Palm laden with bright color fruits - Foxtail palm

Introduced from Australia and was only discovered as late as 1983...

I pointed out this heavy bunch of ripe Foxtail (Wodyetia bifurcata)  palm fruits to a Malay lady. At first she thought it was a Penang palm. But this one came with a rounder and larger fruit and different coloration. A couple of these palms were fruiting near my neighborhood only this one with a lower branch. It was a freak occurrence - I wont have noticed this palm ( well hidden in the branches of another tree)  if i didn't take a different route back home.

" A fruit in hand ( a pair looks atheistically better)  is better than 2 in the bushy  top" - gathered under the palm. I was looking for any obvious bite marks: one with all the soft pulp 'removed', another one with a clean knife cut... hmm. Birds?bats? Squirrels.

Sliced one to see what is inside.. Sure look delicious.... look only. Look like not too many nature takers..[ someone take a nibble and reported bland and tasteless..and the seed was reported to be poisonous ]

I need a hammer and a sharp knife to slice across the hard outer shell. The white 'fresh' inside is hard as rock. You can tell this palm from others easily - the fronds  look like the 'bushy' tail of a fox...

So you should know how  a fish-tail palm look like?.. go out and look.

A Dash of red .. road divider

There are rows of  Ceylon Ironwood or Mesua ferrea with shades of yellowish orangery new leaves at the road divider. But i was attracted by the reddish tips of other shrub.  ( never mind about the 内在美 on the bamboo poles)

I crossed over to the road divider have a closer look @ a lower branch 

Zingerberacea - anatomy of a tooth shaped flower

 

  2/15 /2010

 

2/24/2010

 

Mar 02 2010. Gave it a gentle squeeze, out came

  the aromatic clear liquid 

 

March 16 2010.. tooth-like growth 'flower buds' 

 

March 20 2010  Can't wait for the 'tooth' shaped flower to open

( most likely it might not), I plucked one 'tooth' and

dissected it... after removing the external membranous bracts

 

illuminated with white LED torch

 

 separated the internal  part from the '3-petals'

 

a closer shot using cp995 white powdery pollens but where is the ovary?

Peeling back the bracts... i need to extract  the whole structure.

here it is. The ovary is  the swollen part at the other end ..

severed the ovary chamber.. notice the tiny round whitish ovules.

 

bits and pieces... on my A4 size 'operating table'

 

Different types of anthers - foil presentation  courtesy of Eliska Zaveska

from SBG Speaker's Series :

"Secrets to Anthers - Window to Curcuma Evolution?" By Mgr Eliska Zaveska
   

I was hoping eventually i get a fully developed flower. 

See my video from 2007