NURSERY

I was collecting plants and suddenly saw caterpillars of the Autumn Leaf butterfly on the variegated Asystasia groundcover. I have often seen this butterflies' caterpillars on Pseuderanthemum and Graptophyllum shrubs but this is the first time I am seeing it on this particular cultivar. So it seems it has adapted to feed on this plant species too.

Nearby, the Phyllagathis rotundifolia beckoned me with its beautiful foliage. I simply love the textural veins, leaf shape and purplish leaf bases of this groundcover.


Then, I saw the Pleated Ink Cap Fungus (scientific name: Coprinus plicatilis) on a batch of soil. The semi-transparent umbrella-liked caps look so adorable when viewed close-up. When they occur in clusters, they look even more lovely.

GOLDEN GARDEN

This is one corner of the Golden Garden that I loved, especially with the curved and beautiful granite gabion-like bench that I recycled from the previous SGF. The Tagetes lucida is flowering beautifully.

The variegated greenish-yellow leaved shrub is also confirmed to be a Graptophyllum pictum (common name: Caricature Plant) with the formation of the pinkish floral buds, that are typical of this genus.

GRAPTOPHYLLUM PICTUM 'TRICOLOR'

Known as the Waimea Caricature Plant, this plant with peach-colour variegated new leaves in the background is just one of the many cultivars of Graptophyllum pictum from the Acanthaceae Family.

A link is shown below:

http://www.kartuz.com/p/80068/Graptophyllum+pictum+Tricolor.html

GOLDEN GARDEN

These are all plants in the Golden Garden.

I was told by my colleague that this variegated tree that I did not wish to prune is actually a Terminalia and not a Tabernaemontana, as initially thought, and I think he is absolutely right!

Fortunately, they heeded my advice earlier and allowed it to grow and now, looking at the top 3 photos, we think it is a Terminalia foetidissima (variegated) from the palmate leaves. But we can only confirmed it after it flowers and fruits.

I don't think I have posted about the commonly planted Galphimia glauca (synonym: Thryallis glauca; common name: Golden Thryallis, Gold Shower, Rain of Gold) from the Malphighiaceae Family before, so here are 2 photos of it. The links are attached here:

1. http://www.floridata.com/ref/g/galp_gla.cfm
2. http://www.desert-tropicals.com/Plants/Malpighiaceae/Galphimia_glauca.html
3. http://www.beautanicals.com.au/galphimia.html

There is this variegated yellowish-green leaves shrub that we bought overseas and which I planted in the garden for its foliage. So far, it has not flowered, so I can only guess it to be a Graptophyllum and wait for the flowers.

The last 2 photos are of the actual Tabernaemontana corymbosa (variegated). Upon closer inspection, the leaf arrangement is indeed different from the Terminalia mentioned above.

BUTTERFLY GARDEN

These are some of the flying beauties in the Butterfly Garden. Enjoy the feast for the eyes!

The 1st photo was of a Jacintha Eggfly that was near its end with its tattered and torn wings. The dark coloured wings contrasted drastically against the yellow Crotalaria flowers.

The 2nd photo was of a brown Chocolate Pansy perched on the variegated yellow Graptophyllum.

The 3rd was a Leopard Lacewing with opened pumpkin-orange black wings on the green leaves of the Clerodendrum paniculatum.

Then there was the beautiful Grey Pansy sitting on the yellow flowers of the Ixora.

The pair of Eggflys with brown underside wings were probably trying to get it on with each other under the leaves of the Ixora.

The 6th photo was of a Leopard Lacewing resting on the Terminalia mantaly leaves.

The last photo showed a Blue Glassy Tiger on top of a Common Sergeant on the Crotalaria plant.

FLORAL WALK

On last Friday, I went over to Floral Walk to check out some plants and saw numerous butterflies on some of the plants.

First, this Common Palmfly was perched on the leaf of a Clerodendrum paniculatum (Pagoda Flower). One of the hindwings looked damaged.

Then, I saw another Common Palmfly on the Graptophyllum pictum (Caricature Plant). The mass of plants were all badly eaten throughout Floral Walk.

Then I saw quite a few butterflies e.g. Common Grass Yellow, Mottled Emigrant, visiting the flowers of the Leea rubra. This confirmed my hunch that this is also a nectar plant for butterflies.

AUTUMN

Autumn was here. Well, at least not literally.

I saw this male Autumn Leaf butterfly sipping nutrients at a gap between granite pavers at the Floral Walk walkway.I am certain it is a male because only males puddle on seepages etc to absorb essential nutrients from these the surfaces.

These Autumn Leaf butterflies are a constant at HortPark since they have so many host plants planted in the area, including the Pseuderanthemum shrubs, Graptophyllum pictum shrubs, Justicia brandegeeana etc.

When it doesn't open up its wings and perch on any surfaces, it does look like a leaf. Most of the time, it stays this way to camouflage itself against the vegetation etc to avoid predation. The caterpillars are very interesting in having a blackish body with blue and orange knob-like protrusions along its length. When it flaps its wings, like when I touched it to get it to open up, you can get a glimpse of how pretty it looks. For this particular male butterfly, the upperside revealed a nice orange that occupied most of its surface with a large black arched patch near the upper wing tip and several black spots on its lower wings. I wonder how the female looks like?

GRAY, WHITE & GREEN

I like this combination of different shaped leaves of gray, white and green colours from the Graptophyllum pictum and Polyscias balfouriana.

This is subtle beauty achieved by putting together some common plants. So who says you always need something out of this world.