Back to Tuas

As I was heading back school anyway to bring back my laptop cooling fan, I decided to just go down Tuas to visit the pitcher plant haven which LK brought us to last time.

Here is my cooling fan, nice right?

With the opening of Joo Koon MRT, I can reach the destination faster. This place is pretty much a wasteland visible from these common shrubs and trees like the Simpoh Air, Dillenia suffruticosa,

the common Acacia (Acacia auriculiformis),


and Singapore rhodedendron (Melastoma malabathricum).

There are also lots of mangrove ferns (Acrostichum aureum) here.

Weedy plants like this climbing Morning Glory (Ipomoea cairica) also bring a beautiful identity to this place.

I realised that I had missed this small but common plant, Cassytha filiformis. The picture above shows the flowers.

This is a parasitic plant and you can see the bulbous like structure that is attached on its host. These are the haustoria that penetrate into the host and suck water and nutrients from them.

These yellow ones also belonged to the same species. There were so many of them like green and orange threads running through the grasses.


It was only a short distance later when I reached this pool.


Here is the place where lots of Slender Pitcher Plants (Nepenthes gracilis) are found.


And more!

Found one that is floating on the water surface.

Here is another cute tiny one arranged in a rosette.


These numerous elongated structures are the developing fruits of the pitcher plant.


Most of us should know that the pitcher is a pit fall trap which ‘digests’ and absorbs the nutrients of animals. However, some other animals like the crab spider above makes use of this trap by just waiting there for unsuspecting victims to fall in.


I found two ground orchids here today. I love the fact that they are not planted and can be found in their natural habitat. This one is Spathoglottis plicata.


Here is the other one, Arundina graminifolia.


It is known as the bamboo orchid because, I suppose, the leaves look like those of the bamboo.


Seems like this place has not changed much from the last time and the construction has not penetrate the pool yet, even though lying adjacent to it. Anyway, I made an error in my previous entry, because the dirt biking race is actually located further down and completed by now. It is called Circuit@Tuas.