Saturday, May 30, 2009

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

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Arm chair meteorite 'prospecting'



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

Saturday, May 16, 2009

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.

Saturday, May 09, 2009

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

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

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.

Saturday, May 02, 2009

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)