In 1954, G H S Wood was the Conservator of Forests of the British Crown Colony of North Borneo, now Sabah, a state in Malaysia.
Wood later became the first Park Warden of Kinabalu Park.
On 21 August 1954 Wood made the first collection of Ficus endospermifolia at Lumu Lumu (Kiau Gap) on the road from Kinabalu Park HQ to the Timpohon Gate at the start of the Kinabalu Summit trail.
Lumu Lumu is the local name for the Kiau Gap, the view point on the dividing ridge on Kinabalu between west and east Sabah.
Prior to 1954, the figs of Kinabalu had been extensively collected by many botanists including Gibbs, the Clemens and Cedric Carr who collected figs on Kinabalu for seven months in 1932 and 1933 for J. H. Corner who was then at the Singapore Botanic Gardens.
It is astounding that these early botanists did not manage to collect F. endospermifolia which is now one of the most common and obvious figs in the montane forest surrounding Kinabalu Park HQ. The explanation for the absence is most likely that Ficus endospermifolia is adapted to montane secondary forest which was very rare on Kinabalu before the Summit trail to Kinabalu was opened up after 1950.
