EUCLINIA LONGIFLORA

Such large bell-shaped flowers cannot escape my sight. The Brugmansia is one of my favorite shrubs and its distant cousin Euclinia longiflora (synonym: Randia macrantha; common name: Tree Gardenia) is less attractive. The best specimen has to be a very established, tall and busy one I saw at Adam Park a couple of years ago but since last year, it is no longer there. Someone might have removed it without knowledge of its beauty.


This one is at the Singapore Botanic Gardens and even an insect was attracted to it.

KHOO TECK PUAT HOSPITAL

I don't know what to make of this. I see the Bauhinia kockiana planted in narrow planting troughs more and more frequently these days and it really irks me. 


Like I posted before, sooner or later, the plants will develop severe nitrogen nutrient deficiency symptoms, as evident by the pale green leaves and pale orange flowers, when planted under such conditions without being given adequate fertilizers. So unless one is willing or able to keep up with the fertilizing regime required by Bauhinias, I would suggest not to plant them in such small confined spaces where nutrient availability will always be an issue.


On this floor, one can have a great bird's eye view of the Yishun pond. As expected by me, the bare crown Enterolobium cyclocarpum has not recovered from the transplanting shock, especially since the planting space is limited and on higher grounds.

BLUE PANSY

I don't even see the Blue Pansy so often at HortPark. This place is really amazing because I get to see them from time to time.

I hope this female finds a mate and seek out its host plants to lay its eggs. By the way, it was perched on the Tecoma capensis (synonym: Tecomaria capensis; common name: Cape Honeysuckle).

PACHYPODIUM

Wow, this is the first time I saw the flowers of the Pachypodium. The leaves and flowers remind me so much of the Plumeria species (common name: Frangipanni) and Adenium obesum (common name: Desert Rose), but it shouldn't be a surprise since they are all from the same Family Apocynaceae, apart from its nasty-looking spine-bearing trunk.

WATER STATION

Alright, this is not a water station along a marathon route but guess where this is?

This interesting circle line station at Bras Basah has a glass ceiling covered with a film of water. For a moment, it reminded me of swimming underwater in a swimming pool because of the ripple effect, on some of the wall panels, created by the light traveling through the water medium.


But this is not all. Do you know what? Without going out of the station, one would never know that this water feature is part of the SMU grounds and can be seen by pedestrians and vehicles moving along Bras Basah Road. This cannot be a coincidence since basah means wet in Malay and the road was so-named because this area was where they used to dry wet rice.

BLACK-HEADED MUNIA

I love such passerine birds since the day I saw small flocks of them at the Punggol field in 1994. Amongst the various Munia species, this one has distinctive black head feathers that are separated from the brown body plumage. Even its bluish beak is a statement. Its other interesting common name is the Chestnut Munia.


A link on this finch is shown below:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-headed_Munia

MUMMIES

It is such an honour for me to see these unusual bat pollinated flowers that last only for a day, or rather a night. Unlike the Egyptian mummies which are preserved corpses of pharaohs etc, these mummies are living testaments of the spectacular world of plants.


I feel Man is all powerful and can someday live in space, but I hope we don't exhaust all the valuable land and natural resources on earth and destroy the beautiful world we live in now. Nature does not belong to us and we should learn to co-exist with it in harmony.

SUCCULENTS

This is a huge collection of rather large spiny beauties. Though not as magnificent as those Baobabs in terms of size, they are nevertheless very amazing. The last one may not be a succulent but it has to be the largest Rhododendron in Singapore for now.

TREE PLANTING

It is time for the Adansonia digitata to go in next. A link is shown below:


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

BAOBAB

The sun is setting in the far horizon, behind the nine masterpieces of nature. It is time to countdown to the moment when these rare plump mummified beauties from Africa are unveiled to the world.