AGERATUM CONYZOIDES & CNIDOSCOLUS CHAYAMANSA

I have always had a penchant for this wildflower Ageratum with its beautiful composite blue flowers and recently, it proved its worth to me again.

Its flowers not only attracted a Common Tiger but it also attracted two other Plain Tigers. This is triple wow! And these are three reasons, alright I cheated it's just two, for me to keep the wildflower in the garden.

On the other hand, the Cnidoscolus also managed to snag a Plain Tiger to its white flowers.

HORTPARK 1

Today's weather - sunny

These beautiful landscape and plant photos were taken at HortPark recently.


The first few photos taken at the Floral Walk show the very beautiful and unusual ginger Tapeinochilos ananassae (common name: Indonesian Wax Ginger; Family: Costaceae).


The next few photos show one of my favourite tropical plants, the Megaskepasma erythrochlamys (common name: Brazilian Red Cloak; Family: Acanthaceae), that I often use in my landscape projects. I definitely feel it is under-appreciated and underused in landscaping.


Over at the Prototype Glasshouses, the double petaled Quisqualis indica (common name: Drunken Sailor, Rangoon Creeper, Chinese Honeysuckle, Scarlet Rangoon; Family: Combretaceae) is putting out its best display to maximum effect. Who wouldn't fall in love with such an amazing climber with bunches of pendulous fragrant flowers? I don't need to be a sailor to be bewitched by it.


I also saw this unknown bird on the Ascelpias curassavica (common name: Blood Flower; Family: Apocynaceae) at the Golden Garden. Interestingly, I don't think I have seen this bird before.


Beside this garden were lots of fluttering butterflies hanging around the numerous nectar plants, such as the Leopard butterfly feeding on the nectar of the Lantana camara or Cnidoscolus chayamansa (synonym: C. aconitifolius; common name: Maya Spinach Tree; Family: Euphorbiaceae). It is certainly not surprising, considering that this is the outdoor garden of the Butterfly Garden. I also spotted the skittish Cycad Blue or Plains Cupid (scientific name: Chilades pandava; Lycaenidae) butterfly on the Antigonon leptopus (common name: Honolulu Creeper, Coral Vine, Mexican Creeper; Family: Polygonaceae).


Every time I visit this park, I am always rewarded with something pleasant that brightens up my day if I am patient enough to pay attention to my surroundings.

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.

CNIDOSCOLUS CHAYAMANSA

This Mayan Spinach Tree from Euphorbiaceae Family is most unique and interesting.

I love the dark palmate leaves and the small white flowers. Once planted in the ground, it grows relatively fast. I saw this straggly specimen that I planted at the Fantasy Garden grew from a 0.8 m tall plant into a bushy 1.5-1.7 m tall shrub that attracted some butterflies e.g. Leopard.

I love it so much that I planted a few more specimens at the Silver Garden even though we had only limited stocks of this plant.

Check out the following link for more information on this plant:

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/sep/19/plant-profile-mayan-tree-spinach-popular-toxic-pla/

CNIDOSCOLUS CHAYAMANSA

I grew to love this unusual plant after I planted it and observed it for a while.

From a small 1.5 m shrub with straggly branches and few leaves, it developed into this multiple-branch tree with leaves all over it.

I have to say the multiple-lobed eaves were what caught my initial attention. Since then, the white flowers were also a delight for me to see. Without fail, I would almost always see at least 1 Leopard Butterfly going to the flowers for nectar.