SBG - 30th May '09

Saw a bunch of fruits at the branches. Picked up a few and heel crushed one to see the inside. Looked delicious...

It was raining Ceiba pentandra 'kapok' @SBG .. the fields were fulled of the pillow-case stuffing softies.. WATCH the Video here

Finally i found a low branch and touched this giant 'nut' of Lecythis ollaria

Arm chair meteorite 'prospecting'

DIY meteorite classification using O. Richard Norton's Field Guide to Meteors and Meteorites.

SBG's NOG - National Orchid Garden May 16 '09

Tiny orchid ..

A frog took refuge from the elements between leaves.

Look to me an odd and unnatural combination of colors

Straw colored and chocholate - white petals..

A beauty this one Bulbophyllum echinolabium
- remind me of a deep sea creature

Young pitcher plant with unopen 'lid' @ Cool house

'Nail -like' tip of a bromeliad leaf

A male flower ..ready to discharge the load.

What is the time?
My watch says 10:19 and
the shadow in the sundial is
between X and XI pretty close isnt it?

Some come with twisted petals...

Removal of pollinia (yellow dots)
and
insert into the female stigma situated directly underneath

Hibiscus Sabdariffa or Rosellel . I saw these in
NTUC supermarket.

Aerial root tip of a monopodial orchid

CP5100 focusing is 'touch and go'..
shot from a reachable flower
Dillenia philippinensis , Philippines Simpoh
- the tree version of sempoh air.

SGB - Rain Forest Walk May 9 '09 ( Vesak Day)

HAPPY MOTHER's DAY .. May 10 tomorrow

Spiny rattan , Myrialepis paradoxa

Rabbit's foot Fern

Clam- shell like Cola gigantea fruit ( above & below)

Ficus destruens from Queensland Australia

Surprise to find mangosteen - dont you think they looked like
a pair of old fashioned alarm clocks? See my other images.

Failed ( sterile?) Tarap
Artocarpus odoratissimus fruit.
Another find in Fork canning
from a year ago.
A common tasty
( sweet white fresh creamy,
multiple seeds. Boiled seeds are edible too )
exotic local fruit found
in Borneo - Sabah/Sarawak. My personal favorite too.
Mature fruit ~ 7 inch diameter

Cycad 'bud' clinging onto the main stem

Sempoh air , national flower of Brunei

A 1 Metre in diameter 'Flower'!

My fellow nature lover Ms AO send me
this pic taken from her recent trip to North Borneo, Sabah.
Rafflesia with a diameter of 1 metre!!!!!
and added "... it grows in the wild but the local people take care of it "
ITs a parasitic fungus - not really a flower by definition.

SGB - Edible / medicinal Plants tour may 2 '2009

Ochanostachys amentacea, Petaling tree and its uses

I held the 'blue' ginger pretty flower close
before i ate it - stamen, petals and all.
Well the other ginger flowers were used in rojak so ..

Fallen fruit of Cola gigantea ( Giant Cola) picked clean by birds?
Below - At least x2 fruit spotted up in the tree.Mr Nelson Mandela planted this Cola gigantem in SBG.

Nutmeg fruit just barely reachable from my P5100 limited zoom.

I picked up a block of white crystallized
camphor and stuck it to the bark of Dryobalanops aromatica.
The soft block had a strong aromatic turpentine
smell ... enough to clear blocked nose perhaps.

Not far from the tree, picked up helicopter-like wing seed of Dryobalanops aromatica.
( All Dryobalanops sp had 5-lobed wings)