Urban Forest

Butterflies galore in CCNR

2012-01-01T20:44:00.003+08:00

Had an awesome trip in CCNR to spend the new year with HL, N, and R. I have been through this stretch of forest many times but this was the first since I started to learn about butterflies seriously. Boy, there were so many species new to me!

A Malay Lacewing on a Leea indica. The white and yellow patches at the lower portion of the forewing is characteristic of a female.

An Archduke with its distinctive orange tipped antennae helps to separate it from the Dark Tipped Archduke.

Probably a Malay Viscount.

This unimpressive (because of its dull colour) Common Faun kept skirting about the forest floor.

Surprisingly, we saw many stick insects, about 4 today. They were relatively easy to identify when they were flying because of their pink wings.

A Common Mormon feeding on an Asystasia gangetica flower.

An uncommon Rusty Leaf Mistletoe, Scurrula ferruginea growing from a Sendudok.

This Common Snow Flat was feeding on the bird dropping. Ew…

First time seeing the fruit of this Campnosperma squamatum.

What I thought was a figging tree turned out to be Gironniera nervosa after peeping through my binos.

An unknown aquatic plant with white flowers. Update: This is an exotic plant, Echinodorus palaefolius. Thanks to WF for the ID.

There were many of these Cruisers but only one allowed me to take a decent shot, because there was an abundance of flowers for it feed, therefore stopping many times to pose for a shot.

This feeding long tailed macaque made us notice…

the many fallen ripe fruits of Garcinia sp. (a native Mangosteen species)on the forest floor.

There were so many other butterfly species that we saw today! Its a pity that many were too fast to be captured on camera. Worthy to be back for another trip!

I grew a mistletoe

2011-12-27T21:28:00.001+08:00

As the title said, the mistletoe seed of Dendrophthoe pentandra which I placed on a Vitex pinnata tree germinated!

Can you see the two small leaves coming out from the seed? :)

Merry Christmas!

Life in wastelands

2011-12-27T00:42:00.001+08:00

I made two recent trips to two patches of wasteland forest in Clementi. To say that they are wastelands is an understatement. While the diversity cannot be compared to our nature reserves, they are still teeming with life and sometimes host some rare species. And basically, a fun place to visit for some nature rambling in the vicinity.

YF and C investigating this exotic climber Syngonium podophyllum which has spread throughout Singapore after escaping from cultivation.

A Malayan Banyan, Ficus microcarpa stands majestically at the forest edge.

Here is how the interior looks like. Wild, messy and fun. As long as you can tolerate the mosquitoes and spider webs. :)

A magnificent specimen of a fig strangling a logan tree, Dimocarpus logan.

One of the nice thing about this forest is apparent abundance of the endangered fig, Ficus apiocarpa. This patch is literally covered with the climbing fig. I guess this is probably the locality with its highest density in Singapore. You can see it climbing on a durian tree here.

Figging time for Ficus apiocarpa, with many syconia on the ground. However it was impossible to take a picture of it on the fig as they were too high up the trees.

We also walked around the perimeter and found a sliverback fern (Pityrogramma calomelanos), which can create a pretty silver taboo using its silver spores.

A flowering Melicope lunu-ankenda tree, my first time seeing the flowers.

An unknown climber with a bright red fruit.

Another check off my butterfly species sightings, the Dark Brand Brown Bush.

And lastly, a white throated kingfisher perching on an Albizia tree.

Manuka Honey

2011-12-19T20:39:00.001+08:00

KY passed me a bottle of Manuka Honey together with some dried specimens of the Manuka plant when he was in New Zealand recently.

The honey was so named because the bees collect nectar mainly from Manuka bush, Leptospermum scoparium. KY said that it was a common plant there in New Zealand. It was said to contain anti-bacteria properties hence the honey was popularly consumed for sore throat and other ailments. It is said that the higher the UMF (unique Manuka factor) the better the quality of honey.

Rainy Mandai

2011-12-18T22:09:00.003+08:00

A, L, H, and I went for a walk along the now defunct railway adjacent Mandai mangroves.

Yummy ripe rambutan fruits.

Another new butterfly for me, Blue Glassy Tiger, which was very much abundant here.

My first time seeing the berries of this common native climber Paedaria foetida.

We found this two caterpillars possibly belonging to the Lime Butterfly (update: the caterpillars turned out to be of the Common Mormon) on the only mangrove plant belong to the Citrus family, Merope angulata. The plant looked very frail with few leaves though. It is nationally threatened with the status of critically endangered.

Many little mangrove propagules have established themselves.

A group of waders on the mudflat overlooking Johor Bahru.

L pointed out to this grisly hand from a tree. Creepy…

The ever resourceful Javan Mynas even don’t mind foraging in the mangroves!

Baby mangrove horseshoe crabs!

L pointed out these group of egrets when we on the Kranji MRT platform. Despite the heavy rain as shown, they still huddled on the canopy of the rain tree and endured the downpour. Beats me why though~

Think they might change their mind if its raining apples instead :p

Do they really need to cut them down?

2011-11-19T13:36:00.001+08:00

I was astonished (while retaining my usual bland expression) when A came back to the lab carrying a branch of Viscum ovalifolium, saying that some workers were pruning the Cratoxylum cochinchinense tree downstairs, and that he had took one of this mistletoe was had been removed from the tree.

Yup, Viscum ovalifolium is a mistletoe. They are semi-parasites, meaning that they penetrate their ‘roots’ into the host tree into their phloem only to absorb water and minerals from there. However, it can still photosynthesize and produce sugars by themselves, evident from their chlorophyll rich green leaves (phyllodes in this case).

While I am happy to examine the specimen close up for once, I am unhappy to find out that all the remaining mistletoe was totally eradicated from its host tree the next day. The host tree was doing fine even with this semi-parasitic mistletoe leeching on it for many years.

The author of the new book on Singapore’s mistletoes, Francis Lim wrote that this species is ‘by no means common’. Indeed, this is probably the only locality that I have seen it. Its national status is common though, and that probably needs some updating.

Hope I am not sounding like a mindless tree hugger, especially after my recent complaint of tree cutting in the ST forum! I will probably apply mindless to those people who ordered these cutting/pruning actions instead. I am currently suffering now with glaring sunlight shining on my study table. I ache for the tree that has provided me ample shade for the past 20 years…

My Waterway @ Punggol

2011-11-06T12:56:00.001+08:00

It was only two weeks since the launch of the Punggol Waterway but people are already flooding to experience this park with a newly created river which connects from Punggol to Serangoon Reservoir.

I was also there on a cycling trip with my friend. We were lucky to see many people attempting to fly giant kites in the shape of sotongs, jellyfishes, nemos, and octopi. Unfortunately, none of them got higher than a few metres.

The most amazing of the kites were these stunt kites. Each one was controlled by a single person, and they coordinated the graceful movements in synchrony with each other.

There were several murals on the walls depicting the history of Punggol.

A view of the walkway.

There is also another walkway on the 2nd storey with displays of vertical greening.

We found a caterpillar feeding on the leaf of the mangrove fern, Acrostichum aureum.

The park is also a great place for kids. There is a small area for water play. There were even two water canons!

And a big sand pit. You don’t find any playgrounds like this anymore in our neighbourhoods.

A suspension bridge~

And a nice shelter. Notice the old bus stop at the background. It was preserved to add some nostalgia for the visitors.

Lastly, a nice silhouette picture of a couple when the sun was setting.

In all, a very nice park for people to relax, cycle, jog, and play. Some parts of the waterway, were yet to develop, and I understand that mangrove-themed plantings will also be done at the eastern banks.

Bird Race through the eyes of a novice

2011-10-30T20:43:00.001+08:00

Through the persistence of WQ and L, I was roped in to join in the yearly Bird Race organised by the Nature Society. This year, the race will be conducted through the Rail Corridor and its adjoining forests and parks.

I had set my alarm to PM instead of AM, and as a result, I had to waste $20 of cab fare to fly down to Dairy Farm Nature Park to meet my friends and was late for registration. =.=’’

And off we go! Our team, the nOObs, was (obviously) registered as a novice team and we first headed down the Dairy Farm trail to the Singapore Quarry.

Along the way, we heard a lot of noisy chatter in the forest so we went in to find a bunch of Asian Glossy Starlings, which were pretty much found everywhere here.

However, we were rewarded with beautiful rays of sun flecks penetrating through the forest canopy~ so nice…

This was my first time in Dairy Farm Nature Park, and I get to admire this platform facing the Quarry, where we noted quite a few birds, some with the help of the expert teams and their awesome scopes.

Along the way, we found many large nests on Albizia trees and this reminds me of Dr Ho Hua Chew’s talk of the importance of these trees for the nesting of large raptors.

Seems like bees also have a liking for this tree. WQ found this bee hive high up on another Albizia.

We headed towards the Rail Corridor and were rewarded by a small flock of Scaly-breasted Munias flying among the tall grasses.

I find this stretch of the corridor a pleasant place to walk by, as there was a small stream flowing beside the trail, and a lot of dragonflies as a result.

The highlight of the day for me was not a bird, but rather a Common Bluebottle butterfly puddling around us. Another check in my butterfly list!

Some other fellow birders on a bridge at a distance.

We heard some loud crashes at one point of the trail and saw a changeable hawk eagle (kindly ID-ed by HC) fighting with some long-tailed macaques.

SD had previously witnessed, photographed, and subsequently published his encounter of this eagle catching a banded leaf monkey in Panti (Link), so perhaps this eagle was indeed attempting to subdue a macaque. We watched for awhile but the commotion subsided without us knowing whether the eagle was really successful.

It was noon when we reached Bukit Batok Nature Park, and the place seemed practically devoid of any bird calls. Fortunately, we were still able see to this Asian Paradise Fly Catcher,

and the loveable White Crested Laughing Thrush.

Our last stop was at Kent Ridge Park where we recorded a few more species, ending up with 28 species in all~

While I am not a bird fanatic, I did enjoyed myself thoroughly today, especially because of the good company. Also learnt quite a number of new birds! :)

Butterflying in Orchard Road

2011-10-21T21:34:00.001+08:00

Last week L and I went for a visit to the butterfly trail created by the NSS along Orchard Road. Really nice to have a butterfly hotspot at a convenient place for amateurs like me to learn more about butterflies.

Here is a Pygmy Grass Blue feeding on Lantana.

Plain Tiger feeding on Snake Weed.

Two mating Common Grass Yellow just under the cover of a Lantana leaf.

The Giant Milk Weed flowers seem to be a favourite for carpenter bees. Its legs are even covered with pollen!

I considered myself lucky to get a shot of this fast flyer, the Lemon Emigrant.

Just outside the Orchard Road Presbyterian Church, a black-naped oriole seemed to be feeding on the fruits of the Royal Palm.

I was really excited to see a large butterfly fluttering about. This Common Mime rested on this Heliconia flower, allowing me to go close enough to take a beautiful shot.

We went to search under the leaves of Pseuderanthemum carruthersii for the larvae of the Autumn Leaf. Unfortunately, there was only remains of their empty pupal casts around.

The Singapore Rhododendron is another plant that the carpenter bees love. I thought this picture really shows how the flower is adapted to be pollinated by carpenter bees, with its stamens almost clasping on the bee so that the pollen can be caught on its body.

There are two magnificent trees that we saw along the way. One is this Ficus elastica just outside the National Museum.

The other was this huge Artocarpus elasticus with beautiful buttress roots.

We also took a visit to the National Museum to have a glimpse of William Farquhar’s collection of water colour paintings on Singapore’s natural history.

Turning back to the shopping district of Orchard Road, I had a pleasant surprise when I found a dense cover of nationally threatened Geophila repens in Istana Park.

Some of you might have watched the news of this public speed dating in Orchard Central. I was there! As an on-looker of course~ :)

Keep Bukit Brown graves: Descendants

2011-10-19T21:44:00.001+08:00

A Straits Times forum letter signed by the descendants of our chinese pioneers

THE consequence of the decision by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) to clear Bukit Brown Cemetery to make way for a highway and future housing developments is an irreplaceable loss to generations of Singaporeans ('Redevelopment plans for Bukit Brown site', Sept 13; and Forum letter 'Rethink road widening affecting cemetery' by Mr Liew Kai Khiun, Sept 16).

Indeed much of the historical and social value of Bukit Brown Cemetery is still being uncovered by volunteers today, yet preparations for clearing works are slated to start next month. The latest tender suggests that 24ha (10,000 graves) will be affected in the heart of the cemetery. This, we understand, is just the beginning.

Despite URA and LTA's assertions that they will work with the Singapore Heritage Society and other stakeholders to identify and document key heritage elements, it appears that this refers to mere 'data recording', and not a heritage study.

It is not widely known that the Bukit Brown, Ong clan and Hokkien Huay Kuan cluster form the biggest Chinese burial grounds outside China, with a quarter of a million graves.

The erasure of these grounds will deal a substantial blow to the cultural history of Singapore.

The graves contain our immigrant forebears, from paupers to almost all our local pioneers who remain largely unrecognised beyond the roads that bear their names, such as Ong Boon Tat, Cheong Koon Seng, Cheang Hong Lim, Chew Joo Chiat, Lim Chong Pang and Chew Boon Lay; and the wife of philanthropist Lim Nee Soon.

Each tomb tells of a journey from a village in China, their families, their achievements and their culture.

Stories discerned from the graves will no longer be accessible to future generations.

As descendants of Singapore's early pioneers, we appeal to the authorities to explore alternatives like widening existing roads or using flyovers to preserve this national heritage.

It is not too late to recognise that Bukit Brown is rich with 'living' possibility and multi-uses - not just for those who pay respects to ancestors but also as a place for learning and recreation.

Here is where creative lessons in biology, bird-watching, history, genealogy, art and poetry could take place as well as serious research. To take a quiet walk with family or tour with the passionate guides is to be moved by our history and feel truly connected with this place we call our home.

Let us not squander our heritage and dishonour our past for a few more condos and cars. Once we bulldoze through this history, it will be too late to resurrect the foundation of our national sense of identity.

Chew I-Jin (Ms)

Descendant of Chew Boon Lay

FORUM NOTE: The other signatories are Mr Chew Kheng Chuan (descendant of Chew Boon Lay), Mr Gerald Tan Kok Seng (descendant of Tan Tock Seng), Mr Chia Hock Jin (descendant of Chia Hood Theam) and Ms Ong Chwee Im, representing the descendants of Ong Chong Chew, Ong Ewe Hai and Ong Kew Hoe, who donated the land for use of the Ong clan in 1872).

Bukit Brown in the news

2011-10-15T16:29:00.001+08:00

A three page spread of Bukit Brown and other cemeteries in Singapore are available in today’s Straits Times.

Click on this picture below to my FlickR to view the words!

Bukit Brown @ night

2011-10-15T14:52:00.001+08:00

A much dated post of 2 weeks old.

Then, RY had invited me for a night walk with some other friends to the Bukit Brown Cemetery to look for some creatures of the night.

The flaking bark of the rain tree provide much refuge for many tiny creepy crawlies. Here is a pretty big centipede half hidden by the tree bark.

Another tree was a haven for tiny Tarantulas. This was my first time seeing one, and my… they are really small compared to their counterparts that I often saw on TV.

RY pointed out this scorpion with a clutch of tiny babies clinging on its back. Can you see the many scorpion tails on the mother?

Night jars are a common sight here. I wonder why they like to sit in the middle of the road. To warm their butts perhaps? Since tar roads retain more heat compared to the surrounding forest. heh~

This is really one gross and evil looking spiders.

A dog faced fruit bat munching on a fruit.

A collared scops owl, perching on a branch of Croton. Seemingly common here, as the gang found about four individuals after a round about the cemetery.

Plant walk @ Bukit Brown

2011-09-25T17:22:00.001+08:00

Had missed out too many plant walks by NSS as a lot of the former trips are held on Sat mornings when I had to work. Therefore, I was glad that there was one on a Sunday, and it was at a place I have yet to explore: Bukit Brown cemetery.

Dr Shawn Lum and Angie were the guides for the day, and he quickly start off with the news about the development of a 4-lane road that will cut through the main trail of the cemetery. Read the news and map here. Gone will be the plants that they showed us during the walk, together with some tombs, and a lot of wildlife that reside here or flew over occasionally from the Central Catchment Nature Reserve nearby.

Shawn pointed out this twenty men tree, Ixonanthes icosandra. Apparently, from KY, I come to know that the common name arise from someone with a poor sense of humour, as ‘twenty men’ refers to the twenty stamens of its flowers. Get it? =.=’’

We also saw some tall Terentang, Campnosperma auriculata.

HL and I also investigated the tonnes of epiphytes clustering on the rain trees.

Some other nice attractions of the cemetery: pretty girls in tights on horses,

pretty butterflies (This one is called Chestnut Bob),

magnificent tombs,

with stern Sikh guards.

The Asia Paranormal Investigators made all these tags to allow people exploring the area to learn about the origins of the tombs.

The weather was unbearably hot as we trekked through the forest…

To see perhaps the most famous tomb here: Lee Hoon Leong, the grandfather of Lee Kuan Yew.

Flora of Pulau Semakau

2011-09-14T20:41:00.001+08:00

Finally published! This latest Nature in Singapore article compiles a checklist all the flora found in the original Semakau (excluding seagrasses), 168 species in all. Also inside are descriptions of the habitats, past and present records, exotic and rare species.

You may download it by clicking on the picture (file size: 0.99Mb).

I realised that I had over-sharpened my photographs of the plants. Ugh…

Of Kites and green spaces

2011-09-13T21:48:00.001+08:00

Where can you find a giant squid and a cow together? At a grass patch in Sengkang!

It has ages since I last flown a kite so I decided to organise an outing with some friends.

We have all kinds of kites, like this giant panda.

Even a giant stingray!

Another sotong, though it looked rather emo.

While none of us successful got a kite up high into the sky because of the lack of wind, we still had a blast of time. While I do advocate wild and spontaneous vegetation for state land to support more biodiversity, I also have to admit that well manicured green spaces like this are important for other purposes.

Fun with biodiversity during army

2011-08-20T09:47:00.001+08:00

Some will know that I just came back from a 3 weeks in camp training in army. My camp is situated in the middle of the Western Catchment, far from civilisation and I have a fair share of surprises with the plants and animals that pop out whenever I am in.

The best time was when a pangolin sneaked into our camp 2 years ago and walked around our vehicle shed with me and my other university mate chasing after it. A pity no camera equipment are allowed in camp. Anyway, here are some other interesting events that occurred during my past weeks.

I was assisting my boss in the air-conditioned planning room when my friend came to tell him that there was a snake in the room. I was so excited and hoped that it was at least a python or cobra but it turned out to be a small little Paradise Tree Snake that crawled into the room from an opening vent from the floor. Had to tell everyone that this was a harmless fellow and removed it from the room using a broom. Outside, it seemed pretty happy staying motionless and basked under the sun.

Paradise Tree Snake at Sungei Buloh

The second incident was when I had some bowel movements and went into a toilet cubicle. There, I jumped up in fright when I saw a huge Altas Moth sitting contentedly on the toilet bowl. While I am not really that scared of the moth (since I still dared to hold one on my finger last time), its size and reputation of being the largest moth in the world is still quite intimidating. Worse still, imagine if I sat on it without thinking! Shivers…

A menacing female Altas Moth

During my outfield training, I stepped on an unknown snake (I think) which slithered away (luckily) when I was peeing in the wee hours. Funny that my friends came bashing through from the other side through the wet patch after I'm done.

I was also surprised that there were a fair number of plants in this poor quality forest that I did not recognised when I reluctantly got off the vehicle for a dismounted mission.

It was also interesting how small little creatures can generated a hive of discussion. Like how a tiny praying mantis flew into the vehicle and everyone wanted it out but nobody dared to touch it. Or a little spider hiding inside the tonner that made them uncomfortable living inside there for the next few days. One even tried to smash it using rolled newspaper but missed (phew…).

Seems like I picked up some basic survival skills in the jungle of at least knowing what animals are harmless. Ha~

Two Checklists of Singapore’s biodiversity

2011-08-09T20:27:00.001+08:00

Two checklists were recently published by the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research. You may click on the pictures to download the online books.

The first is a list of all known algae species in Singapore, titled ‘A Checklist of the Algae of Singapore’, written by Pham Nguyet Minh et al, [2.00 MB]. Congrats Minh!

The second is the ‘Checklist of the Vascular Plant Species of the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve’, which is written by I. M. Tuner and K. S Chua [781 KB].

Punggol Butterflies

2011-08-09T01:26:00.001+08:00

Had a day off from army today (3 weeks of reservist!) so I grabbed my camera and took a bus to this narrow stretch of Ixora shrub where I saw a number of butterflies in Punggol previously and spent about half an hour photographing these beauties.

After prowling through Khew’s recent book on our Singapore butterflies, I guess that this is a Lesser Grass Blue. Quite a lot of them were darting from flower to flower and is the most common here.

Common Tit. I was quite fascinated with the fake ‘tails’ as they can move actively. A pretty butterfly though it is supposed to be very common too.

Something new for me; a Centuar Oakblue. A pity that its wings were torn but its green eyes is enough to wow me.

This is the Ciliate Blue, with its blue-purple dorsal wing colour.

And a side profile of the same butterfly.

Probably a Tailless Line Blue.

Hopefully this is a start of learning many more butterflies! Thanks to CMS for his help in confirming some butterfly species.

Mud Lobster in Crab hole

2011-07-17T13:55:00.001+08:00

I was back in Pulau Semakau again for a continuation of the plant survey for Project Semakau. It was quite a satisfying trip with a few new sightings of plants not found in the last 2 surveys. But, the highlight of the trip was probably of this mud lobster, Thalassina sp. on the sandy shore.

The upper portion of its claw is much elongated, probably used for digging.

It retreated to a hole made by a ghost crab soon after.

Ugly duckling

2011-07-04T22:33:00.001+08:00

Was at Pearl’s Hill City Park today and was amazed to see a family of White Breasted Waterhens crossing the road. 2 parents and 3 black furry chicks! How adorable~

Unfortunately, it took me awhile to get out my camera, on it, zoom and focus (now I can truly appreciate having an SLR), but they ran off into the undergrowth. Luckily I saw one parent and a chick wandering about later and managed to catch a lousy picture.

Mandai tree falls

2011-07-03T00:25:00.001+08:00

Here are some pictures of the devastation bought by the storms in Mandai forest earlier this year in February. Tony gave a good description about this incident in his website.

Tree falls

with young saplings.

Look at the amount of staghorn ferns on this tree fall!

More tree falls~

Probably some seeds passed out by a civet cat.

We saw quite a few bat lilies flowering.

A saw this web like thing with caterpillars on it. Initially we thought that they were trapped in a spider web.

But later we realised that they can actually move freely in the web. Apparently, Horace said that these are moth caterpillars living in a communal web made by themselves.

Cycling trip to Punggol End

2011-06-25T21:28:00.001+08:00

Decided on a cycling trip to Punggol End for a walk where I met with L today.

Some development on-going here. Think this should be the artificial river the cuts through Punggol estate.

An exotic climber that has escaped cultivated and practically engulfed this sea almond tree, the Drunken Sailor, Quisqualis indica.

The droopling flowers is probably the reason why it is ‘Drunken’.

We bashed into the rubber forest, but only for awhile, as there were too many mosquitoes biting me. So much love for me =.=’’

Some kampung remnants in the forest.

Fruits of a common climber, Fibraurea tinctoria.

While looking at this Cacao tree, Theobroma cacao…

I spotted a flash of bright green and realised that it was a whip snake! Cool~

Lastly, we took a walk along the developing promenade at Punggol End beach and saw two Chinese collecting nerite snails. Looking at the size of the bulk, they probably got more then 50 snails…

A sky diving caterpillar

2011-06-24T18:34:00.001+08:00

Being irritated from entangling in the silk threads of caterpillars sky diving from our urban yellow flame trees, Peltophorum pterocarpum. I collected one caterpillar to rear and see what moth species it is.

Here is the caterpillar ‘sky diver’. Caterpillars lay safety threads when they are crawling so that in case they fall off, they can still climb back up to their original position using their thread.

A close up shot of it.

After a week, the caterpillar pupated and morphed into a nice moth. If I’m not wrong, this should be Chiasmia emersaria, from the family Geometridae.

Alas, after taking some pictures of it in my room, it flew off and I can’t locate it to release outside…

Plant survey at Semakau

2011-06-20T21:12:00.001+08:00

KY, L and I were over at Semakau for an overnight trip to help with a flora survey for Project Semakau over the weekend.

It wasn’t easy surveying Semakau and a big factor is due to its infamous swarming mosquitoes. Even though I covered myself from head to toe, they still managed to bite through my clothing.

Here are a few of the plants we found during the trip.

Yummy looking fruits of Cayratia trifolia.

A young sapling of Guioa pleuropteris. Pretty common here.

What we thought was an interesting remnant of a Syzygium flowers actually belonged to an exotic tree, Syzygium malaccense.

We came across these 2 ponds. Prefect breeding place for mozzies!

Derris scandens, another coastal climber besides our more common congener Derris trifoliata.

RY found this Tussock month caterpillar feeding on an Acacia auriculiformis leaf.

The rare seashore bat lily, Tacca leontopetaloides.

Here is RY taking photos of the flowers of Derris scandens. Unfortunately, a lot of my photos were screwed because of my camera settings.

Lots of Guettarda speciosa fruiting.

The female Caesalpinia bonduc, another rare coastal plant was fruiting. The attractive pearly seed inside need to be scarified before it can germinate.

Lastly, RY found a sapling of Xylocarpus rumphii!

Before and After

2011-06-19T21:28:00.001+08:00

High Tide~

Low Tide~

@ Pulau Semakau~ More about our trip coming up soon~

Mangrove ‘Alba’

2011-06-07T22:09:00.001+08:00

Its been more than a year (or perhaps more than that) since Sungei Punggol was dammed.

A view from Anchorpoint community centre. Many dead trees, that I remembered as Avicennia alba, now stood as a ghostly reminder of their past presence. This is to be expected, since this tree is not known to be freshwater tolerant.

‘Alba’ means white, referring to the white underside of its leaves. Now, I guess we can refer to its barren white trunk and branches.

The good old days~

2011-06-01T22:59:00.001+08:00

Dated 1970, selling at 60 cents~

When Ministry of Law and Ministry of National Development is of one entity~

The Synatid sea cucumber in Semakau is…

2011-05-29T00:44:00.001+08:00

The large and long synatid sea cucumber that we often see feeding among the seagrass has an ID, or at least, is narrowed to the genus level.

This sea cucumber is commonly found in the tape seagrass bed of Pulau Semakau. We can safely confirmed it as Opheodesoma sp. based on the two distinctive shapes of the ossicles or skeletons below which were extracted from the body wall.

In case anybody ask, this was taken from a microscope, taken at x40 magnification. Each type of ossicle has a name, and this is called an anchor plate.

While is known as, well, an anchor. If you touch this cucumber, you can feel that it is ‘sticky’ and the reason for that is because of the hooks from these anchors.

The reason why I find it harder to ID Synatidae is because, firstly, I can’t rely much on its external morphology, since the colour seems variable for this family of sea cucumbers, and secondly, the sweet corn-like surface of the sea cucumber might not be present on the same species with a different form or variety.

The only Opheodesoma recorded in Singapore is Opheodesoma grisea. While most of the description fits, I will prefer not to assume its identity, at least not until I have looked at all the descriptions from other species in this genus. But we can just call it Opheodesoma c.f. grisea if we really want to force it in. haha~

There are ten species of Opheodesoma at the moment. I guess when I have more time, I should probably be able to get its species by finding more keys for all the species and extracting the ossicles from other parts of the body besides the main body wall.

One thing to note is that Dr David Lane had identified another similar cucumber in the ‘The Story of Semakau Landfill’ book as Synapta maculata. Will love to get my hands on the specimen if it is available somewhere for a comparison. No matter what, from my knowledge, this species was never recorded in other literature and is possibly a new record.

Pink month

2011-05-27T15:00:00.001+08:00

Saw this beautiful pink moth (Chrysocraspeda olearia, Geometridae) flying around the kitchen in my house when I was having my breakfast this morning. Isn’t it cute?

It has flown off since and is hiding somewhere in my room. Hmmm…

Smelly lotus pond in AMK park

2011-05-15T20:45:00.001+08:00

Even though my secondary and JC were in Ang Mo Kio, I have never gone to the AMK West Town Park in my entire life. Luckily my friend who lived nearby kindly showed me around the park today. :)

I knew that there was a lotus pond there but I didn’t know that it was in such an unkempt state! A foul smell lingered from it and weeds were covering over the surface. There were a few people cleaning up the pond though, and this guy above tried pulling up a clump of grass that had covered part of the water.

There was a long climb up the park, guarded by these tall majestic cabbage palms, Roystonea oleracea.

My friend pointed out that we can sometimes find bats roosting under the folded leaves of Livistona chinensis. Sure enough, she managed to find one dog-faced fruit bat, Cynopterus brachyotis hiding at a palm leaf.

The Tembusu, Fagraea fragrans, is flowering everywhere now and we saw a bunch of small birds, like the white-eye above, feeding on the nectar.

At one end of the park, there was a big area for people who kept cage birds to let them enjoy the sunday morning. Who knows what the birds really felt though.

Most of the birds under the shelter are white-rumped shama, which is also a native bird.

Isn’t this a paddyfield pipit (another native)? What this ground dwelling bird doing it a cage? :s

I loved this park because it has a mixture of natural secondary forest (albeit a low quality one) and open spaces. Anyway, this tree with a large girth stood out among all the thin trees.

Looks like it is an Alstonia species, probably Alstonia angustiloba?

This bug looked like a hybrid of cockroach and wasp with centipede antennae. Creepy…

My friend pointed out this jackfruit tree, Artocarpus heterophyllus and we saw two plantain squirrels nibbling on the fruits. Cutez :)

After a loop, we were back to the lotus pond where the cleaners were still removing the weeds from the pond.

The pond is not entirely deprived of life though. We saw a lot of frogs inside it!

Awesome park for wildlife appreciation. I wish my neighbourhood park, Punggol Park can be half as nice as this…

Baby sharks

2011-05-07T15:18:00.001+08:00

Baby black-tip reef sharks spotted at our mangroves!

Sea cucumbers at HortPark exhibition

2011-04-30T22:57:00.001+08:00

Went for a look at the NParks/RMBR exhibition ‘Celebrating a decade of biodiversity conservation and discoveries’ at HortPark, where two sea cucumbers which I described as new records were featured~

References:

Teo, S. & L. C. S. Ng, 2009. New record of a sea cucumber, Holothuria ocellata (Jaeger, 1833) (Holothuroidea: Aspidochirotida: Holothuriidae) in Singapore. Nature in Singapore, 2: 411–414. [PDF, 689 KB]

Teo, S., C. S. L. Ng & K. S. Loh, 2010. New record of a sea cucumber, Holothuria (Stauropora) fuscocinerea Jaeger, 1833 (Holothuroidea: Aspidochirotida: Holothuriidae) in Singapore. Nature in Singapore, 3: 133–137. [PDF, 1.10 MB]

First visit down Kranji Mangrove

2011-04-05T23:37:00.001+08:00

Finally went to the much hyped about Kranji mangrove with RY, PY and J.

It looks pretty nice and even better, not as muddy as I expected.

Sonneratia ovata an uncommon tree is in considerable abundance here.

Of course, the recent discovery of the critically endangered Buguiera hainesii. Here are the dropped calyx~

And the trunk and buttress roots.

On same of the lower lying leaves of the tree were many shiny mangrove shield bugs.

The find of the day was when RY found this young Aegiceras corniculatum.

And another one! Do watch out RY’s tiderchaser blog for more discoveries and updates about this plant~

Some other findings include this mangrove sap sucking slug.

I was also surprised to find a yellow flame (Peltophorum pterocarpum) in the mangrove!

I was particularly interested in this climber of which I have no idea about the ID. Guess have to wait for some help~

I don’t mind getting down and dirty during field trips, or even mosquitoes. But I thing that I can’t stand are spiders and spider webs… How gross is this?!

Berry fruity CCNR

2011-03-28T22:06:00.001+08:00

Today I was back a different part of CCNR again with some friends. Not as much flowers and fruits as I expected, but still, it wasn’t that bad.

Bright orange fruits of Urophyllum griffithianum, as kindly ID-ed by Joe Lai previously~

My first time seeing the fruits of Clerodendrum villosum! Certainly looks quite pretty with its black berry on its recurved calyx.

Think this big black fruit belongs to another Urophyllum~

Velvety yellow fruits of Gironniera nervosa.

This red berries of Gynotroches axillaris looks delicious. Should have tried it just now =.=’’

An unknown bi-capsulated fruit.

Acorns anyone?

CK noticed this cute tiny caterpillar with pink dots.

And lastly, a mother macaque running to grab her baby away from us when we approached.

It was only when I was looking at this picture that I realised that the baby was badly mauled.

Elaeocarpus mass flowering and fruiting

2011-03-27T22:02:00.001+08:00

It was just a sudden impulse that I decided to take a walk by myself to MacRitchie Reservoir. Perhaps it was because that it had been ages since I had gone out to learn more new plants.

I had heard that many plants have been flowering and fruiting for the past month, and luckily I was not too late to witness some of them before the season past.

The most spectacular was the Elaeocarpus petiolatus flowers, which bear droopy white inflorescences. Almost every tree was flowering!

A look from bottom up.

The flowering had passed for another Elaeocarpus species, E. mastersii, and many trees now bear its ovoid fruits.

And so was this common tree, Champereia manillana, along, er Champereia Trail.

Pretty red fruits of this Glochidion superbum.

Some of them are more pinkish.

Nice rounded fruits of Calophyllum lanigerum. However, some of them looked like they have been parasitised, with bored holes visible form the surface.

For those who are interested in flowers and fruits, now is a good time to go to our nature reserves for a walk!

Cat Tien National Park II

2011-03-17T23:34:00.001+08:00

Following from my last post, the next morning, our guides took us on an easy forest ride on the back of a pickup.

Below are some of the interesting plants that we saw along the way.

An unknown legume climber with fruits.

This forest is full of these huge trees with flaky bark. They are called Bang Lang in Vietnamese and apparently, they are a kind of Lagerstroemia species. Pretty amazing to compare these giants with our the tiny roadside Lagerstroemia trees in Singapore.

Climbing all over the forest are this climber which looked like Thunbergia laurifolia. This is also a very commonly planted climber here.

One of the first giant trees we saw was this tree called Tung, or Tetrameles nudiflora.

They have all shaded their leaves and started flowering.

Some interesting climber was attached high up on the tree trunk.

And beneath, between the buttress roots, was another climber with pretty pink flowers.

Our guide told us that this is the sapling of Tung.

Some other flowers: Pink ones from a tree,

Mosiac red probably from Acanthaceae family,

and fruits and flowers of a Euphorbiaceae.

One of the most fascinating climbers was this woody thick liana with big thorns. It looked quite similar to Caesalpinia sumatrana which can also be found here.

And just above the climber was a mango tree, Mangifera species.

Just to get a feel of how big the buttress of the Tung tree can be, we took a picture with the buttress roots.

I loved climbers! This one reminded me of a belt.

And lastly, a tree trunk almost totally black in colour.

Vietnam is truly a wonderful place to visit for a plant lover, no matter in the city or forest. =) Will definitely come back again ^^

What bird is this?

2011-03-13T11:17:00.001+08:00

I was on the phone in the living room just a moment ago when I saw this raptor landed on the roof of the HDB opposite to my flat.

Can anyone ID just based on this picture?

Cat Tien National Park I

2011-03-12T23:03:00.001+08:00

Besides visiting Ho Chi Minh City, my friends and I also visited Cat Tien National Park, which is about a 3 hour drive from the city. We spent a short time there, just an afternoon and the next morning but the trip was still pretty pleasant.

We went to the wrong path when we started our free and easy trek and entered into an area surrounded by grassland, bamboo forests and lined with planted trees. However, there were still quite a decent amount interesting unknown plants fruiting and flowering.

This was a very common climber sprawling around many trees.

The fruits are three winged~

Fruits of a tree probably from the family of Meliaceae.

A tree, probably from the family Phyllanthaceae.

This tall tree had palmately compound leaves and large reddish flowers.

Some bamboo forests beside our path.

Reddish fruits from a legume climber.

Tetrastigma vines!

It was also flowering and fruiting~

This was my favourite climber due to its beautiful pink flowers.

Here are the leaves.

Many tree canopies were covered with this plant and its mass flowering was rather spectacular.

A tree from Malvaceae~

Many of them were fruiting also.

Some yellow inflorescence,

and fruits from a legume tree.

Again, an unknown tree flowering~

A scrambler with very pretty pink flowers.

Here is a close up~

We had some fun playing with the seeds from a cultivated Lagerstroemia tree. They are shaped in a way which allowed them to spin in the air.

This was another nice shrub flowering.

Leaves of the shrub~

This Climber looks like an plant from the family Acanthaceae.

A rather short trip of about 2 hours before we head back for a night drive on a lorry for a tour. Going by the same trail, the guide showed us many Samba deers grazing on the grassland which skirted away after seeing us. Only this one above stayed longer than usual looking at us curiously.

Giant trees of Ho Chi Minh City

2011-03-10T23:19:00.001+08:00

I was away in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam for a week to attend M’s wedding and also for a short holiday. This is my second time here after more than two years.

Here is an view of the city from the rooftop of my hotel room. Very cluttered, disorderly but that is what I love about this place. Singapore is too orderly that it is boring in comparison to this place. =.=

How about the city’s greenery?

I doubt tourist pay any attention to the roadside streets here. But I was already anticipating the large dipterocarp trees which I read about in Dr Francis Ng’s blog. He estimated the trees to be 80 to 100 years old and planted during the French colonial days!

Many parts of the city were lined with huge dipterocarp trees! For those who do not know what are dipterocarps, they are big forest trees belonging to the family Dipterocarpaceae and highly valued for their timber (commonly called meranti). Also characteristic of this family are their shuttle-cock like fruits that will spin in the air.

It was quite common to see trees with trunks of 1 or 2 metres in diameter and growing more than 20 metres tall.

Two of the most common species are probably Dipterocarpus alatus and Hopea odorata. Above is a D. alatus tree at the reunification palace.

We can’t have picked a better time to come as it was dry season now and it means masting time for the trees! Can you see the young brownish fruits?

It is pretty fascinating to see the road littered with the fruits!

Here is the close up of the D. alatus fruit.

Look at the crazy mass fruiting of Hopea odorata~

And also some fruits on the pathway.

While Vietnam have amazing big mature forest trees, they certainly does not have as much green spaces as Singapore. Every park here are greatly valued and visited by many people, even during the weekdays. For example, my Vietnamese friend told me that this dipterocarp filled park is frequented by university students.

The most common dipterocarp that is planted in Singapore is probably Hopea odorata, but they are all still very young in comparison to the ones here. It will be pretty exciting once they reach to the same height and girth as what we saw here in Ho Chi Minh and start fruiting.

Watch out for more posts of the vegetation in Vietnam~

Jenal Jetty Mangroves

2011-02-27T17:10:00.001+08:00

Jenal Jetty. My guess is that not many people has heard of this jetty, and I wondered if this is the name of just one of the many jetties there since the signage was only pasted on the entrance to one.

I got a preview of this place from a youtube clip. The entertaining host introduced this place as Seletar jetty in Chinese though.

It seemed like a pretty nice and small place for the weak and sickly (down with flu for a month) me to visit, so I decided to take a cab down there.

Here is the place at low tide. It wasn’t particularly fun to wade in this mangrove as the mud was very soft in most places.

The mangrove trees are the usual common ones, with many Sonneratia alba at the outer fringe.

And others like Bruguiera gymnorrhiza (above), Bruguiera cylindrica, Avicennia alba, Avicennia officinalis, Avicennia rumphiana, Rhizophora apiculata, Xylocarpus granatum, can also be found etc. Nothing particularly special, but then again, I’m not that good in recognising some rare mangrove trees too.

There were also some Nipah palm (Nypa fruticans) here. Shown are the fruits of the palm, and the soft insides are used to make attap chee.

Probably the highlight will be the flowering of the nasty thorny climber, Caesalpinia crista. The mangrove trees cluttered with these climbers were flushed with yellow with its bright flowers. RY mentioned about this flowering phenomenon in his latest post.

Here is one with a carpenter bee collecting nectar from it.

A tiny river flows out to the sea and exposes the point of attachment of the pencil roots of the Avicennia trees to its secondary roots.

Finlaysonia obovata! A critically endangered climber, though it seemed to be quite in abundance in some mangroves.

One of its fruit fell onto the boardwalk.

Did I say boardwalk? Yes, mangrove boardwalk! Pretty cool eh? They were several of these which led from the makeshift parking lot to the jetty.

How come there is a dead dog here! O_o

Towards the end, a sand bar extends out from the mainland and it served as a good spot several anglers to fish. Like the uncle below~

I was the odd guy there with my camera and new binoculars. Received a few stares but I still stayed there for awhile as the sea breeze was especially refreshing.

Straight ahead is Pulau Seletar. Through my binoculars, I could make out many outlines of Casuarinas, Coconut trees and Sea almonds. But I am sure that many undiscovered treasures lie beyond my sight. I’m referring to plants btw~

A look back at the mangrove, jetties and humans that I passed by today. Not the best picture I guess, but I tried to expand it oredi~ haha

Otters and disturbing sights at Punggol Beach

2011-02-21T21:24:00.001+08:00

Just realised that I was not the only at Punggol Beach yesterday, after seeing RY’s disturbing post about Caesalpinia bonduc demise here.

A waterfront is in the process being constructed along Punggol Beach, and much of the route has been constructed to quite a distance. Many fishermen, joggers and leisure seekers were already attracted to this place when I was there.

I spent quite a fair amount of time loitering about the eastern side of the waterfront, where Coney Island, or Pulau Serangoon is located. Around the far end of the island, near the mouth of Sungei Serangoon, I saw 2 sea otters at the bank of Coney Island. They quickly disappeared on seeing me but it left me deep in thought. This entire water body has already been blocked by the bridge linking to Coney Island and dammed from the island to Lorong Halus, and has been almost converted to freshwater, evident from the grasses and sedges growing partially submerged in the water on the island. Will this change affect the otters or its prey? Much of the entire reservoir banks have also been converted to stone walls and it does not appear to have much areas for the otters to venture about on land.

With so many people coming to know about this new leisure spot, it is no wonder that many curious beach combers also came along during the low tide. I saw a man who caught a seahorse and tried to forcefully pushed it through the tiny opening of a mineral bottle filled with sea water. In vain, he tried again but gave up and dropped it in a plastic bag instead. This was probably the pinnacle of cruelty that I have seen a person treat a marine creature… No living thing deserves to be handled this way, and it was very disturbing seeing a mature adult do this.

It is for certain that more and more people will visit this place when the waterfront is completed. Perhaps some signboards should be placed to discourage people from unnecessary collection of live animals?

Singapore Botanic Gardens

2011-01-09T15:38:00.001+08:00

This is my first time to SBG since I started to learn plants (more seriously). All my previous visits had been just for mere picnic, strolling and doing other leisure activities like any other visitors here.

SBG definitely seems like a nice place to learn plants, with comfortable walking trails, and especially, with identification tags. While it is rather far from my house, in a two years time, when the SBG MRT station is up, I will certainly come here more often.

The fruit of Artocarpus altilis, or Breadfruit is edible. I wonder if these thin, elongated fruits above are an abnormity or just the immature fruits.

Just a distance away, beneath the prop roots of the coastal pandan, Pandanus odorifer, are its bright orange fruits.

After listening to other people’s description about this plant, I finally get to see by myself the fruits and flowers of the Cynometra cauliflora, which were formed on the trunk and branches of this tree.

After noticing me looking at this Uncle who was harvesting some fruits of the Thevetia peruviana, he came to me and commented that they looked like testicles of a person. I can only reply him with a blank stare =.=”

This flower of the Torch Ginger, Etlingera elatior, is used for flavouring curry and laska. Just behind the ginger is Corner House, named after the famous botanist EJH Corner, who used to be an assistant director of SBG. Now, this building is used as a restaurant.

At the entrance to SBG is an impressive row of Oil Palms, Elaeis guineensis. Native in Africa, it is now commonly cultivated throughout the tropics. Apparently, almost all of the Oil Palms in this region actually derived from 4 seedling trees planted in Bogor Botanic Gardens during the mid 1800s.

These shiny blue fruits caught my eye. They belonged to an exotic Elaeocarpus species, E. angustifolius, also aptly named as the Blue Marble Tree.

The Nibong palm, Oncosperma tiligarium really makes a nice ornamental plant with its clustering and tall habit!

I thought that this is quite a nice shot. ^^ A man who is dwarfed by nature. The palm is a commonly cultivated palm here, Livistona roundifolia.

A huge heritage tree, Terminalia subspathulata stood guard at the entrance of the Botanic Gardens Jungle.

Another impressively huge tree was this Cotton Tree, Ceiba pentandra.

And lastly, my walk ended at the Botanic Gardens library where there is a display of some uses of plants, like for eg., Abrus precatorius being used for rosaries (above).

Virgin trip to Mandai Mangroves

2010-12-31T22:53:00.002+08:00

My first time to Mandai Mangroves, organised by RY, and accompanied by two new friends JY and BC. I have to admit that the reason I have not come here is because of my overwhelming laziness. Haha, at least I am here now.

Upon entering the mangroves, RY pointed out these moths. They are aquatic ( I meant their larvae of course), hence known as the aquatic moths, or Eristena mangalis; ‘mangal’ meaning mangroves.

This climber, Finlaysonia obovata, is probably one of the first plants that I learnt when my fetish in green stuff started. One might probably scoffed its status as critically endangered when visiting Mandai because it is sprawling all over the place!

This is its small furry flower,

And the horn-like fruits.

Some have ants covering over the groove of the fruit in a sea of black. I think they are probably herding scale insects located there, which I had seen before previously in Berlayar Creek mangroves.

A beautiful dragonfly of which I have no idea of the ID. Perhaps I should buy the dragonfly book published recently. Help?

A majestic maze of prop roots of the Bakau tree, Rhizophora species. I was imagining that someone should build a Rhizophora roots inspired playground! That will be quite cool right?

This strand of overhanging climber is probably Dischidia nummularia.

The leaves are smaller in comparison with Dischidia major (above), the latter also having swollen glands where ants made their home in. And hence, commonly called the ant plant.

Here is a triplet of their flower buds.

A very pretty flower with yellow stamens flanked by pink petals. This is a relatively uncommon shrub, Brownlowia tersa.

RY pointed out its comical butt-shaped fruits.

Johor Bahru seems like a short distance from here!

The dead tree infested with the long horn beetle, visible by the many circular holes drilled into the trunk.

Besides Brownlowia tersa, this is another new mangrove plant for me, Merope angulata.

I took a lick at one of the fruits and it tasted citrus-like. Apparently, it belongs to the family Rutaceae, same as other citrus plants like Pomelo and Lime. No wonder we saw a lime butterfly caterpillar on one of the leaves too. Unfortunately I did not take a photo of it, but perhaps RY will show it later on his post.

Fruits of Caesalpinia crista. This is a nasty little climber of the mangroves because of its many recurved hooks that will give a painful scratch if one brush by,

RY suspected these leaves as a variation of Intsia bijuga.

The two other bigger Intsia trees that we saw have the typical blunt tip leaflets.

We also saw its two dehisced and one unripe fruits but seems like something had already taken a bite on it.

The intertidal zone spread out for like 200 metres? from the mangrove edge. Within the soft mud were so many half-buried mangrove horsecrab crabs that we were apprehensive of stepping on one.

Hmm, what is so interesting over there where RY is standing to take some pictures?

Here it is! BC mentioned that it looked like a Cuckoo, and sure enough it looks close to a Lesser Cuckoo from other pictures in the internet. (Apparently it is an Indian Cuckoo, as corrected by an anonymous reader.) It perched long enough for me to take some decent shots before flying away.

There were many platforms with stairs leading up to them. I guess that houses used to be on top of them but now they were excellent nesting spots for the Bird’s Nest Fern, Asplenium australasicum.

This Mangrove Cannonball tree, Xylocarpus granatum have many bowling balls on top of us!

Lastly, just before we left the place, was a cluster of pretty wild flowers, Bidens pilosa.

After washing our pants and booties in the canal, we have to climb up of it by crawling on all fours. Haha!

I have no idea what they were doing for this though. Probably to avoid the grass from tickling them I guess. ^^ Somehow, it felt like I am pointing a gun at them from the back. lol!

Back to MacRitchie

2010-12-30T23:26:00.001+08:00

Wishing everyone a happy new year with this Hoya latifolia flowers!

Today was a tiring day, went to the Singapore Botanic Gardens (will blog that another day) for a walk before going back school and then to MacRiitchie Reservoir.

Red young leaves of this Garcinia probably griffithii sapling. Heard from KY that another hypothesis of why young leaves are red is because insects (many herbivores are insects) cannot see this colour.

These are, I believed the flowers of the Blue Mahang, Macaranga heynei.

There were many of these flowers scattered on the forest floor. Not sure what these are though =.=”

I saw this fruit of the climber, Willughbeia species 3 weeks ago, but it doesn’t seem to have grown in size.

Minuscule fruits from this shrub, Trema cannabina.

These are the dehisced fruits of the Thottea grandiflora. Their red flowers have sealed petals like a bell. Pity I can’t find it today.

Lastly, dark purple young leaves and the distinct crescent stipules from Aporosa benthamiana.

Snakes in MacRitchie

2010-12-24T19:19:00.001+08:00

While today was solely a botanical trip, I won’t be blogging much about them since there isn’t much fruits or flowers today (Don’t want to bore too many of you with plain green leaves!). Here are some snap shots of the reptiles and some other animals we saw along the way this morning.

WQ spotted this Oriental Whip Snake at our knee level, and it stayed motionless for a long while, allowing us to take all the photos we want.

A pretty docile and pretty snake with its bright green colour. Look at how small it is~

Long Tailed Macaques are a common sight in MacRitchie, and I often see them feeding on young saplings of plants. This time however, one of them was feeding on a fruit, which unfortunately we were unable to identify. It has copious white sap (you can see the stain on the monkey’s lips),

and reddish seeds? in the interior. The monkey was only aiming for those red stuff and left the rest of the fruit untouched. Any one knows the ID?

These aquatic plants are the Pipewort, Eriocaulon sp. They have cute white ball shaped inflorescences.

This huge snake resting on a overhanging tree branch above the reservoir. This is probably the Red Tailed Racer, a non-venomous snake. It looks pretty intimidating though~

Here is another shot of it.

A juvenile Clouded Monitor Lizard came foraging in front of us unperturbed by our presence, allowing me to get some nice shots of it.

All in all, a good trip, meeting a long lost friend and also daring the monkeys to snatch my plastic bag secured on my bag with a carabrina (They did attempted but were unsuccessful!)

Some urban wildlife

2010-12-23T23:59:00.001+08:00

While urban areas, when compared with natural ones are almost devoid of wildlife, one just need to be observant enough to spot little critters that managed to adapt to living in this unique habitat. For many people in Singapore, these animals might just be the only ones which they know off considering how little our natural habitats are left. Hopefully they are not even oblivious to these!

A Pink Neck Green Pigeon feeding on the fruits of MacArthur’s Palm (Ptychosperma macarthurii). This exotic palm can apparently survive in shaded areas and thus it is very common to see them in degraded secondary forests, spread by birds like this.

If not for who A told me about the ‘eyes’ of the Turn in the Wind plant, Mallotus paniculatus, I would not have noticed them. Apparently, it can secrete some juicy stuff which attract these ants to drink.

Domestic cats are always common sight. Though they wonder around freely in the neighbourhood, many of them are taken care of by kind souls who feed them everyday. This feline above was especially adorable. It just sat comfortably on my bag when I put it down to take some pictures of a plant.

A pool of water accumulated at a concrete path provided a nice bath for these Rock Pigeons.

I was rather surprised to find a group of Scaly Breasted Munias right in the middle of the oldest estate in Singapore. These birds were poking at the flowers of the Coat Buttons (Tridax procumbens). No idea why though.

The largest flower in the world

2010-12-16T22:27:00.001+08:00

A late post of the flower of Titan Arum, Amorphophallus titanum in the Singapore Botanic Gardens. Apparently, it had already wilted by now~

It holds the title of the largest flower in the world, together with the flowers from Rafflesia (Rafflesia arnoldii) and Talipot palm (Corypha umbraculifera), the latter also bloomed here in SBG a few years back.

Flowers and Fruits at MacRitchie

2010-12-11T21:03:00.001+08:00

Today I am back again at MacRitchie to catch a walk conducted by Dr Yap from NSS. Unfortunately, I made a mistake of where the meeting point was and my friends and we had to walk a long distance till the end of the boardwalk to meet the group.

Should I say that it was actually a blessing in disguise? Or else we would have missed so much flowering and fruiting plants.

The flowers,

and fruits of this climber, Ampelocissus elegans.

This curious looking structure is the flower of the Streblus elongatus, also known as the Tampines tree. Yup, the Tampines estate is named after this plant.

Flower of the Tiup Tiup, Adinandra dumosa.

The flowers,

and fruits of the Sliverback tree, Rhodamnia cinerea.

Flower buds of Porterandia anisophylla. Hopefully I can catch its bloom.

Flowers of the Bat’s Laurel, Prunus polystachyus.

Can you see the dried flowers of the Great-leafed Pin-flower Tree, Glochidion superbum? Rather apt name eh?

A fruit from this Apocynaceae climber, Willughbeia species!

Aquatic plants are another realm for me. Can anyone help to ID this pretty plant with pink flowers? Update> Mayaca fluviatilis, Thanks to Ron and Hexazona for the help.

Caught a photo of this sad looking female long-tailed macaque… I wonder what happen to it :(

Fruits of a common herb, Oldenlandia cristata.

Young fruits of the Twenty Men Tree, Ixonanthes icosandra.

And lastly, the yellow bushy inflorescence of a legume climber Entada spiralis.

Certainty worth to come back here again, to see the flowers fruit, the unripe fruits ripe, and the ripe fruits, hmm, stay there till I’m here for another look. :)

Mistletoes and some weird and nice sights

2010-12-11T18:19:00.001+08:00

Time for some random but what I thought are interesting plants which I encountered recently.

This is a newly germinated seedling of a common mistletoe, Macrosolen cocohinensis on a wild Cinnamon plant, Cinnamonum iners. The mistletoe is a hemiparasite, meaning that the sucker which is attached to the host will grow its haustoria (its ‘roots’) into the plant and obtained its nutrients from there. It is only partially parasitic (hence ‘hemi’), since it can still make food from its green leaves.

Here is another Macrosolen cochinchinensis, but this time on a starfruit tree.

You can see its trailing suckers. Another very common mistletoe that we can find in our urban environment is Dendrophthoe pentandra. That species one have pink instead of yellow flowers, and more irregularly shaped leaves.

This Syzygium aqueum or Water Apple tree was infested by the Pagoda bagworm moth. This bagworm eats by cutting circles on the leaves, thus making the leaves of this plant seemed to be ‘hole-punched’ many times.

Another Syzygium, this time S. polyanthum are flowering! Looks quite impressive when I stood under the tree and glance up at this sea of small white pom-pom like flowers.

And finally, this was what fascinates me most~ Yellowish white sap seems to be oozing out from this big Khaya grandifoliola tree. However, this has already solidified into hard resin. Quite cool~

Dipterocarp walk at MacRitchie Part 2

2010-11-24T23:17:00.001+08:00

In this 2nd post of last Sunday’s walk, let me just recap back to the beginning about it, since I had left that out in my 1st post.

Organised by the Plant Group of NSS, I joined this walk in keen anticipation to learn more plants. Primary forest flora are definitely not my forte, so its great that this walk came along.

The crowd was much more than what I expected, but then this was the 1st plant walk I attended.

And I guess it is also because of Dr Shawn Lum’s undeniable charm.

After a brief introduction about some of the dipterocarp genera that we can see today, we headed into Lornie Trail.

The first species we saw was this Anisoptera megistocarpa. He mentioned that the secondary veins of this genus are looped at the margins, evident from the picture below.

Just for interest, the common name of this species is Mersawa merah.

The second dip we were introduced to was the Keruing gombang merah, or Dipterocarpus kunstleri. This genus have leaves that are wavy are the margins and bears some resemblance to a piece of corrugated cardboard.

He told us the sad story of an adult Dipterocarpus kunstleri which died. However, its presence is still marked its many small baby trees like the two above.

I had heard about the big stipules of Dips but I never knew they were this large! I believed that this one belonged to Dipterocarpus kunstleri. We can see them scattered throughout the forest floor around the tree.

Shorea species have a twisted petiole compared to the other dips. The one above shows Shorea ovalis, a member of the Red Meranti group. It is rough on the underside.

Managed to take a picture of the tree.

And branches.

This leaf belonged to Shorea macroptera, the underside of this is smooth and seems to have a distinct in-rolling along the margins.

This is Shorea pauciflora. Note the twisted petiole in all the 3 Shorea species.

The large trunk of Shorea pauciflora marks the end of our walk. I had missed out three species as I had no good photos of. Will do that another time when I come here another day.

It was really a nice morning walk with new knowledge gained. Luckily I was not that lazy that day to wake up early!

I have blogged about most of the species learnt during this walk in the total vascular of Singapore online, so that you may have a quick and easy search in case anyone need to refer. :)

Dipterocarp walk at MacRitchie Part 1

2010-11-22T00:49:00.001+08:00

Guess I can’t help to quickly sort out my pictures and blog before sleeping. This post is the first of two parts of a walk which I attended with NSS, led by Dr Shawn Lum. This first post shows mainly some interesting but non-dipterocarp plants which we saw along the way.

This climber is a fig, Ficus villosa. My first time seeing it out in the forest, but I guess its distinctive habit and shape gave it away.

I found this interesting flower on the forest floor which Dr Shawn said belonged to the family Apocynaceae. Just did a search on my book on this family and its long, narrow calyx lobes helps to narrow it to the genus Strophanthus, probably Strophanthus caudatus, a critically endangered climber.

Isn’t this long spirally liana nice?

Dr Shawn told us that this peculiar rattan with spines on the leaflets is a new record in Singapore, and a resident rattan expert, AL is currently writing on it. Update: Plectocomiopsis geminiflora, watch out for this upcoming Nature in Singapore article about this new record.

This Rubiaceae is, as suggested by, Dr Shawn, a Hedyotis species. Will attempt to key this out another day. Please keep a lookout for updates here if you are interested. Update: Hedyotis congesta, now known as Oldenlandia cristata.

The young reddish fronds of a centipede fern, Blechnum species.

Somebody actually found the flowers of a native durian, Durio griffithii! The greyish back leaf also belongs to the durian.

VB picked this out and guessed it as a Heritiera species. Indeed, Dr Shawn confirmed it as Heritiera simplicifolia. It is related to the Dungun, Heritiera littorali, a mangrove tree that has a dorsal ‘fin’ on their fruits. Hence, they are also fondly known as the ‘ultramen’ fruits. Not sure whether this plant above has this character too~

During our walk back, VB and AN alerted us to the fruits of Garcinia griffithii. They are closely related to the mangosteen, Garcinia mangostana.

The branching of Garcinia species are pretty characteristic, with angular straight branches extending out from the trunk.

Okay, totally shag out now. Will blog about the diperocarps on the next post!

Guided walk at St. John’s

2010-11-21T23:00:00.001+08:00

Today was really a very busy and tiring day for me. I went to a NSS guided walk by Dr Shawn Lum at MacRitchie in the morning, before heading out to guide at St. John’s Island. I will blog about that former trip later since I will need more time to assimilate the information first. Guess this post also probably save my nature blog from turning into a 100% botanical blog. Ha~

Anyway, straight after the morning walk, I immediately headed back home, had my lunch and rushed out to Marina South Pier. Unfortunately, I overslept in the MRT and ended up having to take a cab from Tanjong Pagar. So much for me trying to save up after buying my DSLR and IPhone 4.

Above shows our participants listening attentively to Jun’s brief talk about this island. They are a group of scouts from a secondary school in Clementi (Sorry for forgetting the name).

They were subsequently brought to the Tropical Marine Science Institute where ML guided them around the facilities.

Thereafter, I was ‘arrowed’ to do a last minute guide at the mangroves, of which I just quickly lead through, since the main attraction is at the intertidal shore.

During the shore walk, we split the group into two, and I was tasked to lead the guys. Here is my lovely assistant guide, Michelle, telling them more about the flower crab moult in her hand.

There were lots of acorn worms pushing hard to get the processed sand from their butt.

An definite attractive for them is this common sea star. Many Sea stars feed by pushing out their stomach and engulf its prey before bringing back in again. At least for this sea star, they are not predators but just feed on the detritus.

Our hunter seekers found this minuscule fish which I have totally no idea what it is. Apparently they also don’t but guess it just looks interesting to show. :P

Snapping shrimps are pretty common today. These animals have an enlarged pincer, and used that to fire a jet of shock wave to stun or kill their prey.

Well, its has been usual practice for me to forget taking enough photos to really give a comprehensive account for my participants to recap here. But I guess what was most important is that they enjoyed themselves, and I think they did. :)

It has been really quite a long long time since I last led a group for a nature walk (the last one was in March). A bit rusty but I think I still have some juice left in me to do a decent walk. Guess I do miss it terribly! And its always worth it to see the smiles of my participants enjoying the nature along with me.

Thanks to Jun for organising the walk~

Back to Alstonia penumatophora

2010-11-17T20:20:00.001+08:00

This morning, upon the suggestion of A and the help of our ‘expedition leader’ KY, a group of 10 of us went on a botanical walk to the Central Catchment Nature Reserve.

Here are some of us at the entrance of the trail which seems to be also a favourite for mountain bikers.

Because of the current North East monsoon, the heavy rain had caused the trail to be muddy and slippery, and also forming little puddles here and there. Luckily I had decided to wear my booties today.

The picture above shows, if I am not wrong, the prop roots of Syzygium lineatum. This feature is characteristic in waterlogged areas, though I have seen it with prop roots in dry areas before.

Though I have seen pitcher plants many times before, their pitchers always make a nice picture. This is one of the 3 species that can be found in Singapore, the slender pitcher, Nepenthes gracilis.

These scaly fruits belonged to a spiny rattan, probably Calamus or Daemonorops species.

D pointed out to this insignificant pool of mud, which on closer inspection has the footprints of a wild boar. So this is where they have their mud bath?

This bright hairy young leaves of this Elaeocarpus ferrugineus is so pretty!

The forest surrounding this clearing is a distinctly Adinandra belukar forest,

as shown by the dominant tree, the Tiup Tiup, or Adinandra dumosa. Its just too bad that we were too early to witness its flowering. Guess just have to make do with their buds.

KY found this interesting fruit which CK said to beong to the family Annonaceae.

We almost missed another fruiting rattan without the sharp eyes of CK. Cute?

This curious pandan has a super long drip tip!

The stop point of our journey is at this huge tree, Alstonia pneumatophora, which Tony kindly corrected our ID last time. Previously, because of the dry weather this portion was dry compared to now when it rain everyday. Though unfortunate as I was hoping to have a human scale there, the waterlogging enabled us to see what we thought are its penumatophores snaking around the tree (below).

Having a DSLR definitely helps in getting better quality pictures but its a pity that I didn’t check my photos as many of them were focused wrongly. Something which I will learn and overcome with time. ^^

The Total Vascular Flora of Singapore Online

2010-11-12T23:18:00.001+08:00

I think that some of you, especially plant lovers might have notice this recent wordpress blog. It has been my intention to write a short post introducing it but I had delayed it till now, when the number of species have gained a substantial number, just over 500 species. As A had appropriately put it, our first milestone has reached. =)

This blog is the brainchild of KY, and a spin-off from his recent publication, “A Checklist of the Total Vascular Plant Flora of Singapore: Native, Naturalised and Cultivated Species”. So far, KY, A and I have been contributing to it.

Basically, each blog post contains information about a particular plant species. Eventually, they will contain their name, synonyms, statuses, vegetative and ecological characters, distribution and other information, like in our first two entries, Synogonium podophyllum, and Nypa fruticans. However, it is not an easy task to do the write-ups for every species; so for now, we are only uploading pictures and some basic information.

A big part of this blog are the pictures of the plants to help in identifying them. We have included, beneath each photo, the location, habitat and year when the plant was taken as a record. Short captions are also provided if you hover your mouse over each picture. Note that you have to disable the automatic preview mode first.

To facilitate easier browsing, one can search the index in alphabetical order, browse by their taxonomic groups (please read the page phylogenetic classification to see how the species are classified), or just simply type in the name in the search bar.

We have also included some useful links. Firstly, the Flora links some of the plant descriptions in their stated region. Two of the links, i.e. Flora Malesiana and Tree Flora of Sabah and Sarawak gives free PDF versions of their Flora. The rest are online resources where you can view their descriptions directly.

Secondly, the Pictures links some credible and easy to use, pictorial websites of local and region plants. The Plant Observatory, hosted by KH is probably the most comprehensive in terms of the number and range of pictures for each species. Next is the Plants of Southeast Asia, which in addition, provides descriptions. And of course, Joesph Lai’s companion guide to wayside trees of Malaya. Do check them out too.

This blog is still at its infant stage despite having about 1/8? of the total plant species in Singapore. This is because as mentioned, the lack of vegetative descriptions and other information. Not all species covered have comprehensive photos covering their defining features because of the lack in photos. However, since this is an on-going project, it will only get better with new pictures and information continuously being added, and old, blurred pictures replaced.

Of course, this blog is not possible without the help of many contributors who have helped directly or indirectly in helping to identify the plants and contribute photos. Unfortunately, we have not added them in the Acknowledgements page yet, will get to it soon. If you want to help in anyway, please tell us if have any suggestions, or spot any wrong identifications or information. Even better, you can help by contributing your quality photos. =)

First field trip with my new camera

2010-11-06T22:58:00.001+08:00

I decided at the last minute to head out to the central catchment nature reserve today. Waiting at home for the army to call us up really makes weekend planning difficult…

And as my title says, I got a DSLR camera after the longest time! Still need to get use to the weight and the difficulty of taking pictures with one hand…

A noctuid moth, probably Spirama retorta.

The outer fruit covering of Adenia macrophylla. The curly threads are attached to the seeds, so that they hang out to attract birds.

A Ficus species which I duno the ID.

A Calophyllum species which have this hard lump (stipule?) on it.

I found this hairy fruit scattered all over the ground.

They belong to this tree, Commersonia bartramia.

Several individuals of Clerodendrum deflexum were fruiting gregariously.

Found the developing of another unknown plant.

And these are the leaves of it.

A Lascar, Lasippa sp. was totally engrossed in puddling that I was able to go close enough to get this shot.

Trigger happy in my neighbourhood

2010-10-31T17:31:00.001+08:00

Wasn’t really in a mood to go rambling to some forest this weekend so I decided just to take a short walk about the neighbourhood today.

Here is Punggol Park~

Tanjong tree (Mimusops elengi) fruits.

Unopened inflorescence of a plant, the ID slipped my mind at this moment…

Flowers of the Cat’s Tail (Typha angustifolia). The top fuzzy tip are the male inflorescences while the separating from it, at a short distance below is the female inflorescence.

These are the fruits of the popular bonsai plant, Wrightia religiosa, or Sui Mei in Chinese.

On my way to the gym, I saw this male olive back sunbird feeding on the flower of the Heliconia sp. plant. Back in its native habitat in the neo-tropics, this genera is pollinated by Humming birds. Guess it has found a substitute here?

Further down the path, I saw two Javan mynas eating the leaves of the common naturalised herb, Asystasia gangetica ssp. micrantha. Folivory? =S

And lastly, I finally saw the seeds of the broad-leaf mahongy (Swietenia macrophylla). These common roadside tree has been bearing the fruits for several months now. The seeds each bear a wing and this allows it to turn like a helicopter, slowing its descend and hopefully, with a gush of wind, aid in its dispersal from its parent.

A forgotten mangrove?

2010-10-17T15:45:00.001+08:00

This mangrove came as an surprise, since I was more of expecting a coastal plant forest vegetation during this trip with PY at one of the Northern shores.

The dominant vegetation of this reclaimed part of the land are Casuarina equisetifolia, with weeds as the undergrowth.

And here is the natural coastline, with some Coconut trees and other common coastal plants.

I was, I must say, pleasantly surprise to find this exotic plant Ochna kirkii here. Think I have grown to like it after writing about it in an upcoming article.

It is also known as the Mickey Mouse plant because of its red persistent sepals, black fruits and whisker-like stamens.

Here are the tiny flowers of Colubrina asiatica.

Looks like this most widely planted tree in Singapore, Albizia saman or the rain tree has found its way here too.

The yellow flame, unlike the rain tree, is native but considered critically endangered in its native habitat.

Rather common coastal plants, Pouteria obovata (Update: Looks like the genus have changed to Planchonella),

And pong pong, probably Cerbera odollam.

This is a common coastal legume, Dendrolobium umbellatum.

This sapling reminds me of Guettarda speciosa, which I saw in Malaysia half a year back.

My suspicions were confirmed after seeing a larger tree,

With fruits.

A critically endangered plant, Calophyllum inophyllum.

Another endangered plant, Pongamia pinnata.

And another, Aphanamixis polystachya. This endangered tree has managed to regenerate back successfully in many disturbed forests here.

This portia tree, Thespesia populnea has the black headed cotton stainer bug all over, sucking on the seeds.

This is my first time seeing the seashore morning glory, Ipomoea pes-caprae climbing.

After walking awhile down the coastline, we saw this small river cutting through, and wala~ mangroves!

I did not really pay close attention to many of the mangrove diversity there, but I registered some common ones like Avicennia alba, A. rumphiana and Bruguiera cylindrica.

Several stands of Nipah palm, Nypa fruiticans were also there.

The Dungun, Heritiera littoralis, has shiny bronze underside leaves. It is rather common here.

A rather irritating plant, because of its recurved hooks, Oxyceros longiflorus.

And lastly, probably the find of my day, a Hoya climber, probably Hoya latifolia.

Quick walk at Petai Trail

2010-10-16T21:32:00.001+08:00

This weekend I was back in MacRitchie again but took a much faster pace than normal as I had to meet my friend soon.

Some climber from the family Connaraceae, probably Agelaea borneensis. It was a pity that the flowers had just died out.

A racket-tailed drongo was perched a few metres on a low lying branch, and it stayed there even when two people passed directly under it, both bird and humans oblivious to each other.

The only flower which I managed to find is this Clerodendrum deflexum, a small shrub.

Finally a Dipeterocarp which seemed rather common there, Hopea mengarawan.

This could have been the shot of the day for me, if not for the silly compact camera that can’t focus manually. A slender squirrel chewing on what looked like an acorn fruit. Perhaps its time to buy an SLR…

A cluster of fruit belonging to an unknown plant.

The same plant which I saw last week. More of the fruits are turning black, though they do not appear to be completely riped.

Some climbers use hooks to climb. But for this common climber, Indorouchera griffithiana, the hooks thicken upon hooking on another or the even on itself.

Another pleasant trip to MacRitchie

2010-10-09T21:25:00.001+08:00

Here I am, back again in MacRitchie Reservoir Park. This time, with the company of KY, PY and her bf, I managed to take much more pictures of interesting wildlife.

Here is a little caterpillar on the stipule of the smelly bean, Parkia speciosa.

Shiny fruits from this common climber, Gynochthodes sublanceolata.

Flowers of Clerodendrum lavifolium.

Opposite the bank, a giant rattan (Plectocomia elongata) bearing majestic fruits (or flowers?).

Also, we can see the fruits of the smelly beans tree (Parkia speciosa), with several long-tailed macaques feeding on them.

It is always pleasant to see flowers and fruits. This unknown Rubiaceae plant has small clustering flowers.

And carries lots of berries, blackening when ripened. Update: Urophyllum hirsutum.

With the help of KY, I can finally identify Prunus polystachya. This genus have a characteristic butt-like glands at the petiole.

A shrub with attractive flowers. Can’t wait to know its ID. Update: Chassalia curviflora

Probably the surprising find of the day. With the help of SD, this is a pig-tailed macaque (Macaca nemestrina). There are only two extant species of native monkeys in Singapore, the long-tailed macaque and the banded leaf monkey, so I guess this is probably an escapee.

Another unknown plant that is fruiting~

Please help if you know the identity! Thanks to WF for the ID.

Search for Pemphis acidula

2010-10-03T15:32:00.001+08:00

After a failed attempt to search for the plant as stated above about a month back, KY, CK, WF, A and I were back again at the shore near Changi. This plant was first discovered by Ria and gang.

Trekking through the rustic grassland,

and reaching this small reservoir, which when high tide comes will probably connect to the sea.

There were some Rhizophora saplings in the reservoir.

These are the fruits of the sea lettuce (Scaevola taccada). All of them were bearing juicy white fruits.

Some other mangrove plants include the red flowered Lumnitzera littorea,

and the white flowered Lumnitzera racemosa.

Also in abundance is Bruguiera cylindrica (above), and Scyphiphora hydrophyllacea (picture not shown).

And of course, the highlight of the day, Pemphis acidula. This critically endangered plant is probably the only one individual left on mainland.

The flower, with very short stamens. It is insect-pollinated and not self-compatible. Hence, WF and CK were suspecting another plant is nearby since this is fruiting. But we were unable to locate it.

Here is the fruit. The seeds are covered by the brown capsule.

Here is how the seeds looked like. They fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.

And the seeds, when they are out. According to WF, they are dispersed by water.

I also managed to get some satisfying flower shots with my recently-repaired G11 and macro lens. This is the male flower of Buta-Buta (Excoecaria agallocha).

This it is the female cone of Casuarina equisetifolia.

This is the male cone~

Monkey faces

2010-09-12T10:53:00.001+08:00

A continuation from my previous post, which was overloaded with plants, this entry will feature some of my observations and pictures of long-tailed macaques in MacRitchie Reservoir, Prunus Trail.

I was stopped from my path when a whole troop of monkeys came in the opposite direction. Pretty scary especially with the big alpha male snarling along the way.

They seemed not perturbed by my presence (luckily), and I was able to get some pictures of them in close proximity. Here is one eating on what I think is a rubber seed.

And a young one eating on the same thing.

Special grooming services were provided for some, ass cleaning is even available.

Plucking white hair? Don’t flinch! lol, I find that expression was rather funny.

They even let me go this close for a shot.

They also have an appetite for eating young shoots. Not good for reforestation I guess.

A walk at Prunus trail

2010-09-12T01:17:00.001+08:00

Book out from army for the first weekend of my 3 weeks in camp. Since I didn’t get to go into the forest when I am serving reservist (and probably won’t have the luxury of looking at plants if I am out), decided to take a walk at Prunus trail of MacRitchie Reservoir by myself.

The new visitor centre is very spacious, especially the toilets! There are open air shower heads for a quick sprinkle.

And now, are the plants~ I must admit that I do not recognise most of the plants so any help is appreciated!

Champereia manillana.

Syzygium borneense

Litsea elliptica.

Parkia speciosa or otherwise knwon as Petai, which yield the edible smelly beans.

Only know this from the ID tag on the tree. Xanthophyllum vitellinum.

This small tree look like a Dipterocarp.

An unknown sapling.

A very distinctively hairy plant.

With two protruding structures at the petiole.

Cool reddish ends of Elaeocarpus petiolatus.

Another Elaeocarpus which VB suggested to be mastersii.

Never really notice small plants like this climber till now. Update: Psychotria sp.

Here are some climbers which looked vaguely familiar but still have no idea what they are.

Willughbeia sp.

An opposite arranged climber.

This nasty looking caterpillar was on the climber featured above.

Another familiar hairy plant with huge leaves.

I spotted this pandan look-alike climber on this palm tree. WF said that this is Freycinetia sp., and it is really a climbing species of pandan! Update: Freycinetia sumatrana.

Here is another view of it.

Another familiar climber.

And also a familiar looking sapling.

Gah… All my current knowledge of plants are confined to mangroves and degraded forests. Looks like I have enter to another totally different world in a more mature secondary forest! But it is always great to learn new stuff~

Thanks to WF and VB for their help in IDs.

Walk in Sengkang forest

2010-09-04T16:51:00.001+08:00

There are lots of forest fragments in Singapore and it is always interesting to bash in to see what is inside. Today, me, together with PY, H, WQ, G and J went into such a forest which used to be a plantation, evident from the lots of Durian, Rambutan, Starfruits and Rambi inside.

I reached earlier than the rest so had a head start to scout the area. Managed to grab a shot of two woodpeckers on a sea almond.

Finally got a chance to get a photo of the flower of this bitter-gourd, Momordica charantia.

Another morning glory which I am not sure of the ID.

My itching mouth finally can’t stand it and I decided to taste this jelly-like fruits of this exotic plant, Pipturus argenteus. No taste at all…

It is pretty amazing to see that someone actually maintains the trail! Look all the leaf litter neatly gathered.

Whats this? Some Costus or ginger? Update: Costus lucanusianus

A slug which WQ found.

This figging Malayan Banyan, Ficus microcarpa attracted lots of hungry birds.

Here are the figs.

A plant growing everywhere here which I have no idea what it is again. Help?

Took me awhile to figure out what this climber is. But now, it suddenly occurred to me that it should be Gynochthodes sublanceolata.

Taking a break.

Am surprised to see this Hoya sp. here. Probably verticillata?

There was a patch filled with the climber Gymnopetalum sp. Was again itching to taste the fruit but decided not after opening it. The fleshy parts covering the seeds looks like bird shit man… =.=”

And so, end of another fun trip. But should plan trips that I can see more new plants though. Will have to be 3 weeks later… high key army from next week onwards… Sian-ness!

Thanks WF for the ID.

Big Durian

2010-08-23T21:43:00.001+08:00

Call me ignorant, but I didn’t know that durian trees (Durio zibethinus) can grow so big! This one was about 25m tall!

Thanks to Hazel for the photo of me with the durian tree taken in Punggol.

Ixora and Butts

2010-08-14T14:23:00.001+08:00

Honestly, I didn’t know that our cultivated Ixora attracted so many butterflies. Perhaps it is because I never really take note of butts till recently.

Here are some pictures of them taken around the same time and place in Punggol.

Peacock Pansy.

The more common Chocolate Pansy stuffing its proboscis on the opening of the coralla tube.

Ciliate Blue.

Common Tit.

A skipper, possibly a Great Swift.

Another of the same species.

This Lemon Emigrant was the most difficult to take, fluttering away whenever I came close. Luckily, after awhile it seemed to get used to me and I was able to get some decent shots.

Probably a Short-Banded Sailor. It even tried to drink from the flower buds.

I wonder what this fly is doing. It obviously can’t reach the nectar deep in the flower without a long proboscis like the butterflies.

Besides butterflies and flies, there were also a lot of wasp-like insects flying around. Perhaps they prey on the butts?

Thanks to Mr Peacock Royal for his help in ID. :)

Fruit eating larvae in Elaeocarpus

2010-08-10T21:18:00.001+08:00

This is a continuation from my previous trip to CCNR.

I couldn’t managed to ID this presumably a fruiting Elaeocarpus tree.

Here are the leaves.

Underside.

A developing fruit with bumps. I initially thought that this is Elaeocarpus nitidus, but can’t confirm it since the fruit size is too small to what Corner described.

KY and WF harvested the fruit again on the weekend. The fruits have grown much larger and seem to fit E. nitidus. However, it is supposed to have 5 seeds and this, one, appeared to have 3 chambers. The seeds are not yet developed to make a confirmation. Hmm, what could this be? Help?

While slicing open one of the fruits, KY (and me) jumped away in shock when he saw a big larvae inside.

Apparnetly most of the fruits were infested with this caterpillar? which ate a chamber that fits almost exactly to their size. Wonder what it will grow up to be?

Bidadari Cemetery

2010-07-31T14:52:00.003+08:00

My weekend trip today was to Bidadari Cemetery, recommended by L, who accompanied me this morning.

The aim was actually to bird-watch, but we did not see any interesting ones besides some orioles, bulbuls, koels, etc.

To say that it is a cemetery is actually incorrect, since most, if not all of the graves were already exhumed. It is now a place as we observed, for people to jog and walk their dogs.

However, quite a lot of nice trees like this Tembusu, Fagraea fragrans still stands. Its branching seems like upward point fingers, rather appropriate for a cemetery tree I suppose?

There were many other common trees along the area which I won’t blog about. One plant which I was particularly curious about is this tree.

The fruits resembles the Noni, Morinda citrifolia, but all of these leaves look much lighter green in colour. Could this be a different Morinda? A check in Kwek’s vascular flora list however shows that M. citrifolia is the only tree, while the rest are climbers… Update: Morinda elliptica. Thanks VB for the ID. Update: Seems like this plant is STILL Morinda citrifolia, according to Kew, even though it looks very different from the the Morinda citrifolia. Update: Apparently, M. elliptica is still valid, according to Razafimandimbison (2009). Thanks Kwek for the research.

It took me a moment to recall this rather common wayside tree, Gliricidia sepium. This was my first time seeing its flower.

This cemetery is one of the few places to see this variable squirrel. Though exotic, we can’t help exclaiming about its cuteness!

I managed to take two close ups of the squirrel. This one above crossing its arms while hanging outside down…

And another picture of it biting a branch. I also saw it nibbling on the leaves of this Gliricidia. Part of its diet?

A Clerodendrum sp. It looks like the hydrid C. x speciosum.

After finishing our walk, we realised that we were very close to SPCA, so we went in to have a look. This cat with beautiful blue eyes was my favourite!

Two adorable kittens here…

Another kitten which L was particularly attached to.

Our next point is to investigate a forest fragment near Hougang Ave 3. Just at the forest edge, we were rudely interrupted by these four dogs.

It was always nice to see streams in the forest. Gives me the delusion that it is a freshwater swamp forest.

However, I was rather disappointed that the vegetation in the forest were all common plants. Sea almond, fish-tail palm, Banyan and starfruits trees; money plant climbers; Pandan and Alocasia near the stream, and the ground sprawling with Piper sarmentosum.

Remains of a village? Or is this some valuable antique?

I decided to leave soon after staying no more than 20 minutes since there was nothing new to discover and the undergrowth was very also thick (scared of snakes).

I was pretty upset that my Anta track pants which has served me well was torn. What’s worse was that that the attached compass and rubber tip of my two weeks old hiking stick came out and was no where to be found. Damn… =.=”

Not sure whether I will keep up my weekly fieldtrips since my goody field trip kaki L will be going on SEP for a year soon. All the best!

Unknown Syzygium

2010-07-27T00:38:00.005+08:00

In a forest fragment in Bukit Batok, we found a cool seemingly Syzygium plant fruiting. The cluster was hanging down with an attractive purple.

Below are the leaves, dark green opposite arranged, but the crushed leaves doesn’t smell distinctly ‘Syzygium’ though. The bark is light brown in colour and petiole about an inch long.

Help anyone? Update: Hmm, perhaps it is Syzygium jambos? Update: Syzygium pycnanthum, a critically endangered plant. Thanks to the SING herbarium guys for the help in ID.

Update: Here is a close-up of the fruits~

Getting down and dirty

2010-07-25T15:17:00.001+08:00

My weekly weekend exploration today brings us to the Northern side of Singapore, the location can’t be disclosed owing to some reason.

Destination, at the end of this canal. It shouldn’t be hard to guess where is the place for those who are familiar.

Looks tasty. The fruits of the climber, Cissus hastata.

Peacock Pansy butterfly.

The fruits of Claoxylon indicum. Also known as Nappy Plant as the soft leaves are used as diapers.

Was quite delighted to see this Hoya diversifolia climbing all over the tree.

Sea Holly, Acanthus sp. Still not very good in ID-ing the three species to its species level. Update: Acanthus ebracteatus.

Nice Rhizophora sp. prop roots.

A Perak Lascar, resting on the mudflat.

Man, I have no wonder what this scrambling shrub or climber is… help… Update: Acanthus volubilis. Guess this is my first time noticing that the leaves appear in this obovate form.

My first time taking a picture of the fruits of the Chengam, Scyphiphora hydrophylacea.

An unknown plant…

We walked past an abandoned farm with fruits trees, herbal plants etc. This is the Black face general, Strobilanthes crispus. At the back left is me, totally covered like a terrorist to prevent the mosquito bites.

We were thinking of how to cross the river when this low hanging stem allowed us to use it as a bridge to reach the other side.

Two cute little Xylocarpus granatum fruits.

At the end of the trip, totally muddy and got a few cuts. I have to go to the toilet to wash my pants so that I can take the MRT home.

Thanks RY and WF for the IDs.

Mutant Asystasia

2010-07-24T22:30:00.001+08:00

PX found this Asystasia gangetica micrantha when we were in Punggol.

The flower looked abit different from the normal one which have two purple lips instead of one. Mutant?

Here are the normal flowers.

Fruity Sengkang

2010-07-24T22:07:00.002+08:00

I remembered quite clearly the mangroves in Sungei Punggol whenever I pasted by TPE to reach Yishun for my guitar lessons years back. Now it was cleared to make way for Sengkang sports complex and Sengkang Riverside park.

I was in the park recently with PX and M. Most of the plants were still young. It was obvious that the theme of the park was about edible trees, apparent from all the edible fruit trees planted throughout the park.

Here is logan, Dimocarpus logan. Tastes nice too (oops).

Morus alba, also known as:

Mulberry.

M pointed out some YOG people were flying kites here.

This was my first time seeing nutmeg’s (Myristica fragrans) flowers.

Anacardium occidentale, the fruits famously known as cashew nuts. The sap of this plant is said to be very caustic.

We found a changeable lizard hunting in action, and it caught a grasshopper. You can see the legs still sticking out from the lizard’s mouth.

My first time seeing the female flowers of the oil palm, Elaeis guineensis too.

Here are its fruits, riped (left) and unriped (right).

This is a new plant for me. Flacourtia sp.

Here is a plant which looks like a Dillenia sp, from the corrugated cardboard like leaves. It has flaking bark. Wonder what this is. I wish they put ID boards for all the plants there so that it is easier for people (like me) to learn. Update: Dillenia indica.

Lots of fruits, but little shade. But guess it is NParks intention as seen in their website to let this park to have extensive lawns for people to play in. Guess when some of the trees grow taller, this will be a nice little fruity park.

Know 10 Street Trees stamp

2010-07-20T23:23:00.002+08:00

I just returned home and saw my prudential letter on my table (I wonder why they have to send so many). Besides that, I noticed that on the envelope, there were some stamps depicting common street trees which I found interesting.

A check at SingPost website showed that it had collaborated with NParks to let the public know more about our 10 most common street trees in Singapore. More information in the pdf here. For those who want the whole collection, it costs only S$2.60!

Spotted wood owl

2010-07-19T21:55:00.002+08:00

Got alerted by SD that DL and friends have seen a pair of spotted wood owl (Strix seloputo) nearby just after work. This species is supposed to be a rare resident, which according to the annotated checklist of the birds of Singapore, only have a population of 6-10.

I tagged along to have a look and they are really very cute! I was pretty amused to see one with the belly facing me but the head totally twisted 180 degree backwards. Soon, it turned back to face us and its eye-balls are damn huge~ :s

Interesting sighting~

Back in CCNR and wet again

2010-07-10T21:56:00.001+08:00

I had initially thought that the day was going to be hot and sunny, perfect for another day of exploration. Unfortunately, it started drizzling when we alighted from the cab and a torrential rain came soon after in minutes… The best was that I was dressed in sleeveless and did not brought any rain gear. Luckily PY have an umbrella for me while she wore her waterproof jacket.

And so, for the next miserable two hours or so, we walked in the rain (x3 worse than last week…), and unable to take out my camera to take photos. And I was also unable to bash into the swamp for fear of falling branches. Fortunately, the sky cleared while we were walking back and I was still able to capture some pictures along the trail.

Again, some pictures of interesting plants (to me) which were mostly alien to me. Appreciate any help in the ID once again.

A plant that looks seemingly like any other.

But it has cool large stipules.

A plant with nice branching. Update> Carallia brachiata.

A tree with crenulate leaves,

with small fruits that have random minute projections on the surface. Update> The leaves seem to match Elaeocarpus nitidus, but the fruits differ much in size from descriptions.

Here are two Ficus spp. that I have not seen before. One above~

And another standing beside it,

Here is the underside of that Ficus sp. Update> Probably Ficus variegata.

Here is another tree which have pinkish fruits that comes in threes.

A back view. Update: Glochidion lutescens.

After learning this plant, Pternandra echinata, last week, I managed to find its flower today.

A Clerodendrum probably laevifolium? Update> Clerodendrum deflexum.

A nice butterfly, Lexias pardalis dirteana, stopped by just in front of us.

A tree that look like an Anacardiaceae.

With the yet to open inflorescence at the tips. Update> Probably Campnosperma squamatum.

Here is a look at its habit.

This is one one really tall Pandanus sp! Update> Probably Pandanus artocarpus.

Among all the plants, this climber is what I wanted to know the ID most. Probably an Apocynaceae because of the opposite leaves and copious white sap. Update> I think this might be Willughbeia grandiflora.

Another climber with nice heart-shaped leaves. Update> Piper flavimarginatum.

I have not noticed this before, but now I realised that this Nepenthes gracilis is sprawling all over the ground!

A is a view of the Catchment when we were walking off. Because of the rain, the forest where we were in seems like a montane forest with all the fog~

Along Old Upper Thomson road, we saw this Long-tailed macaque dead on the sideway with clear tyre tracks on the mud. Hit and run?

Thanks to WF, CK and AL for the IDs.

Short walk at CCNR

2010-07-03T23:39:00.003+08:00

Despite the dark clouds above, PY and I still decided to go ahead since her bf and L are already on the way to meet us to today’s trip to CCNR.

Alas, all the plants were totally different from what I know thus far, besides the few common edge species. Appreciate if you can share if you know what are those below!

A plant with fruiting berries. Update> Urophyllum griffithinum

This is a plant from Moraceae family, and very hairy all over. Update> Ficus aurata

A plant with tri-veined leaves. Update> Ziziphus calophylla

Another tri-veined leaved plant with is narrower and with fruits. Update> Pternandra echinata

Here is another angle of it.

A seemingly common plant which I have not learn yet… Update> Macaranga heynei

Because of all the weird rain recently, this trail seems more flooded then usual.

I was just peeping into this curiously big tree from the trail and decided to investigate. Surprise surprise, after bashing in checking the fallen leaves, it is an Alstonia pneumatophora. Apparently it was the exact same tree T told me again after checking his email back home.

Near the tree, a cool spiny spider, probably Gasteracantha sp.

Near it, strangely shaped trunk or liana that wrapped around another tree high up. Wonder what this plant is. Update> Ficus sp.

Because of the swampy condition, many trees have slit roots or kneed roots like this above to breathe. Update> Myristica elliptica

Unfortunately, it poured pretty terribly right after this and we have to exit the canopy to the main trail to avoid any potential tree falls. I was the only one without umbrella and wore a weather proof jacket that was not water proof…

I wanted to reach this part where there was this tree with weird tombstone-like roots. Update> Lophopetalum multinervium

Went in again but couldn’t locate that particular tree which gave rise to the roots. However, we decided that it was probably one with a larger trunk then the else of them and because the trunk colour looked similar to the roots. I tried to take a picture of the canopy but only managed one since my camera is not weatherproof. You can see the rain drops above…

A climber of Melastomataceae, with hairy branches, petioles that extend to the main-veined. Update> Macrolenes echinulata

Lastly, another familiar plant which I have no idea… Update> Ampelocissus elegans

Thanks JL, VB and KY for the help in ID~

Another new cucumber to Singapore’s list

2010-06-23T20:10:00.001+08:00

KS have already blogged about this but I thought I will also do one just to feed my blog which I have been neglecting lately. :)

The pink spotted sea cucumber, seen quite for quite a awhile in our shores, finally have a name, Holothuria fuscocinera. Click on the picture above to access the article from Nature in Singapore, written by LN, KS and me.

I shall leave Ria, who will probably do a posting about this, to share the details.

Visit to Loyang Mangroves

2010-06-20T22:36:00.001+08:00

I decided to take a walk to Loyang Mangroves today since my router was spoilt and I can’t do any work at home.

Getting off the bus, I was pleasantly surprised to see the row of neatly cultivated roadside tree, Sterculia parvifolia fruiting!

This is a critically endangered plant in the forests of Singapore. Update >> I could be wrong in the ID… But at least its still Sterculia sp.~ ;p

I remembered the last time I went to Loyang mangroves was a painful walk from the Pasir Ris mangroves. Taking a look at Google Earth, I decided to try out a new route by walking in the canal which leads directly to my destination.

Occasionally, I ran up the canal to take a look at the vegetation. This a common climber, Flagellaria indica. The thicken stem is used as an inferior substitute for rattan.

As I neared the mangroves, more coastal plants start to appear. I was happy to capture a shot of the furry flowers of the sea lime, Ximenia americana;

And the sickle fruits of the common climber Dalbergia candenatensis.

Soon I reached the small mangrove patch in Loyang. Nice scenery~

Here is a lone Nipah palm stand. Looks like I have missed out this location in my NiS paper.

I went to check out the sole surviving Pisang Pisang, Kandelia candel. Seems to be doing well, though only with a few leaves.

Because of the tide, I had taken a detour to avoid getting wet. On my return trip, I notice this floating bridge and decided to try it out.

I have my doubts that such a thin rope can pull me over. But I was wrong! It went across smoothly! Fun~

And back to the canal. This time, I notice this monitoring device in the water. I wonder what it is used to measure.

How many species do we have now?

2010-06-09T00:31:00.001+08:00

KY had passed this to me quite a while back but I had forgotten to share this to everyone till now. Click on the picture to assess the website where the PDF can be downloaded. (The link to the PDF seems to be broken when I am typing this entry. Hopefully it will be restored soon.)

The State of Observed Species (SOS) gave a short report on our current (correct as of year 2008) number of described species in the world.

And here is a summary of the various taxa at a glance.