I have to say since I was involved in the Butterfly Garden project, I am a convert. Whenever I see the caterpillars of the Painted Jezebel, I get really excited. They don't turn me off because I know that someday they will morph into the beautiful flying jewels that I know so well now.
I saw these rows of trees from afar and some of them looked strange. As I walked nearer, the thick waxy leaves and orangey-red flowers looked familiar.
"Is it what I thought it is?", I asked myself. Once I stood in front of one of the trees, the answer was obvious. Almost the entire tree was covered with the parasitic plant Dendrophthoe pentandra (common name: Mistletoe) from the Loranthaceae Family. In fact, I cannot even remember what the host tree was right now.
I think I mentioned before that I always clear them from our trees until I learnt the importance of this plant. In terms of biodiversity, the plant provides a wide array of fauna with food. An example is butterflies such as the Painted Jezebel. So these days, I relish the sight of this parasitic plant and learnt to appreciate the beauty of its unusual flowers.
2 links are provided below:
The Dendrophthoe (Mistletoe) from Australia looked different from those found in Singapore.
The flowers appear larger and more orange in colour.
I walked past a tree and saw this Painted Jezebel hanging on the underside of the leaf. As I got nearer with my camera and was barely a feet away from it, it did not flinch and immediately I suspected something amiss because it was not usual for butterflies to stay so still when someone or something approaches them.
I saw these rows of trees from afar and some of them looked strange. As I walked nearer, the thick waxy leaves and orangey-red flowers looked familiar.
The Dendrophthoe (Mistletoe) from Australia looked different from those found in Singapore.
