PETREA VOLUBILIS

It is not often that one gets to see the Sandpaper Vine/Purple Wreath in Singapore. Other than HortPark, the other place with an abundance of Petrea is the Indian Garden at Gardens by the Bay.

The leaves may be leathery with a sandpaper feel to it, but the bluish flowers are extraordinary since blue is an uncommon colour for flowers in the plant kingdom. When the inflorescences drooped over the trellis, as seen in the photos, they remind me of the Wisteria, which we cannot grow here in our tropical climate.

PETREA ARBOREA

This beautiful photo of the Petrea arborea next to the Eupatorium was taken at one of the local nurseries.

OF FLORA & FAUNA

I posted about the Petrea volubilis before and there I was, standing in front of a clump of Petrea arborea climbers. Like the former, the P. arborea with slightly different textured leaves have light purple flowers but somehow it wasn't as striking to me as the one planted in HortPark and Bay East.


The Ardisia pyramidalis is also not commonly planted out yet but I am sure in time to come, it would gain popularity for its beautiful panicle of pink flowers.


Incidentally, I spotted the Chocolate Pansy or Chocolate Soldier perched on a tree trunk and took its photos. Unlike the one I posted before with broken wings, this one had its wings intact and one could see the orange polka dots.

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CARPARK GARDEN

This post has some of the most beautiful plants and flowers worthy of mention and I am so proud of planting them in this part of the garden.


The first is the Megaskepasma erythrochlamys (common name: Brazilian Red Cloak). With leaves that look like the Pisonia but with typical Acanthaceae flowers, its pinkish bracts would definitely stand out in any garden.


The next is a woody climber more often known as Petrea volubilis (synonym: P. kohautiana, P. arborea, P. aspera; common name: Queen's Wreath, Sandpaper Vine, Purple Wreath, Bluebird Vine; Family: Verbenaceae). Not many plants have blue flowers, but this climber does, and there are 2 rings of blue. The common name Sandpaper Vine came about because of its rough textured leaves. Every flower is made up of a ring of 5 smaller dark blue petals with a white patch, which are in turn surrounded by another ring of 5 narrower light blue sepals, collectively known as the calyx. After the petals are shed, the calyx remains. When the calyx dries, it turns brown and when a few of them are broken off from the plant, they spiral as they fall. Sometimes known as the tropical Wisteria, it is truly deserving of its common names and should be planted more in our parks. A link on this plant is shown below:


http://toptropicals.com/html/toptropicals/plant_wk/petrea.htm

The next 2 plants are the Hippeastrum cultivar (Family: Amaryllidaceae) and the uncommon Caesalpinia pulcherrima (common name: Peacock Flower; Family: Fabaceae / Leguminosae). The former, together with the pink flower H. reticulatum, are the few Hippeastrums that grow well and continue to flower in our climate and they used to be more commonly planted a decade ago. The latter is different from the common ones in that it has yellow petals and red stamens. This species is a host plant of the Common Grass Yellow butterfly. 

PETREA VOLUBILIS

This Sandpaper Vine flowered in HortPark's Car Park Garden recently. This photo was taken by me in a haste on 23 Feb 10 but up till yesterday, there were still a lot of flowers on the 2 trellises.

Blue flowers are really uncommon and what is interesting about this climber is that the there are 2 sets of petals, one shorter and darker than the other set of longer but paler petals. The interesting element of this plant does not stop here.

When the flowers dry up, they turn brown, hence the common name. When the dried brown flowers are shed or when you pluck them and throw them into the air, the dried flowers would spiral and spin all the way with its descent to the ground. Can you imagine the sight of having a palmful of it and releasing them from a higher ground? I can and it's beautiful.