NORANTEA GUIANENSIS

I am showing photos of the inflorescences of this plant again.

Anyway, I planted it next to the fencing because the scandent plant looks heavy and probably could do with some support. Now the small maroon flowers are more obvious than before and do contrast against the orange floral nectarines.

I will not say more about this plant since I have shown it so many times and there should be enough said about it.

NORANTEA GUIANENSIS

Here are more photos of the Norantea guianensis. The true flowers and nectarine sacs are shown clearly in the photos.

NORANTEA GUIANENSIS

This is a close-up photo of the developing nectarines, with big openings, which branched out from the stalk of the smaller inconspicuous flowers.

In addition, the cut end shown in a previous post sprouted new branches with red new leaf flushes.

BIDENS ALBA

I started growing this Bidens alba (synonym: B. pilosa, common name: Beggar's Tick, Spanish Needles, Butterfly Needles) from the Asteraceae (Compositae) Family when I started working on the Butterfly Garden project.

This is a fast-spreading nectar plant for butterflies. If not controlled, it would spread very quickly to other areas. When visitors go in to HortPark from Pasir Panjang Road, they would see a whole sea of them on the left of the road and butterflies can often be seen visiting these flowers.

A link on this plant is attached below:

http://www.floridata.com/ref/b/bide_alb.cfm

CNIDOSCOLUS CHAYAMANSA

I remember in my previous posts on the Mayan Spinach Tree, I only focussed on the interesting white flowers that attract the Leopard Butterflies because of its nectar.

This post shows the habit of this plant and its beautiful papaya-like leaves.

AMBER

It did look a bit like amber, but it was not. These were the exudates on the cut ends of the Norantea guianensis. And they were dry to the touch.

I supposed this is the way the plant excludes and prohibits pests and diseases from entering the wounds, much like our blood clot preventing infection to set in.

Anyway, remember the separate nectarines and flowers that I mentioned before? The few inflorescences were developing and they have not taken on the vibrant scarlet or orange colour yet. But the larger inverted cup-shaped nectarines and the smaller unopened floral buds directly below it were obvious from some of these photos. And there was an ant trying to get to the nectar?

I will definitely post more photos when further changes occur.