I posted on this unique Pereskia in the past and I am really glad that I managed to establish this strip of planting.
I have said this before and I am saying it again that I was ecstatic when I saw it in a Malaysian nursery a few years ago, climbing at least 4 m up a tree. Without any support structure, this plant seems to be content to grow in the ground and put out lots of small leaves. There is so much potential to popularize this fabulous sprawling shrub.
The Aloysia virgata with extremely fragrant flowers is also a butterfly nectar plant, as evident by the Tawny Coster sipping nectar from the flowers in this series of photos. How endearing!
Today's weather - sunny
I recently planted out four saplings of the Kopsia singapurensis (common name: Singapore Kopsia, White Kopsia; Family: Apocynaceae) and they seemed to grow relatively fast since I planted them. It has put out quite a number of new leaves and flowers. The fundamental difference between the flowers of this and those of the Kopsia flavida is the red eye found in this species.
I saw these carnivorous plant terrariums on sale, at cut-throat prices at Takashimaya's Cold Storage. Some of the containers look familiar and they were planted with a number of Nepenthes cultivars (common name: Pitcher Plant) and mosses. The funny part is I recently thought of planting up some terrariums with Pitcher Plants and viola, here they were although they weren't done by me. Hmm, talk about deja vu!
It was every bit the way I expected the movie to be since I watched MIB 1 and 2 in the past. Starring Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith as the lead characters, other actors such as Josh Brolin, Emma Thompson and Nicole Scherzinger also had parts to play in the movie.
I love Will Smith in "I Am Legend" but I never liked him in this series of slapstick alien movies. Somehow I just couldn't connect with it on an emotional level and watched it for pure entertainment. Anyway, I almost couldn't recognize Nicole Scherzinger, one of the newer judges on the American Idol competition. Emma Thompson, on the other hand, reminded me of Hilary Clinton.
I didn't quite enjoy this movie, so I will not write anything further about it.
Today's weather - sunny
There are actually 3 species of young epiphytic ferns growing at the tree fork of this Rain Tree at Scape:
- Asplenium species (common name: Bird Nest Fern)
- Drynaria quercifolia (common name: Oak Leaf Fern)
- Pyrrosia piloselloides (common name: Dragon Scale Fern)
Interestingly, they all are green but have 3 different leaf shapes.
NB on 6 Jun 12: Our very knowledgeable subject expert from Florida, Harry, shared with me that the Drynaria and Pyrrosia exhibit leaf dimorphism, where their sterile and fertile fronds differ in leaf shape, much like those from Platycerium.
On the way out this morning, I saw what appeared to be a dead Sunda Pygmy Woodpecker lying on the edge of the car park. What a poor thing! I can only hope it left peacefully.
The pedestrian overhead bridge in front of Central Mall was planted with the Bauhinia kockiana. Further in the background stood a Yellow Rain Tree.
In the Central Mall podium were two red lampshades, which received a revival in Hong Kong recently for its subtle but significant illumination of meat in wet markets where the red glow provided a better appreciation of the meat by the buyers. The giant lampshade were constructed and sliced into two separate structures to provide seating spaces for the shoppers to rest their legs. Interestingly, when viewed from outside, there appeared to be a dozen of legs below the lampshade but these are all fake and are merely supporting structures to hold the lampshade upright.
Over at Illuma, which is renamed as Bugis + recently, I was captivated by the rooftop gardens that covered part of the facade of the iconic building. Renovations are ongoing and the new and biggest Uniqlo store in Singapore will open its doors here to visitors soon.
Recently, these 2-3 cm snails were munching away the leaves of these variegated Tradescantia spathacea 'Hawaiian Dwarf'. Hmm, this is new to me.
This cute dachshund belongs to the Esmond Landscape & Horticultural Pte Ltd. They have some lovely plants such as the Gloriosa superba and the Heliconia chartacea 'Sexy Pink' in their compound at 300 Neo Tiew Crescent.
At Nyee Phoe Petals and Leaves, I was enjoying the shade provided by the pergola of climbers. Wonderful!
The Singapore Garden Festival (SGF) is coming up again from 7-15 July 2012. Meanwhile, the exhibit at Orchard Road has attracted attention from passersby who posed for photos. The 3 mascots Benny the bee, Gary the grasshopper and Lindy the Ladybird are prominently featured in the landscape. And I spotted a flowering Brugmansia! Too bad it is so far and out of reach for me to catch a whiff of its fragrance.
These photos were taken last weekend near the Orchard Cineleisure area. I have seen this breed of dog before although I do not know what it is. But it still looked scarily skinny and undernourished with its almost translucent skin and ribcage beneath.
NB on 7 Jul 12: I was told this is a grey hound.
Today's weather - sunny
I posted a youtube video of the scrat in the "Ice Age: Continental Drift" before but it was removed. So here is another clip of it which I saw at the movies recently. It's extremely funny and I must say again the producers are extremely creative!
Today's weather - sunny
I read an interesting article "Ecosystems that thrive in Amazon's High Places" on page 13 in The New York Times in this morning's TODAY.
Tepuis, which are known as tabletop mountains because of its flat plateau and steep cliff faces, located in the northern Amazon rain forest emerge thousands of meters from lowland forests and support a high biodiversity of flora and fauna such as lizards and frogs. Like mountains in the sky, it is a natural wonder how these are formed in the first place and how the animals get up there.
Unlike the formation of natural mountains such as the Andes which result from the collision of continental plates 25 million years ago, tepuis were hypothesized to form about 70 million years ago as layers of rock with sand at the ocean bottom were raised to become dry terrestrial land and over time, erosion removed the sand and exposed the rock beneath. Interestingly, it was found that the many faunal species living atop the tepuis are not found anywhere else and yet appeared to be closely related to each other, bringing forth the conjecture that they may share a common ancestral lineage.
According to recent research studies on 4 species of tiny tree frogs that live on these tepuis, evolutionary biologists are able to use their DNA molecular clock and compared them to their closest lowland relatives to determine how long ago their common ancestor existed before it accumulated new mutations and diverged into separate species. It was discovered that the common ancestor of these 4 frog species lived about 5.3 million years ago, and not 70 million years ago. This means there is a possibility that the frogs scaled up the colossal cliffs to the tepuis and became separate species only several hundred thousand years ago.
Unfortunately, global warming has driven the mountain-dwelling species to higher altitudes but they can only go as far and as high as the top of the tepuis. I am ending this post with a quote from Ms Patricia Salerno, the lead evolutionary biologist, from the University of Texas, involved in the study:
"The tepui frogs may have been able to scale cliffs that would make mountaineers blanch. But even they can't climb into thin air."
