CORYPHA UMBRACULIFERA

From afar, I noticed the developing inflorescence atop this majestic palm, that I was told was planted in the early 1920s. 

Commonly known as the Talipot Palm (Family: Arecaceae / Palmae), this amazing palm from Sri Lanka and southern India has the largest inflorescence of any living plant and flowers and fruits only once in its lifetime. Upon pollination, the round fruits take about a year to mature and contain only a single seed. After the fruiting process ends, the palm dies soon after. Apparently, the flowering and fruiting processes are so energy demanding that the plant can only afford to do it once.

I remember the last time I heard about this remarkable phenomenon happening in the Singapore Botanic Gardens was in 2004-2005 although the fruiting wasn't as spectacular as documented perhaps because there were sufficient pollinators here. Well, we now have about a year to observe this palm and see how the flowers develop into fruits before it all dies down to ashes. This is definitely a must see event for the plant kingdom.

SENTOSA - PART 14

There was another huge Heritage Tree up the trail. But what attracted me were 2 attractive weeds - a serrated leaved Torenia and a trifoliate unknown weed with small violet flowers.

On the lawn was also large amounts of red fruits from the Carpentaria acuminata (common name: Carpentaria Palm; Family: Arecaceae / Palmae) palm. This is another lovely palm that I fell in love with when I saw its regal form with beautiful fronds and masses of scarlet red fruits. Its tiny creamy-white flowers look insignificant. 2 links are shown here for reference:

1. http://www.florida-palm-trees.com/carpentaria-palm-tree/
2. http://www.floridata.com/ref/c/carp_acu.cfm

Finally, there is this huge tree, which I suspected to be a Lecythis with an interesting crown.


NB on 18 Mar 12: Why didn't I think of referring to the BP sponsored book "A Guide to the Wildflowers of Singapore" earlier? Through this book, I managed to identify the above plants as Torenia polygonoides and the trifoliate weed is Desmodium triflorum (common name: Black Clover, Lesser Clover-leaved Desmodium).

PHOENIX SYLVESTRIS

Wow, look what they did to the Phoenix palm right at the entrance to HortPark. They pruned the lower fronds for the second time in months to expose the multiple trunks. If it was at to me, I would not have done that and would have preserved the original look of this palm.

The more I thought about it recently, the more I think the palm is actually the Phoenix sylvestris (common name: Silver Date Palm, Sugar Date Palm; Family: Arecaceae / Palmae), commonly used in some of our landscapes and a link is shown here for reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_sylvestris