Papaya fruit at end of a foot- long stalk

I do not expect this "all male- flowers only " papaya 'tree' to bear any fruit. But lately I spotted a 4 inch+ long fruit dangling at the end. To read more on this phenomena follow the link here

Tree Top Walk Revisited

Rubber Hevea brasiliensis trilobed fruits and inflorescence

It was a 8:45 Sunday morning and I found myself in Venus Drive. My two collegues have not arrived yet. So I meandered to a field nearby. The fallen white 5-star petals one large Pong Pong tree traced a circular 'drop- zone' under the foliage. Then I saw a pair of Collared Kingfishers. After a few attempts ( they saw me) I managed to frame one sitting on a high branch. Then closeby another high branch with fruits that looked like rubber seed. This was my 3rd visit to the TTW (Tree Top Walk) and I hoped to see something different ( read my 05' posting of TTW plants here).

Collared Kingfisher

We followed others and took the 'new' path to TTW from Venus Drive CP. On the way we saw a ball of mud the size of a small coconut ( ~ 3-4" in diameter). It turned out to be ant's nest ( see image below) instead of the more dangerous wasps.

I was hoping I could revisit those plants I saw last year. But I did not find most of thems. The monkeys, squirrels were there. I spotted the familiar climber Bauhinia sembifida near the entrance. I missed the Myrmeconauclea strigosa ant-plant and the Baccaurea parviflora on the plank walk back after the TTW.

Red bracteoles on inflorescence of Macaranga heynei

Witches Broom in the making -adnormal growth caused by viral attack of the plant. Most of the brooms ( black mass of dead branches seen in '05 May ) were gone - perhaps someone had trimmed them.

One Saturday Morning

One Saturday I brought my digi camera to a Marsiling neighbourhood. I spotted the lone Chinese New Year nipple fruit plant a week ago and today I decided to check it out. It was a hot and clear day.... This plant exudes a pleasant sweet fragrant aroma.

Nipple fruit Solanum mammosum
flowers (top) and the yellow fruit (below).

Egg plants from my child-hood encounter also have similar but much shorter and curved dark brown spines. Look at those leaves with spear-like thorns!

At 'grass-root' level - even the humble weeds are in their splendor - Cupid's shaving brush Emilia sonchchifolia ready to release their ball heads - laden with silky white hairs.

And a nearby Golden Shower Cassia fistula tree littered the ground with golden yellow petals and the 'C'-shaped or semi-circular stamens that stained the pavement ( see image below)
The hot dry weather in early March had triggered quite a number of pink mempat Cratoxylum formosum to shed their leaves and flowers thus exposing the parasite plants that live off them ( see the tell-tale sign of their presence in the image below).

Whats in a 'package' ?

Weaver ant's nest ( ~4" x 6")
using leaves from Eugenia grandis

Mistletoe flowering on a branch of old rain tree

A typical young branch of a dendrophthoe pentandra
- note the bulbous attachement point to host branch.

Dendrophthoe pentandra flowering
The contrasting differences in leaf/branch form
and the bulbous attachement "betray" their presence as
parasitic plants living off the host.