A Pair of Trees Full of Ferns

Oncosperma tigillaria - Nibong

The Plant
The Nibong palm has a nice name, no? Very catchy.
This palm originated from the mangrove swamps.
Researching about it in the older guidebooks, i suspect it was grown as an ornamental feature in parks and gardens - they're attractive in clumps. The newer guidebooks have excluded it. Perhaps their sharp spikes made them too hazardous?

The Pictures
Taken at Macritchie nature reserve.

The Personal-take
I most like how the sun shines from behind the spikes and make them look so quiet, exquisite and... fragile, ironically.
Whilst most plants with thorny parts are "defensive on the outside" but "soft on the inside", the Nibong is reported to have hard wood - used to support kelongs as it can withstand salt water.

Sky

...clouds are like the flora of the sky...

Dracaena Marginata

The Photo
In the photo, two varieties of the Dracaena, the red and green, are featured in the centre-piece of the landscape display. They complement each other's silhouette, while providing contrast in colour.

For the purpose of introducing colour, I find red-leafed plants a convenient substitute for flowering plants. While flowers do more than add colour to a garden design (for example, they also break up the monotony of foliage), red-leafed/variegated foliages may be more reliable for purposes of colour.

The Personal-take

I've always found the red-version's leaves fascinating and pretty, with its red, yellow, and green. It reminds me of a Hawaiian pizza... with some green capsicum.

The Plant

Dracaena marginata is a common landscape plant. It is also good for container gardens. I have seldom noticed them indoors, even though, like the other Dracaena varieties, they are supposedly good for cleaning the air. It is from Madagascar.

Bird's-Nest Fern

The Plant
The "Bird's-Nest Fern" is actually a common name to refer to several species of the plant group, Asplenium genus, such as the "crow's-nest fern" and the "wild-bird's-nest fern".

The Photos
Usually growing high in the trees (above), the bird's nest makes an interesting silhouette. The particular fern below, though, was at a nice (low) height for a top down photo.

The Personal-take

If you don't remember anything from our primary-school science text-book (i'm referring to those who were born in the 1970s-80s)... you must at least remember the bird's nest fern right... When I was young, I really thought birds made nests out of these things. Something like a pelican would need such big nests. Come to think about it, I don't know why birds don't make nests out of these convenient looking homes.

These days, I observed that bird's nest ferns can grow to quite big... While this makes them look more majestic and grand by themselves, I do wonder if they kind of steal the limelight away from the trees, instead of playing a more "complementary" role.

Although, really, who said that they were supposed to be complementary anyway.

Sky

I really, really like looking at the sky.

I've been thinking of how the layers of the clouds are like layers of leaves on trees or plants... or the layers of plant leaves are like the layers of clouds. Think about how the shape and details of clouds and plants changes when one passes them - as in, when one's perspectives change.

I ever came across the idea of how the sky is the last accessible nature to many of us city-dwellers. Working in the office... windowed or not, we're indoors most of the time... there's really not much chance to look at the sky... If you're lucky, you chance a glimpse in the morning, before you rush into work, or at lunch, or knock off early enough to see it for a while before going on a bus or train, before night falls...

I thought to include this "sky segment", where will try to publish a picture of a sky every Sunday, before the work week starts, to share my delight and humble appreciation. Hope you will enjoy it.

Sterculia Parviflora - Kelumpang Burong

The Picture... of a strange red thing

Came across this strange looking thing in a park in an estate.


The Plant & Personal-take

The plant is native to Singapore (from here to Northeast India). It was in the 2006 IUCN Red List for endangered species, so I guess it's good that they're planting it around. (Picture above shows a young plant, I think.)

Sterculia is taken from "Sterculius" (the god of manure) of Roman mythology. This is referring to the unpleasant aroma of the flowers of this genus.

This tree is a member of the mallow family (malvaceae) along with the hibiscus and durian. Staring at the red thing, which is actually a fruit (and not a flower as I first thought), I feel it does bear a strange resemblance to the hibiscus flower (in colour and contours?) and the durian fruit (as it too, splits up with weird seeds inside).

Oncidium Golden Wish - An introduction to this blog...

The Personal-take: An introduction to this blog...

Since I was little, my parents have been farming orchids. I naturally feel an affinity with orchids having practically grew up with them - befitting that I begin the blog with a post on this plant.

Being so close to nature since young, I never thought much about plants. As a kid, I dreaded the hours spent waiting for my father to finish his meetings at the botanical gardens. There were mosquitos and soggy grassfields... I'd rather spend the afternoons in the air-conditioned shopping-centres of Orchard Road. My home usually have a vase or two of flowers - those that were left-over from the sales - and they were no big deal to me.

Since I've entered the workforce a couple of years ago, farming white hair under the flourescent office light, learning the value of money and hard work, etc, etc, I understand now that I had been taking all that nature for granted.

To "pace" the monotony of office life, I bought a jade plant recently, and it lends me great joy to watch the little buds shoot... Really pretty high ROI (return of investments). I sometimes wish for some flowers in the office to look at when I'm tired of staring at the computer screens or lifeless exchange of administrative emails.

Plants and flowers do lend cheer... not just on valentine's or mother's day, but if we could just be aware of them, and appreciate how they just grow - they take in the water, the sunlight, and the nutrients in the soil - and just try their best to grow.

With these admirations in mind, I'm starting this blog. Hopefully, it will remind me to be more appreciative of the little things in life, and to try my best to grow. Also, I hope that it will remind you too.


The Plant

The Oncidium Golden Wish is a pretty typical oncidium orchid - golden yellow flowers with their delicate upper petals and a dominant lower lip - which catches the slightest breeze, causing the flowers to sway... the image of the dancing flower gives the oncidium its other name - the "dancing lady orchid" - imagine ladies with a large skirt sashaying her hips. Ladies of that size? (Each flower is about the size of a finger joint.) They must be fairies.


The Picture

The picture were taken at my parents' orchid nursery. (The picture above shows a young plant.) The golden wish is commercially grown for sale as a fresh-cut flower. It is also similar to the one-time commercially successful, Oncidium Golden Shower, but the Wish tends to be larger. The flower sprays also tends to be more three dimensional (branches in different directions), compared to the more neatly arranged golden shower that is more flat (like...a palm leave).