Durio of Malaysia

by Salma Idris

As you will notice, almost every book that I review has a story behind it. This book is no exception. I found reference to this book in 2018. Searches for purchasing this book all led to dead-ends. Eventually, I found a fanatic of Durian fruits who had posted on his page that he could get copies of this book. I wrote him and he apologized saying that the place where he was getting them was sold out.

Last year in August I finally had the opportunity to get my team to Malaysia and I requested that they search out MARDI offices and inquire about this book, they did, and not only did they get copies, they found the newest edition… 2019!

Selma Idris the authoress, is a consummate scientist, peer-published, very strict to taxonomic protocol and details, she even lists an impressive bibliography for this book.

Whereas the first major modern treatment of Durio in my opinion was done by the famous botanist Kosterman in the 50s, Selma Idris reduces the number of known species of Durio in Malaysia to 24, of which all are treated in this book.

As far as Durian information goes, this is probably the premier work in the world. The photos are often mediocre quality, but they portray many obscure species that otherwise would be impossible to document in photos.

I certainly praise her overall effort and highly suggest searching out this book if you are a Durian aficionado!