Malayan Mistletoe and Caterpillars

This afternoon, while I was doing my routine round at the park, I spotted a Crepe Myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica) with a Malayan Mistletoe (Dendrophthoe pentandra) sitting on one of its branches.

While scanning the mistletoe, I saw a lump of material underneath one of the leaves that looked like bird dropping. I suspected that it could be a caterpillar since the leaf at one end had been eaten away. Later, I did confirm that it is the caterpillar of the Peacock Royal (Tajuria cippus maxentius).

With this find, I started to search more thoroughly to see whether there were more of the caterpillars. Indeed, there were more except that this newly discovered group of caterpillars were not of the same species as the one above. They belong to the butterfly, Painted Jezebel (Delias hyparete metarete).

Both the caterpillars of Peacock Royal and Painted Jezebel are known to feed on this mistletoe. While searching for caterpillars, I also found more mistletoe on this Crepe Myrtle shrub.

There were at least 10 or more mistletoe but most of them were seedlings. This one had just started to germinate on one of the branches. [Update: This was not the seedling of Malayan Mistletoe but another mistletoe known as Common Chinese Mistletoe (Macrosolen cochinchinensis).]

Besides this lone Crepe Myrtle shrub, this mistletoe had also invaded quite a few of the Penang Sloe (Kopsia flavida) trees in the park. One of the trees was so heavily infested that none of the leaf from the host plant was left. These were some of the mistletoe flowers seen on the tree.

If you are interested to read more about mistletoe in Singapore, there is a book titled "The Singapore Mistletoe Story" written by Francis Lim.

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.

Persian Violet - Exacum affine

Finally, I seem to find a nice-looking flowering plant that is able to naturalise at my balcony garden. I have been trying to find herbaceous plant that bear nice flowers and are able to continue its generations at my little balcony garden with little care from me.

Persian Violet (Exacum affine) appears to be the answer. The light purple flower is about 1.5 cm in diameter.

The parent plant was obtained from a nursery in March 2011. Persian Violet is native to the Island of Socotra, a Yemen archipelago in the Indian Ocean. It is a rather common horticulture plant.

It adapted very well at its new home. By May 2011, it has almost tripled its size with plenty of purple flowers.

When in full bloom, the whole plant looks spectacular with the small violet flowers.

When the plant started to age, I thought that it would follow the course of most of the exotic plants that I brought back --- become history after the last leaf turns brown. In July 2011, I noticed the first seedling growing in the pot next to the mother plant. It even had a tiny flower bud.

Two months later, the young plant has at least 8 flowers on it. This probably means that the second generation is adapting well to the condition. My balcony has half a day of sunlight in the morning and the soil in the pot is usually moist most of the time.

At the same time, I started to discover more seedlings in a nearby pot, at least more than 10 of them. The seeds must be really small as I had never seen them on the parent plant.

Although it is reported to be a biennial, it only lasted about 6 months. Either the condition at the balcony is too harsh or the soil texture did not suit its taste .In the last few months, I have been spreading the seedlings around. This picture, taken today, is from one of the healthy seedlings.

Interestingly, there is not a single seedling under the parent plant. The seedlings are only found on the pots next to the parent plant.

Let's see how far the next generations can last. [Update: The last plant was seen in March 2013. It soon succumbed to the attack of the mealy bugs. This ended my journey with this plant.]

Flowering at My Balcony Garden

It has been a year since I last posted something on this blog. I have not being idling but rather have been focusing my leftover energy on my website.

Let me start 2012, though 90 days have gone, by sharing some plants that are flowering at my little balcony garden.

This bamboo-like plant has been a resident here since July 2009. It is commonly called Lucky Bamboo (Dracaena surculosa) but the fact is that it is not a bamboo. It has started to flower again in January with 3 of these drooping flower stalks around the plant.

 By early February, the flowers bloomed and it was over in a day. The flowering usually takes place in the evening and by the next morning, they withered.

The other plant that started blooming is hoya (Hoya pachyclada). It is another plant that has been with me for quite a while, since July 2009. When it first arrived, there were 4 branches. Now, there is only one last branch left.

The bloom can last at least 3 days. This particular species emits a fragrant smell but you need to get you nose close to the flowers. The liquid droplets seen on the flower are not water. They are released by the flowers and have a sweet taste. The fascination of this plant has led me to do a write up of my hoya experience in my website.

Coming up next is a weed (Polygala paniculata) with tiny white flowers growing on stalks. Each flower is about 1 to 2 millimetre in length which is really small.  It has an interesting common name, root beer plant. I just read that its root has a root beer smell.

I did not actually grow this plant. The first plant appeared out of the soil one day and I decided to let nature takes it course. The seeds or fruits are even smaller than the flowers.

That will be all for today.