What have you been doing ....

So, what have you been doing for the past year ?

Were you just minding your own front yard....

trying to blend in, hoping not to be seen....

Or were you all out to make a scene ?

Did you take your ticket and outgrew the rest....

  

Or dried up and cracked under duress ?

 

Morphed to fly through the skies unlimited....

 

 

Or grounded with the load inherited ?

What have you been doing for the past year ?

And what would you wish to do thereafter ?

Amorphophallus from Samar - unidentified

A few months before Typhoon Haiyan devasted Samar Island in the Phillippines, we discovered this solitary Amorphophallus growing at a logging trail.

The flower has aged so the bottom (female) and the mid (male) flowers cannot be clearly seen. However, the unusual knobby appendix (that's the sterile flower at the top of the spadix) and the overall colouration of the bloom does not seem to resemble anything known yet. I would not be surprise if its a species nova since this part of the world is still little explored.

Malaysian Begonias - limited and regular pressings

I had the pleasure of doing some botanising in the jungles of Peninsula Malaysia recently where I encountered some interesting Begonias. 2 of them are those that you would often expect to see in the jungle here, while the other 2 are rare and restricted in their distribution. 

 

Right up in the northern state of Kedah, there is a small little plant growing on precipitous sandstone slopes that Ruth Kiew called "Shilling Begonia". Its latin name is Begonia sibthorpiodes -  attributed to its likeness to the pennywort-  Sibthorpia.  It had very small leaves (1-2 cm diameter) and was growing on a misty vertical cliff about 15-20 m from me so if it had not been for the relatively large pink flowers, I would have dismissed it completely.

Other than being very small, it is also very rare. It has only been recorded growing on the summit of 2 mountains in Kedah, at the altitude of 700 - 1200m.

Not far from the same cliff, a population of Begonia sinuata var sinuata was growing under the shade of the bushes.  This is one of the most common Begonia here and also has a wide distribution througout SE Asia.  This plant is ephemeral and will die after 1 growing season, after setting plenty of seeds.

Way down at the southernmost state of Johore : 2 hours on tarred road (from Singapore), 1 hour of 4X4 and yet another hour of an ascending jungle track by foot took us to the locality of the only remaining habitat of the beautiful  Begonia rajah. 

This plant was discovered in 1890s where specimens from Trengganu were brought to UK from which all of the plants in the horticulture trade descended from. Although cultivated plants are readily available, the wild plants were supposedly extinct as no specimens were ever seen again.

In 2002, the plant was rediscovered at a remote location in Johore, about 300 km from its last known locality ! As you can see, not only is this plant very rare (at least in the wild), it is also very pretty, which explains its popularity amongst the hobbyists.

 

The plants we saw were growing on steep rocks close to the stream or adjacent to or even on cascades and waterfalls.This is not an easy condition to replicate in cultivation, which explains why many growers find them difficult.

 

 

Under this optimal conditions, some of the plants became quite large, certainly much larger than those I saw in cultivation ....

Along the muddy paths further away from the stream, we saw plenty of this errect Begonia barbellata, a common plant in undisturbed forests throughout S. Thailand and eastern side of Peninsula Malaysia. This plant is attractive due to its red hairy stem and pink flowers but like many Begonias here, its not easy to grow. 

 

This one is growing with some cup fungus .....

Monsoon season in Langkawi

It was the rainy season so the much touted beaches in the Malaysian island of Langkawi were not at their best. No matter, I had come to shoot some wildlife and had more than what I had bargained for ....

I had made a few sightings of colugos in Singapore but this is the first time I saw so many on a day - sometimes on the same tree ! This is my favourite family of colugos which greeted me over a three days spell.

 

Due to a very heavy storm the previous night, many colugos congregate on a few big trees. Judging from its bulging patagium, the one at the top could be a female with a young nestled inside .... 

I scrutinsed the tree trunks during the night hoping to catch a glimpse of them gliding, but alas, due to the rain, this is what they did instead..... Its a very interesting posture and one which I have not seen  from this angle before.

 

and in the early morning, just when we were about to have breakfast, we saw this adorable juvenile napping ....

Another iconic wildlife - the hornbill. There are at least two species on the island, the larger Rhinocerous hornbill and this - the more common Southern Pied Hornbill which I sighted on different days.

In the early morning, a colony of them was having a noisy quarrel in the dense shrubs before flying high onto a tall tree to preen.

I was also at liberty to get really close to some dusky leaf monkeys. In Singapore, leaf monkeys are very shy. Granted, that was a different species but being closely related, I was expecting the same behaviour. However, it seems they were pretty nonchalent about humans watching them here.

 

Unlike the macaques that we often see, this species is a strict vegetarian - as you may tell from its common name.  They also have very distinctive white patches around the eye and mouth. 

 

Near the beach, a solitary male allowed me to get within touching distance and was happily munching the leaves of sea hibiscus Talipariti tiliaceum . Actually, this species is not picky about food they eat and have been known to consume 90 plus species of plants.

Other than the cheaper hotel rates and lesser crowds, the added advantage of the rainy season is catching the Tempuron Falls at its full roaring glory.

Signing off....cheers !

Are you flying or falling ?

I am not here
You don't see me
I am nothing
.... and nothing's perfect !

The local flying lizard (Draco volans) uncharacteristically landing on the ground.

Amorphophallus elatus

This is a smallish species is found in dry lowland slopes of Northern Peninsula Malaysia and Peninsula Thailand. It is very variable in vegetative appearance especially in the pattern of the petiole which may be plain green to intricate streaks of chestnut, black and cream .....

Henry Nicholas Ridley, the botanist credited with introducing rubber to this part of the world, once thought that this species was the same as A. variabilis from Indonesia. Its distinguishing feature - the elongated tuber, was thought to be the result of being confined between limestone cracks and crevices. As you can see from the habitat photo below, the plant is not necessary restricted to the limestone cliff but the tubers are characteristically long nonetheless. As they age, the tubers will extend deeper and deeper into ground and they are really hard to dig up without being broken in pieces. 

The unimpressive looking inflorescence is supposed to have a strong cheesy smell of isocaproic acid but yet again, I have failed to detect any.

It is quite easy to grow but need a deep container for its long tuber to lengthen.

Unknown Bulbophyllum

Any idea what this Indonesian species may be ?

Yellow swan Impatiens

....what did I tell you, its a yellow swan .....

A shrubby Impatiens from Indochina that grows up to about a metre tall. It has bullated leaves arranged in a circular whorl.  Probably affiliated to Impatiens claviger / parviflora group but has a rather short spur. This group is found in the cooler northern Vietnam and south Yunnan/GuangXi area of China.

This plant is very floriferous and grows surprising well in our tropical climate. However, it needs very high humidity, otherwise the leaves will droop and become flaccid.

As of now, I have no clue what-so-ever of its identity. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Glorious Hoya waymaniae

... But soft, what light through yonder shade cloth breaks?
It is the east, and Wayman is the sun

Images of Hoya waymaniae, captured on a rather gloomy afternoon. Everything about this rather slow grower is unusual - the thick, cryptic, slightly felty leaves and the bright yellow bloom with protruding coronas. The long peduncle of this species isolate the umbels from the leaves and allow me more flexibility to manipulate the light and accentuate the three dimensionality of the bloom.

Here's a little more of my self-indulgence ....