Cup fungus Cookeina

We came across this small colourful fungus a few times in the forests, always in very damp wood or logs. According to R.N. Weinstein, there are 7 species of Cookeina distributed in subtropical and tropical regions worldwide although a couple more have been since his paper in 2002.

This particular one, a dream for photographers, appeared to be C. sulcipes and is widely distributed in tropical Americas, Africa and Asia. It is an edible species and efforts are made to farm them as we speak. The spores are located inside the "cups" - or apothecium for purists - and are released in one go upon maturity. Someone actually counted that 3-24 million spores are released each time from an apothecium !

The colour can be variable - we found a paler variety shown below in Johore.

Things that go bumped in the jungle night ....

Shriveled and holey;  everything has an expiry date .... this one way passed ....

....and this rather prematurely .... overpowered by fungus. Yes, it used to be a living creature although it does not look like it - we will see a living specimen soon ....

....the translucent long-legged beasty on a high wire

.... a predator no less, despite its 3cm frame

... a burly bouncer sprang from its subterranean lair. This one really looked the part ....

This a a real find, believed to be the Singapore Bent-toe gecko Cyrtodactylus majulah first described in 2012. 

A small Phasmid.

The jungle cousin of our domestic pest.

The nymph of the Flatidae plant hopper - a live one this time.

A colony of the quivering nymphs.

The curious bloom of Pterisanthes - a grape relative.

 ......  now to bed, and sweet dreams

Bulbophyllum sinapsis

A rather uncommon orchid from the paradise of PNG. This is a slow growing one which is vegetatively rather similar to the related B. micranthum. The bloom, as you can see,  is such a work of art. 

The leaf litter plant

Just like tank forming Bromeliads of the New World and Bird Nest ferns (Asplenium) in our back yard, the leaf-litter plant or (Agrostistachys borneensis) traps fallen leaves and debris at its rosette crown and absorbs the nutrients after their decomposition.

This is a common and rather untidy small tree from the forests of SE Asia. It is a member of the Euphorbia family.