Erycibe tomentosa - A Woody Climber

Despite the cloudy weather this morning, I decided to go to the park for a walk. While walking along a path, I noticed a strong scent that smell like that from Jasmine flowers. A few minutes later, the mystery was solved --- the scent came from the flowers of Erycibe tomentosa, a common woody climber.

The sepals of the flower are dark brown at the part toward the tip. The flowers bloom at night and usually withered by early morning. The cool morning temperature today probably help to extend the life span of the flowers a little, thus allowing me to take their pictures.

Although it is a common climber in parks, especially though with remnant of natural vegetation, it rarely attract attention as its leaves are pretty much like any of the surrounding plants and it seldom flowers or bear fruits under the shade of tall trees.

A way of identifying the climber is to look at the tip of the branch where the young leaves appear. This tip has an orange-brown appearance and is cover with tiny hairs.

I had identified this climber at least 2 years back and since then, was actively looking for its flower and fruit. The first breakthrough came in August 2011 where I found some flower buds at this same park. I return a week later in a morning but could only find a lone flower while the rest had withered. Back then, I did not notice the scent from the flower.

While I was eagerly waiting for its fruits, a storm took place one night and brought down the tree where the climber was hanging on. This created a mess across the track. Fortunately, the cleaning up of the mess did not remove all the climbers. Eventually, in October, I get to see the lovely fruits.

With that, I now have the complete set of pictures from leaves, flowers to fruits. The new thing that I learn today is the unique and strong scent from its flowers.