Pioneer Plants on Agung — Anwari Dilmy 
499 
Fig. 1. The part of eastern Bali surrounding the 
active volcano, Agung, with an inset to show the rela- 
tionship of this area (in black) to the major islands 
of western Indonesia. 
When the author visited Bali again in Oc- 
tober 1963, with Dr. Tarnavschi from Rumania 
and Prof. Jacovlev from Soviet Russia, we still 
found in the vicinity of Besakih naught but 
dead plants with the exception of three species 
which had begun to grow. These exceptions 
were the Javanese elder, Sambucus javanica, 
the grass Eleusine indica, and the herb Agera- 
tum conyzoides. As far as we could see, all 
other plants were dead. 
The third survey during March 1964, was 
very easy because 90% of the area was still 
barren. When there were trees at all most of 
them were dead. Plants were found only near 
small rivers and on moist sites. With eight 
helpers we collected the plants and prepared 
herbarium materials. We could name 75% of 
the plants in the field; the rest were deter- 
mined in the herbarium at Bogor. 
Circumstances during the survey of 
March 1 964 and its results 
The circumstances were very different from 
those in October. Although there was an out- 
pouring of clouds from the volcano every day, 
no lapilli, sand, or ash were being ejected any- 
more, so that after the rains started the plants 
began to grow again. Although the houses were 
still in ruins and only one or two were occu- 
pied, 10% of the ground surrounding the 
Besakih shrine had a greenish cover of grasses, 
herbs, shrubs, and trees which had begun to 
grow, along with several specimens that had 
sprouted leaves and were growing normally 
again. 
Between the heights of 900 and 1250 m 
above sea level, 83 species of grasses, herbs, 
shrubs, and trees were growing (see list be- 
low). All the trees planted by the village peo- 
ple, such as Erythrina, were still dead, but 90% 
of the bamboo Gigantochloa sp., and of the 
legume Leucaena sp. in the vicinity had begun 
to grow again. The condition of Cordia 
oblique, which had been propagated by the 
Agricultural Extension Service years ago, dif- 
fered from that observed six months previ- 
TABLE 1 
Material and Energy Budget for the 1963 Eruption of Agung 
EJECTED 
MATERIAL 
VOLUME 
(m3) 
KINETIC ENERGY 
(ergs) 
THERMAL ENERGY 
(ergs) 
Lava flow 
110 x 10 6 
4.2 X 10 24 
Nuees ardentes, 1st cycle 
50 x 10 6 
1.6 X 10 22 
1.9 x 10 24 
Nuees ardentes, 2nd cycle 
20 X 10 6 
0.67 X 10 22 
0.7 X 10 24 
Pyroclastics, 1st cycle 
70 X 10 6 
2.3 X 10 22 
0.9 x 10 24 
Pyroclastics, 2nd cycle 
30 X 10 6 
1.01 x 10 22 
0.4 X 10 24 
