FICUS

With the recent hot weather, this Ficus produced copious amounts of figs along its branches.

What is incredibly unique about this genus is the fruit it produces is also an enclosed inflorescence known as the syconium, which contains the flowers within. They have an unparalleled mutually beneficial relationship with fig wasps, which are the only pollinators known for this genus.

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.

WASP EGGS

These are the eggs of a wasp. But I am still trying to find out more details of this wasp.