Davallia denticulata - Johor/Rabbit's foot fern

The Plant
The Johor fern is often taken for granted in tropical Singapore - or rather, by me - as it's rather widely available, especially in floral arrangements and corsages.

I've come to pay more attention to it, recently, and appreciate it for its elegant and intricate form. The stem has an good strong arc about it. It's my subjective opinion, but I think it complements orchids especially well.

Also, known as the Rabbit's foot, for the way the root/stem looks. It's brown and furry. Either that or the pinate leaves make it look like a rabbit's foot print. Either that or it originated when some goddess planted an amputated rabbit's foot. :S

The Photo was taken in a garden corner at suntec. The fern was growing on a Phoenix roebelenii if I don't recall wrongly. In Johor, the fern would be growing on the oil palm trees.

If I'm not mistaken, they welcome the fern as it prevents insects from entering the palm and so on.

The personal-take
When I was working for my parents, I once took on an order for 10,000 pieces of johor ferns. It was quite scary to see the entire packing house turned green with the ferns. Quite a traumatic experience, that led to the loss of some money and an invaluable lesson learnt by me, and that hit a nerve-still-too-raw to broadcast across the internet.

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.

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).