ''Cephalotus''. It was published in May 2009 by Redfern Natural History Productions and covers all species kno ...

''. 2 volumes. Redfern Natural History Productions, Poole. Hallier ascended the summit 5 times between January 30 and February 13. He wrote the following account of the mountain:

Mount K'lamm is a unique mountain of grand beauty. It rises singly and abruptly from a wide plain overgrown by young forest almost up to 1000 m above sea level and stretches approximately from west to east. Up to about half the mountain the steep slopes are covered with vigorous virgin forest, but the upper half is encompassed by mighty, almost vertical cliffs made of rock, over which water runs down in numerous gullies. Above the upper edge of the cliff there is high mountain vegetation compiled of bushes and small trees.
[translated from the original German Hallier, H. 1896. Die botanische Erforschung Mittelborneos. ''Naturwissenschaftliche Wochenschrift'' 11(9): 75–79, 85–89, 97–101, 109–114. in ''
Pitcher Plants of the Old World ''Pitcher Plants of the Old World'' is a two-volume monograph by Stewart McPherson on the pitcher plants of the genera ''Nepenthes'' and ''Cephalotus''. It was published in May 2009 by Redfern Natural History Productions and covers all species kno ...
'']

The mountain's summit area was relatively inaccessible in Hallier's time and remains so today. Hallier described it as follows:

After once again climbing a steep slope with ''
Gleichenia ''Gleichenia'' is a genus of ferns. Its closest relative is the genus ''Stromatopteris'', restricted to New Caledonia. Species include: * ''Gleichenia abscida'' Rodway * ''Gleichenia alpina'' R.Br. * ''Gleichenia cryptocarpa'' * ''Gleichenia dic ...
'' thickets, one stands suddenly beneath the high enclosing rock wall of the mountain ring. The smooth water-washed stone seamed with water channels shows no variation in structure, and it appears almost as if the whole mountain was composed of a single monstrous block of rock. On this wall has been erected the steep 45 metre high rattan ladder; it is secured only at the bottom, in the middle and in the solid earth at the top, the rest lying free against the stone.
ranslated from the original Dutch and German in ''Pitcher Plants of Borneo'']

''Leptospermum'' trees form a sparse canopy on the mountain's upper slopes, while grasses and ''Sphagnum'' moss cover the ground. The critically endangered

pitcher plant Pitcher plants are several different carnivorous plants which have modified leaves known as pitfall traps—a prey-trapping mechanism featuring a deep cavity filled with digestive liquid. The traps of what are considered to be "true" pitcher p ...

species ''

Nepenthes clipeata ''Nepenthes clipeata'' (; from Latin ''clipeus'' "round shield", referring to the leaf shape), or the shield-leaved pitcher-plant,Phillipps, A. & A. Lamb 1996. ''Pitcher-Plants of Borneo''. Natural History Publications (Borneo), Kota Kinabalu. i ...

'' is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to Mount Kelam.Clarke, C.M. 1997. ''

Nepenthes of Borneo ''Nepenthes of Borneo'' is a monograph by Charles Clarke (botanist), Charles Clarke on the Nepenthes, tropical pitcher plants of Borneo.Clarke, C.M. 1997. ''Nepenthes of Borneo''. Natural History Publications (Borneo), Kota Kinabalu. It was first p ...

''. Natural History Publications (Borneo), Kota Kinabalu. Other ''

Nepenthes ''Nepenthes'' () is a genus of carnivorous plants, also known as tropical pitcher plants, or monkey cups, in the monotypic family Nepenthaceae. The genus includes about 170 species, and numerous natural and many cultivated hybrids. They are mos ...

'' native to this mountain include '' N. albomarginata'', '' N. ampullaria'', '' N. rafflesiana'', and '' N. reinwardtiana''.Lee, C.C. 2011. Ark of Life. However, habitat stresses such as droughts and forest fires (particularly those caused by the

El Niño El Niño (; ; ) is the warm phase of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and is associated with a band of warm ocean water that develops in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific (approximately between the International Date L ...

of 1997–1998) have destroyed much of the summit vegetation.Cantley, R., C.M. Clarke, J. Cokendolpher, B. Rice & A. Wistuba 2004
''Nepenthes clipeata'' Survival Project
. International Carnivorous Plant Society. The highly sought-after ''N. clipeata'' has additionally suffered from overcollection by plant hunters and is now close to extinction in the wild.

References

{{coord, 0, 04, 47, N, 111, 40, 20, E, type:mountain_source:kolossus-zhwiki, display=title Kelam Landforms of West Kalimantan