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Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Back to Alstonia penumatophora

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.

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

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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.

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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.

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

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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?

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

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

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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.

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

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

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This curious pandan has a super long drip tip!

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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).

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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. ^^

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