STERCULIA MACROPHYLLA

These are photos of the same tree, taken on two separate days. I missed the opportunity of capturing photos of the almost bare leaved tree before it sprouted new leaves and inflorescences. This interesting native tree grows near fresh water swamp forests.

NATIVE GARDEN - PART 1

I have not been back at the Native Garden for a while now and I thought I should check it out before I move on elsewhere. It has expanded so what in terms of footprint and the plants are rather established now with them overgrowing almost everywhere. The fascinating but not surprising thing was that there was fauna everywhere.

Before entering the plot, I was greeted by 2 black and yellow millipedes on the ground amongst theFicus vaccinoides creeper. Along the trail, I spotted a wasp and the Common Five Ring (scientific name: Ypthima baldus) butterfly visiting the flowers. I was wary of the wasp but slowly inched closer towards the flowers to get a good photo of the wasp and butterfly. I sworn that the butterfly spotted me and kept twisting and turning its body so that its wings were folded from my view whenever I changed positions. It was not easy but I finally managed to snap all these photos of the butterfly. A yellow and brown skipper flew and landed on a leaf next to me.

As I moved down the trail, I saw another butterfly known as Long Brand Bush Brown (scientific name:Mycalesis visala). The forewings were slightly damaged, presumably caused by some predators that went after it. Along came a Crimson Dropwing dragonfly that flew around me unabashedly. There was a clump ofArundina graminifolia (common name: Bamboo Orchid) but there were no opened flowers. Strangely, there were some yellow bugs and grubs on the floral buds. Were they feeding on the buds, I wonder?

NB on 22 Apr 11: I found the identity of the wasp as Rhynchium haemorrhoidale (common name: Potter Wasp) and there is an interesting blog post shown here. Check it out:

http://peacockroyal.blogspot.com/2009/09/flora-and-fauna-toa-payoh-sensory-park.html.

KIM SENG PARK

Kim Seng Park is actually a narrow promenade park along the Singapore River and located off Kim Seng Road, across Great World City. Some epiphytic native orchids e.g. Grammatophyllum speciosum (common name: Tiger Orchid), Dendrobium leonis, Phalaenopsis cornu-cervi, were planted on the Tabebuia rosea and Filicium decipien trees while the epiphytic and lithophytic Tiger Orchid was also planted on the ground. Some links on the orchids are shown here:

1. http://www.orchidspecies.com/denleonis.htm
2. http://orchids.wikia.com/wiki/Dendrobium_leonis
3. http://orchids.wikia.com/wiki/Dendrobium_leonis

There was a squirrel high up on the tree and scratching the bark of the branch and watching us from above.