Singapore Botanic Gardens

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).