Plant survey at Semakau

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!