Nature Walk Series - Bukit Timah Nature Reserve

Nature Walk Series

Bukit Timah Nature Reserve

9 April 2011

Highlight:

The trip got a good head start when I found 2 new plants within a span of 5 minutes. I had probably passed by them many times but failed to notice their existence due to their all-green appearance. Like in many other occasions, the plants attracted my attention due to their flowers.

The first one was Ixora finlaysoniana, having white flowers. I did notice it in my last trip in February because it had some withered flowers on the plant. But, I did not recognize it then.

The next one was a tree, Syzygium filiforme. It happened to have a flowering branch that was at eye level. I had seen the pictures of its flower many times and therefore was not too difficult to figure out its identity.

I came across a Croton species which I had deduced to be Croton oblongus due to its narrower leaves when compared to that of Croton griffithii. If not, the two species looked rather similar.

Its male flowers were positioned at the top end of the flower stalk.

There were quite a number of these dried flowers at one part of the trail. But there were too many tall trees around making it difficult to determine the origin of the flowers. However, they looked like the flowers of Monocarpia marginalis.

This thin, rounded winged seed was found on the forest floor at several locations likely to be due to its wind dispersion mode. No idea what plant it belongs to. [Update: Aspidopterys concava - a woody lianas]

Some interesting sighting on the animal front: (1) A juvenile snake popping its head out from a bush of Piper caninum. It sneaked away when I tried to get closer. (2) A swamp of hairy caterpillar, with orange head and light blue tail end, were taking cover underneath a leaf that looked like one from Pternandra echinata. (3) Another swamp of caterpillars that seemed to be able to weave silk around the leafless branches of their host plant. The leaf they were on was the last remaining leaf on the young plant.

A total of 5 new plants were seen and identified. Besides the three mentioned above, the other two were Gironniera parvifolia and Daemonorops grandis.

Photo Gallery:

Below are selected photos from this trip arranged according to the sequence that they were taken. There is a text link under the photo that will direct you to more photos of the same species if they are available in my website.