Showing posts with label singapore botanic gardens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label singapore botanic gardens. Show all posts

22 December 2012

SINGAPORE BOTANIC GARDENS

These are some interesting flora and fauna at the Singapore Botanic Gardens. 

It's not often that I get to see a white spider. This spider is only at most 1 cm in length but it is so strangely white. I wonder if it bites?

How about a Draco, which is a flying lizard with winged membranes along their ribs. This one camouflaged so well against the trunk of the Midnight Horror (Scientific Name: Oroxylum indicum; Family: Bignoniaceae) tree. The body markings look just like the bark of the tree and I thought I saw a skeleton.

Then there were some white swans and a goose sculpture. The swans were so regal looking and are such beautiful birds. Too bad their wings are clipped. 

Along the pond edge was a fascinating unknown plant from the Malvaceae Family with interesting flowers and dried seed pods. I wonder what plant this is?

On some other forest plants nearby was an entire population of ladybird larvae, which look like mealy bugs except that they move fast. 

There was also a caterpillar on the flower of the Melastoma malabathricum.

The aggressive weeds Mikania and Dioscorea were also sprawling on the forest plants until they are removed someday. The post ends with a common garden snail on a Ruttyruspolia cultivar (Family: Acanthaceae).

NB on 18 Apr 13: The unknown plant is Abroma augustum (Common Name: Devil's Cotton)


draco




Oroxylon indicum (Midnight Horror)


a pair of white swans and a swan sculpture


Abroma augustum


fruit of Abroma


Abroma flowers





seeds in the dried capsule


ladybird larvae that look like mealy bugs




Mikania


Dioscorea

caterpillar on Melastoma











snail on Ruttyruspolia

10 December 2012

BANDSTAND AND SAMANEA SAMAN (YELLOW)

This is the iconic grand bandstand at the Singapore Botanic Gardens. The area around it was planted with the Yellow Rain Trees for some time now but these trees and the yellow theme accentuated the simple beauty of this garden structure.


08 February 2012

ORCHARD ROAD

Today's weather - sunny


This is part of the NParks and NSS's butterfly trail that leads from the Singapore Botanic Gardens to Fort Canning Park. Planted at this area beside the Penang Road is one of my favourite foliage plants, the Pseuderanthemum 'Golden'.


I walked past the plants and suddenly felt an impulse to check out for caterpillars. I was lucky because barely a metre away, I saw something on the underside of one of the leaves. When I flipped the leaf over, I saw this beautiful 5 cm long caterpillar of the Autumn Leaf butterfly. In the past before I learnt about butterflies and their breeding, I might freak out if I saw this, but now I am totally comfortable to even hold it in my palm. With a smile across my face, I turned back the leaf and left the small creature to continue feasting on the leaf after taking these photos.