CAESALPINIA & COMMON GRASS YELLOW

I haven't been a good friend recently. I neglected my butterfly friends for a while now. So I paid tribute to the Common Grass Yellow when I saw several of them flitting around the grove of Caesalpinia pulcherrima shrubs. The common name Peacock Flower is so apt for this flamboyant flowering shrub.

BISHAN PARK - PART 5

1st - 3rd photos - Torenia fournieri (Wishbone Plant)
8th, 11th - 12th, 17th & 18th photos - Common Grass Yellow
9th - 10th, 13th - 16th photos - Mottled Emigrant

CALLIANDRA TERGEMINA VAR. EMARGINATA

I started planting this small tree or big shrub Calliandra tergemina var. emarginata, more well-known by its synonym Calliandra emarginata (synonym: Inga emarginata; common name: Powderpuff; Family: Fabaceae / Leguminosae) in the landscape many years ago because of its continuous proliferation of beautiful red stamineous flowers throughout the year and its light coloured new leaf flushes. I recall vividly that I planted this plant together with Wodyetia bifurcata, Ixora, Duranta etc outside the Bugis MRT.

The soil must have been quite poor because over time, all the plants species but one turned yellow, exhibiting symptoms of severe nutrient deficiencies. The ones that remain healthy green were the 2 Powderpuff plants amongst the landscape. It was quite a contrast actually. The root system of the 2 plants must have developed some symbiosis with the Rhizobia bacteria in their nodules and were able to fix nitrogen.

In recent years, I notice that they frequently suffer from a leaf miner problem and render the leaves unattractive. Some species of Calliandra are also found to be host plants for butterflies from the Pieridae Family and this species is the host plant for the butterfly Common Grass Yellow and Three Spot Grass Yellow.

Several links on the plant are attached below:

1. http://floraofsingapore.wordpress.com/2010/04/03/calliandra-tergemina-var-emarginata/
2. http://www.thefloweringgarden.com/calliandra.htm
3. http://toptropicals.com/cgi-bin/garden_catalog/cat.cgi?uid=calliandra_emarginata
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_fixation

COMMON GRASS YELLOW

There were a few Common Grass Yellow butterflies flitting from flower to flower of the Sphagneticola trilobata (synonym: Thelechitonia trilobata; common name: Rabbit's Paw, Trailing Daisy, Creeping Ox-eye; Family: Asteraceae/Compositae) in front of North Bridge Road's Funan Centre.

The groundcover is more commonly known by its synonym Wedelia trilobata. Anyway, it took me a while to capture these few photos. The proboscis (straw-like mouthpart) can be seen sticking into the florets at the center of the flower.

A few links on the groundcover are attached below:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphagneticola_trilobata
2. http://www.floridata.com/ref/w/wedelia.cfm
3. http://www.tropilab.com/yellowdots.html

THAILAND - CHIANG MAI

We were on the way after lunch and I saw clumps and clumps of these beautiful grasses with their huge pinkish seed heads or plumes, swaying in the wind. In the end, I couldn't stand it anymore and asked the driver to stop somewhere where I could get off the vehicle to take the photos of these grasses. Too bad the seed heads were not ripe enough for me to collect the seeds for germination back home.

The backdrop scenery and small stream were equally mesmerizing. How I wish I could build a house on the site and live there.

As we traveled along a certain major road, I saw rows and rows of immaculately pruned trees with different coloured varieties of flowering Bougainvilleas. Beautiful!

At another nursery, I saw the very beautiful flowering Clerodendrum quadriloculare. Its pink flowers truly deserves the common name Starburst Bush and Shooting Star. After this trip, I bought lots of them for planting. Unfortunately, they have never shown me such a magnificent burst of flowers.