Thursday, February 22, 2007

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...

3 comments:

Emma said...

I must say that you take amazing pictures of beautiful vegetation. I´m gonna put a link to your blog from mine if that´s ok with you. Are you a biologist or florist? / Emma

Dark Matter said...

Hi Emma:

Thanks for the kind words... i am neither just an ordinary folk interested in nature - plants especially... U are more than welcome to link to my blog.

junwang said...

Great pictures you have there! The ginger sp. is actually a rare species of native ginger, Globba sp.