Labrador Park

I saw red ants as well as white-fine tent like web spreading between three Barringtonia asiatica fruits.

 It was a hazy day. A cruise ship sailing past the narrow water way of  Keppel Island

Bukit Timah Nature Reserve II - where is the other cave?

We missed out this one on last week trekking. Going  in for a closer look.

 What strikes me :  a bright light at the other end of the cave !!!

If you stood near the entrance you could pick up the dripping echoes from  the cave ceiling. A flashed shot revealed the many ripples ( the through entrance  is barely visible from this angle).

'Ants' marching up the buttress root..

A closer look reveled the 4-5 lane highway were stationed with peripheral 'guards'. From the pic the antennae of these guards  were not angled so could these be marching termites instead? Ant vs Termite diagram courtesy of the unknown author from the web ( reproduced below) [VIDEO here]

Rock Path .. a short but  interesting path

Looks like the one in SBG's rain forest path

005- first cave 007 2nd cave, 37.52 metre from the first cave.

South View Path to Cave Path to Catchment Path to Rock Path.
Take blue line to TAS VHF station and back

Bukit Timah Nature Reserve walk

Look like two limbs ..

There are other more menacing looking steps else where. If possible walk on the side.

 

Singapore Quarry@Seraya Valley

 

A disused cement circular silos. Water?

Gall on leaf

 

Giant straight trunk of  Pulai ,Alsotonia sp.  Note the termite nest creating a black streamer up the tree.

YF walked round and found a fold in the fluted trunk that can hide two grown adults

Beginning of the South View Path you will came across to this rather

large and boa constrictor like liana vine. Wondering how the leaf look like?

 

A moth - note the two 'eye' at the rear end of the wing  'brownish'  edge 

on both the moth on top and the leaf insect's limbs below. Mimicry in nature.

The front left leg is missing... 3 on the right and only two on the right.

See how this insect walks normally video by Eva using Sony DSC-T90 

and my video below using Nikon P5100

video of this leaf insect.

 

X-sectioned of a log

We were attracted to the almost iridescent greenish lichen carpeted roots bathing in the morning sun.

 

Fungus that looked like calcified rock crystal.

Cave entrance on the side of Cave Path. If you are not observant you might walk straight pass it.

We missed the 'other' cave. 

You can hear the echo of water dripping onto the pool ( invisible) in the dark. A flash photography revealed the murky pool and i even caught two ripples. [ water was seeping through the roof!]  A trail of whitish streamer appeared to leach out from the interior. This is a granite cavern definitely man-made.

 

Claws  - close up of a spiny vine climber with stem as thick as my wrist.

Nice 'yellow'-sulphur  looking fungus.

Caterpillar shielding against the sun from the base of a leaf. You can barely seen a large black dot not far from the head. Another 'eye' design on body to frighten predators?

 

A 'heart' with an umbrella cover. Young leaves of Macaranga triloba

Red fungus appear on a damped wood. Focus on a protruding one.

Reflection from Hindhede Quarry not far from Visitor Centre

GPS log - so next trip will cover the minor few that we missed.

Visitor Centre no longer giving out the free pamphlets with the map. If you have half a day (4-5hrs) to burn you can cover all the tracks leisure walking and have time for photography. Most of the tracks are sheltered by foliage so heat or direct sun is NOT a problem.

SBG revisited Wealth of the Rain Forest Exhibition etc

Wing seeds of Shoera sps.(Sarawak) in the SBG library. There are more species than you can count.  See my Lambir (Miri, Sarawak) trip report ( Left hand box).

Spindle tree's Bhesa robusta seed. ( a similar one posted before here)

Male cone of a cycad. Firm and not spiky as you would thought.

This one decided to take a further probe horizontally.

'

'Curl'  from the petal of Pachira aquatica

Pachira aquatica flower. Too high up in the tree (see below)  so inspect a fallen petal instead.

The hairly fiddlehead of a tree fern. 

Other species fern young shoots and fiddlehead 

are delicious dish e.g. baku when fried with balachan. 

The long narrow javelin like petal of Pachira aquatica pierced through a leaf!

Hibiscus - 'twisted' Look.
 Stigma ( 5 style-branch with knobby heads) follow further down
by the stamens ( anther with yellow pollens on filaments)

I once commented all Syzygium sp.'s flower look like this.

With heavy emphasis of Sarawak items - the hornbill carving..

de ja vu - remember the hut in this year Garden Festival?

The column- like greenish leaves - dragon's tongue - Phylodium longipes. 

Recognize the cat's whiskers? The red round fruits were rukum masam or Flacourtia inermis mentioned in at least one place here