EPIPHYTES

I attended a talk this afternoon on the subject epiphytes and was inspired to blog about it. The speaker Harry E. Luther, Asst Director (Research) of the Gardens by the Bay and author of the book Native Bromeliads of Florida shared with the audience the vast diversity of epiphytes in the tropics. In simple terms, an epiphyte refers to a plant that grows on another plant for physical support, which is in contrast to parasitic plants that grow likewise but rely on their host plants for nutrition. Some examples of epiphytes include many orchids, some ferns, bromeliads, gesneriads, Hoya and so on.


I am amazed by his wealth of knowledge and experience and was in awe of the beautiful photos he took over the years and showed on the screen for our viewing. It came as no surprise that he featured a lot of bromeliads, known as broms in short, especially since he is a well-known authority on this plant group in the botanical community. Midway through the talk, I realized I didn't take any notes and decided to record some pointers for my own noting. They are briefly as follows:

• Hemi-epiphyte - I mentioned this term before in some of my posts and refers to plants e.g. strangling figs, that begin its life as an epiphyte by growing on another plant such as a tree and which eventually sends its roots down to the ground and grow into a self-supporting plant on its own.
• Tank bromeliad - This refers to the group of bromeliads e.g. Neoregelia species, with broad leaf bases that overlap each other in a rosette to form a central reservoir, sometimes referred to as an urn or a cup, that functions as a receptacle that collects water, leaf-litter, decaying animals etc. These broms are often excellent biodiversity multipliers.
• Bodiversity multiplier - This is the first time I heard this term. The tank broms are regarded as such because their central reservoir of water is an ecosystem on its own and supports a multitude of living organisms up the food chain and web, from the microscopic bacteria and protozoan to the worms, insects, crustaceans, frogs, birds, snakes and so on.
• Pteridophyte - This refers to a specific group of vascular plants that do not produce flowers or seeds. These plants are very specialized and reproduce themselves via spores. Ferns and mosses belong to this group. Some common examples of pteridophytic epiphytes include the Bird Nest Fern, Stag Horn Fern.
• Broms with large inflorescence of warm coloured flowers - The pollinators of these broms with red and orange-coloured flowers are usually small birds e.g. hummingbirds, sunbirds, which are attracted by the showy colours to visit the flowers for their nectar.
• Aeschynanthus is from the Old World and Columnea is from the New World - I have always wonder how we can distinguish between the two easily and today I was rewarded as an attentive listener! It is the first time that I realized that they come from two different worlds. The latter is bird pollinated and its flowers are two-lipped as in typical hummingbird or sunbird pollinated flowers.
• Medinilla magnifica - I was reminded of this beautiful epiphyte that is often planted as a ground shrub instead. I first saw photos of it as an epiphyte in the book Tropical Garden Plants and wanted to try planting it on tree forks for years but never got to actually do it. I feel very tempted to try it now.
• Broms evolution - Broms are finely attuned to its habitat, which strongly influences its morphological evolution into many different forms e.g. narrow leaves, broad leaves.

Photo taken from website http://mounttotumas.com/wordpress/?p=172     

STERCULIA CORDATA

I took these photos just 5 days ago. It is that time of the year again when this tree sheds its beautiful crown of leaves when the weather cycle changes to one that marks a drier spell. I bet it must have been a nightmare for the cleaners to sweep away the leaves. Let us see how long it takes before the new leaves emerge again.

WEEDS & GARDEN PLANTS

I always admire such weeds, such as Ficus, growing in crevices of walls and so on for their resilience and ability to overcome the harsh adversities of the site.


I also remembering salvaging some of these Ficus weeds and growing them in pots in my attempt to train them as bonsai plants. Well, that was all in the past.


On the other hand, my resident neighbours must have grown these medicinal and culinary herbs and plants, such as Plectranthus amboinicus, Pomegranate, Chili, in the neighbourhood garden. Frankly, I don't fancy edible garden plants because they are usually very boring to look at with its bland green leaves. That explains why I am still very weak in this area. The only such plant I appreciate is the Vinca rosea I posted earlier.

FOUNTAIN

This is the kind of fountain I wanted to install at the garden's Visitor Centre. They are simple yet provide some sound and movement to the landscape, which would otherwise be bland and still.

SUNTEC CITY

I lost steam and interest taking photos of Chinese New Year decor. Anyway, when I was at Suntec City recently, I saw this spider web design and took these few shots although I wasn't particularly amused.

VINCA ROSEA

 Today's weather - sunny

I took these photos a few days ago to show how well this Vinca rosea (synonym: Catharanthus roseus) species with pink flowers and a dark pink eye is growing in the ground. It appears to be more hardy compared to its cultivars which do not seemed to be able to adapt very well to our soils especially when they are too clayey.


This is the species I wanted to plant at the Hub.

BROWNIE

Let me present Brownie here. Like Sandy, he is a chihuahua but he has more of an apple head than a deer head. Just compare with Sandy and the difference would be more obvious.

PLANT SALES

It is that time of the year again where there are abundant pots of Citrus plants on sale for the Chinese New Year season. This was taken at Chinatown.

MIRABILIS JALAPA

I think I mentioned about this huge bush before. Just last week and this morning, I collected more than 50 seeds from this clump of shrubs. They were a mix or yellow and peach coloured flowers but they were few. I bet no one really pays attention to them except me. Given sufficient flowering inducing fertilizers, I am sure there would be more flowers on the plants, much like the ones I used to have along my common corridor.


This is life, I guess. Sometimes we can be everywhere but we can still be unnoticed or ignored. It takes someone with a different perspective to admire or appreciate us. So here I am, and as long as I am still around, this plant will never be relegated to the slums.

GREAT HERON

I almost missed this resident Great Heron perched on the bank of the garden. It is a majestic bird and I am really fortunate to be able to witness it here ever so often, whether as a solitary fixture in the landscape or in flight.

JPOT JUMBO

It was the first time I was there at this Harbourfront outlet even though we wanted to check it out some time ago. This is the food spread for 2 persons with 2 different soup bases - tong yum and bak kut teh.

For the kind of money we paid, the variety and serving is not enough to fill our stomachs to the full, unlike the Chong Qing hotpot at Suntec City.

DUCK

I was so excited when I saw this flock of birds, known as the Lesser Tree Duck or Lesser Whistling Duck because of its characteristic whistling call, at the Singapore Botanic Gardens' ecolake. I have not come across them for a while now and recently, we were talking about attracting them to the garden and creating the niches for it.

This is definitely one interesting project that I am taking on in recent time and it would definitely give me a huge sense of achievement if I am able to bring them in to the garden and make them feel right at home.

When I least expected to see them, I had to see a flock of at least 15-20 of them on a beautiful sunny morning. So there they were, basking under the sun on the lawn or swimming in the water, foraging for food or just simply paddling. Seeing some of them preening each other was so heart warming. I was also fortunate enough to witness a few of them flying and landing in the water right in front of me.


We may not have the Mandarin Duck here but this native bird is just as mesmerizing with its interesting brownish plumage.