OF PLANTS AND FLIGHTS OF FANCY

It was a beautiful weekend morning when we went hunting for butterflies and I ended up taking photos of plants, butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies too.

Some species of butterflies captured in the photos include:

• Peacock Pansy
• Leopard
• Tawny Coster
• one of the Lycaenidae butterflies

It was amazing to see at least 6 Leopard butterflies flitting from the flowers of the flowering Leea indica beside the substation area.  

LEEA INDICA

It was after the rain, and the Leea indica flowers at the Singapore Botanic Garden's RB carpark were heavily covered by the rain water and they looked amazingly awesome with their glistening water droplets.

The honey bee was clearly relishing in the nectar or rain water and such brief moments are just so beautiful.

LEEA INDICA

This is a native species commonly known as the Bandicoot Berry. From the Leeaceae Family, the flowers are actually a source of nectar for some butterflies.

Frankly, I personally prefer the other Leeas such as L. rubra which has more colourful and attractive red flowers.

By the way, this is the first time I see the berries becoming ripe and turning into this beautiful mass of purple and black berries. In fact, I felt so tempted to eat it and had to refrain from doing so because I do not really know if they are edible.

A link on this plant is shown below:

http://www.flowersofindia.net/catalog/slides/Bandicoot%20Berry.html

KUALA LUMPUR

Actually, I do love to go to KL and I did that from 11-12 Jun 10.

The 1st photo showed the silhouette of an artistically shaped tree covered by climbers. It was taken near the evening time. Guess what shopping centre was shown in photo 2?

Photo 3 showed the flowers of the beautiful Leea angulata. The 4th and 5th photos showed a pretty adult cat and a kitten. Well, the final and 6th photo showed the birds on the wall of the hotel at 1 Utama Shopping Centre.

LEEA RUBRA

This is another lovely plant that I fell in love with since last year. I love everything about it, from the serrate leaves, to the red stems, petioles, stipules and sepals, and most certainly the inflorescences.

Unfortunately, I did not have the space or light to grow it at home because I tried and failed.

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.

LEEA RUBRA

I fell in love with this vigorous shrub when I first laid my eyes on it.

The red branches, petioles and clusters of small flowers amidst the small dark green leaves are a good addition to any landscape.

I know the native Leea indica is a butterfly nectar plant and am trying out this plant and the Leea guineensis 'Burgundy' in the Butterfly Garden too to see whether the butterflies also feed on the flowers.