Trigger happy in my neighbourhood

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?

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

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

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.