On the Trail of Pulai's

Sunday - Feb 25 been chasing for Pulai flower for the whole day and performed numerous 'poke poke' latex test. I arrived at Toa Payoh Garden under the hot hot sun. Only a few Pulais were seen but none were flowering. Then i proceed to downtown to explore Fort Canning Park. Here the pulais are larger and taller. Only one tree bore some remnants of the flowers ( see image below). I picked up two leaf samples. I continue to explore the large Fort Canning compound until rain forced me to leave the place. Then i went to Lily's neighbourhood - not much luck either and the rains seems to follow me whenever i go starting from the day before - Saturday at Sentosa Forest Walk!
I took two leaves samples from this plant in Fort Canning with remains of flowers showing. The intrapettolar stipule from each leaf confirms the ID to be A. Scholaris. The lingering fragrance of burnt sugar was still there.

I was 'studying' the bark of the pulai tree
when i noticed this fellow well camouflaged. But it flew away when i touched it.
Good things come in pairs - the velvet-like skin of butterfruits.

A short distance away
Two birds are lapping up the nectar from
the red firecracker flowers
and

It was challenging to use the MF of the S3
on a moving object like this Sunbird(?) hopping from
flower to flower looking
for nectar..... this is one of the better shots

Near the 'spice' garden close to the Keramat....
these red round fruits stood out... among the green

My 2nd encounter with the Alphinia Galanga(blue ginger?) again
but this time
i cracked
open a fruit to reveal the lumpy mass inside
( see below)

" The Chosen One " - to be axed?

Such splendid Terentang tree

Destiny Unknown

Arial roots of Dracaena maingayi
Does 'H' means Heritage Tree?

Cable cars passing constantly over the 'threatened' forest below.Or wait until one day there is no forest left to
enjoy?

SBG - CNY day 5

5th Day of Chinese New Year Holiday I decided to visit Singapore Botanic Garden SBG again.
Spent an hour plus combing through all the plants books in the reference library before I headed for a heavy lunch ( gee - it was nearly full house on a weekday!). It was hot and crowds thinned. I relied on my time-tested method - looking down under the trees and shrubs instead of look up. If you find interesting fruits then look up to find them on the branches. Of course there are exceptions... I visited the Garden Shop and gotten two interesting books.

The first thing i noticed was.....wow a large scale wild pillow-fights?? ... fluffy cotton wools were strewn everywhere!!

'Evidence' at close range .. a fluffy ball..I poked and 'peeled' open the feathery ball...

A seed was found nestling 'comfortably' inside..


No, this is not a furry animal ...
the seedpod of Kapok(cotton in Malay) tree or Ceiba pentandra
the cotton-wool like came from the giant Kapok tree(designated Heritage Tree)
at Lawn O with impressive large lateral buttress roots system.



walking a little distance away - i notice tiny flowers of a ginger sp.


Then I saw a mutilated tree - many
had slashed the trunk to see whether latex flows while others
still carved their & love ones' initials on cacti

Finery is to be wore 'inside' or underneath - even plant adopted
this -- see how colorful the underside of this leaf

Red caught my attention... CNY !
The pretty flower of the red berry above.


Fruits of behesa robusta - Red flowered malayan spindle tree.


Mushroom? No - this is how a budding sausage tree or Kigelia africana's fruit look like.


In time they will grow and grow... and 'netting' are used on the heavy ones in case it hurted someone


Monkey pot or Lecythis ollaria - flying saucer or bee's hive?


This one with the interial emptied... and natural home for some .. like

Bees had built their hives inside the woodly cavity ... .. layers of honeycombs still seen inside of this discarded pot.

Unusual blue color from the fruits of Elaeocarpus angustifolius or Blue Marble Tree.


A few blue berries are visible on upper left hand corner.
Yet another example of tree with leaves wiltered red*
* can you guess why i am so interested in the red leaves...

Blue- tailed Bee-eater & tiny Sunbird

Tiny Olive-backed Sunbird perched at end of my 300mm capability. Never alone- a companion is always nearby - chasing each other, chirping all the time. - Feb 23 '07 10:45am

Feb 20, taking a break from reading ("Extinction") , I noticed this nice bird and throught the 300mm lens , this bird was busy looking here and there as if scanning for mates.
Then it flew for a short loop displaying a nice fan-out tail
I saw it hovered for a while before returning to the TV antennae.
Perhaps i should start imaging the type of 'nice' birds that come perching on the TV antennae every morining during this CNY break.

Feb10 - A Passion Date...

It was 8:10am when i reached AMK AV 5. The Sun was high up and getting warm
but there were dews to render these spiderwebs visible.
I moved closer to one.... the quick acting spider sensed my looming figure or picked up vibrations from my footsteps quickly scurried down the tunnel and disappearedI waited a while and here he(she) is at the entrance of the quick-get-away-exit tunnelI started to look around for the VINE ... and found this pretty white flower from another vine called Angel Wings ( Thunbergia fragrans)
It had some interesting featureTiny white flowers dotted the ground - it looked like a carpet of 'stars' in a background of 'green' canopy. I moved close to one and found a face
"with both hands feeding the mouth". Click image above to view closer.
Where is the vine i am looking for?
.... i crossed the road and found a low noni ( orinda citrifolia ) tree with fruits. This one still sporting a full bloom. So each 'eye-let' housed a flower before... then ... i found the VINE!
Was looking very very hard and found a small cluster of the vine.. first i spotted the tiny fruits.
Good things 'come in pair'... see the tiny nuts!

after rummaging I found the tiny flowers ... is that all? This is my first time seeing a flower..
I wanted more...


after walking for a little while - BINGO! found a another better plant

so many flowers/fruits..... I picked this nicer flower

another flower ..click the image to find the pollens and note the single fruit formingOk - just to remind you the size of flower of Passiflora suberosa w.r.t to its vine

all passion flower species have similar flora form
pinocchios slowly turning into complete fruits of Angel Wings

This Passiflora suberosa had another trick which had kept me puzzled me for months. I noticed on the old moss-covered rain-tree trunks where this species strive - tri-lobbed leaves sometimes with one lobe missing on the right or left hand side and sometimes only single lobe. I have photographed the fruit and have never seen the flower and the ID had eluded me... Recently the gardener had uprooted all the creeping vines but luckily one of two escaped total 'destruction'.


Before you navigate else where
want to see how the 'internal' of the fruit look like?

The thick walled is expected... and the berries inside.. just wonder how
a ripe on look like.. will it be pulpy and orange/yellow inside?

This concluded my date with passion flowers - a TWO hours
walk walk and hunt for the Passion flowers.. near my working place on
a early Saturday Morning. Finally got this plant nailed down fruit flowers and all

Another assignment completed... meanwhile i have things
to show on my meteors stuff..
all except the last one photographs taken using
Canon S3 [ supercloseup/+ MF & - 1 1/3 stop ASA 200]

Vines@ BTP02

They recently put up a new park entrance ( Khatib facing MRT line)

Tiger hiding there...
Gates for controlling the canal water level..

Note the odd-shape centre - i bet this flower had UV marker my CCD cant detect

See what i found first the red ripe one

then the red and the green ones

no idea what they are - do you?

Enter me.... (insect) Paederia foetida ( top/bottom) an invadesive weed!