Saturday, January 23, 2010
Introducing Black Dillenia
Black Dillenia (http://blackdillenia.wordpress.com)
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Birds in the Neighbourhood
Most, if not all of us, have definitely seen or heard these birds; their calls punctuating the rhythm of our daily lives. While walking to school, it’s a one hundred percent guarantee that I surely will encounter Rock Pigeons (Columba livia). Whether perched on top of a lamp post or gathered in flocks (sometimes in the middle of a walkway when food has been thrown out), upon seeing them, my brain inadvertently screams ‘Avoid, avoid!’ for fear that I will be on the receiving end of their dive-bombing activity (read: pooping).
Birds, well, are birds, and they are just doing what they do best – being birds – albeit in the city. I have lived in the same neighbourhood for close to two decades, and until recently, my knowledge of birds was limited to crows, mynas, sparrows, pigeon and that unknown yellow bird (Black-naped Oriole). Airborne birds were relegated to the category of ‘those little black splotches flying high above’. It’s amazing to find that there are so many different kinds of birds living alongside us, after all. Most are shy and prefer to maintain their distance from people, so they may be heard (eg. Collared Kingfishers, Asian Koels, Gerygones), but not often seen unless one seeks them out. Of course, there are also chance encounters with our feathered friends…
…I was rushing for time; the bus was on its way. As I rounded a corner, something darted into the foliage of a Chiku tree (Manilkara zapota) with a lot of rustling. My curiosity got the better of me and I just had to look. To my utter surprise, I saw a *female Pink-necked Green Pigeon (Treron vernans) perched on a branch and eating the fruit. Wow! I was about a metre away and thus had a really good look. I’ve frequently encountered them in Kent Ridge but that was my very first time seeing it in my neighbourhood (after nearly twenty years…sigh). While fervently hoping that it wouldn’t fly away so quickly, I hurriedly got out my camera and managed to catch a few shots.
The pigeon continued to feed in such a manner for quite some time. It was a delight to watch :) though I can only hope that I wasn't disturbing its meal (the encounter occurred at around 4 pm...so I guess you can say that it was tea-time?). Too bad I didn't get a shot of the bitten fruit... I did walk around the tree to look at it though and saw that a quarter or more of it had been eaten. (In case you were wondering, I did catch the bus in the end but had to do a mad dash for it. Hehe.)
So what else can one spot in the neighbourhood? A short stroll around a park in the evening recently led to sightings of a Yellow-vented Bulbul (Picnonotus goiavier) and a tailorbird (probably a Common Tailorbird - Orthotomus sutorius). Check out gopalarathnam_v's photostream on flickr, as well as Ingo Waschkies gallery on PBase for amazing shots of the Common Tailorbird.
Here's a list of the birds that one can commonly see/hear in urbanised areas in Singapore:
1. House Crow (Corvus splendens) - not to be confused with the Large-billed Crow (C. macrorhynchus) which is native to Singapore
2. Javan Myna, also known as the White-vented Myna (Acridotheres javanicus) - another introduced species
3. Common Myna (A. tristis) - these are less abundant than their introduced counterparts, having faced competition for resources from them. These mynas have a reddish-brown body, unlike the largely black plumage of their relatives
4. Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus)
5. Rock Pigeon, also known as the Feral Pigeon (Columba livia)
6. Black-naped Oriole (Oriolus chinensis) - I always think of the song that goes "...yel-low bird, high up in the ba-na-na tree..." when I see them
7. Collared Kingfisher (Todirhamphus chloris) - look out for a streak of blue whizzing by!
8. Asian Koel (Eudynamys scolopacea)
9. Golden-bellied Gerygone (Gerygone sulphurea) - thanks LK for the ID! For many years I have listened to its wheezing call and never knew its source. See Paul Huang's photos of this shy bird.
10. Oriental Magpie Robin (Copsychus saularis)
Birds in the photos above (from top to bottom): Javan Myna, Little Tern (Sterna albifrons) and Pink-necked Green Pigeon.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
10 Fruit Trees of Pulau Ubin 200609
Rambutan - red and hairy (rambutan, derived from the Malay word rambut which means hairs)
Lychee - red and NOT hairy
Longan - brownish-yellow and NOT hairy
Rambutan trees grow in countries with tropical climates. They are evergreen ie. having leaves all year round. Some trees are dioecious while other are hermaphroditic.
The durian has long been nicknamed 'the king of fruits'. The ripe fruit has a pungent, distinctive smell and comes in multiple segments. The seeds, found in shallow recesses in each segment, are covered in a soft and custard-like flesh, ranging from cream white to yellow and even red, depending on the species. Apart from the smell, the other distinctive feature is, of course, the husk, which is very prickly. Wallace, a famous naturalist, apparently said that for one to appreciate durian, he or she has to eat it three times. I used to love eating durians back when I was a kid but have since assiduously tried to avoid them (though what possessed me to eat some on Saturday is beyond me...).
The picture above shows the main stalks of banana plants which grow from rhizomes underground. In due time (if not already), the terminal inflorescence will grow out from the top of the stalk, and bear fruit. Each stalk produces one huge flower cluster and then dies. New stalks then grow from the rhizome. In summary, the growth of one main stalk is as follows:
Rhizome (produces more than one shoot but most are cut back in order to allow energy to be channelled to fruiting of the main stalk) -> new shoot (typically called a sucker) -> large leaves -> terminal inflorescence -> fruiting (bunch o' bananas) -> main stalk dies -> cycles repeats itself (main stalk forms from a new sucker of the same rhizome)
I was really confused about the whole process of propagation until I chanced upon these sites which can be accessed here and here (good diagram showing the parts of a banana plant). This other website details how the popularity of bananas spread and explains an interesting phenomenon - negative geotropism - which banana plants exhibit.
Hope you aren't suffering from banana overload (like I was). Here are a few more interesting things:
i. fibres are obtained from the stalks which can be made into material (for clothes) and other items such as bags. The pic on the right is a close-up shot of a bag made from banana fibres. It was given out by the Filippino restaurant, 7017 Flavours, on their anniversary. The staff there wear uniforms made from the fibre too.
When crushed, the leaves of this tree give off, what else, but a guava-ish smell.
Coconut palms are often seen growing by the coast for they are dispersed by water. The fruit itself has a hollow cavity that is filled with a liquid commonly called coconut water. The air-filled space allows the fruit to float on the surface of water.
I can't help but think of the Coconut Crabs (Birgus latro) upon the mention of Coconut Palms. These crabs have been observed to crack open coconuts whether by using their chelipeds or climbing up a tree and subsequently dropping the fruit to crack it open. Read more about their behaviour here and here.
Here we go...
Another fruit with a pungent smell is the Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus). It is the largest tree borne fruit in the world. The leaves are oblong, oval, or elliptic in form, 4 to 6 inches in length, leathery, glossy, and deep green in color. Juvenile leaves are lobed. This tree is commonly planted in and around housing estates. It is closely related to the Cempedak (Artocarpus champeden). Currently, I am not able to differentiate the two... Both hail from the family Moraceae.
Photo taken from nunukphotos.com
I'm not sure which species of nutmeg (family Myristicaceae) the ones found at Pulau Ubin belong to, but if I needed to hazard a guess, it would be Myristica fragrans, which is a commercially viable species.
The seeds are dispersed by big birds (which have bigger beaks and able to swallow larger fruits) like Imperial Pigeons and hornbills. For germination to occur, the seed has to swallowed and passed through the gut of the bird. Only then can the astringent mace (lace-like covering) around the seed be removed. With the dwindling numbers of big birds in Singapore, the nutmeg is suffering.
Nutmeg is used in cooking and baking as a flavouring. The powdered form available in supermarkets is obtained from grating the seeds. The mace is also used. Both impart a similar flavour.
Quite a few of the fruits featured are heaty, such as the Rambutan, Durian, Jackfruit and Cacao. Starfruit is cooling.
To recap, here is a list of the 10 fruits featured:
1. Rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum)
2. Custard Apple (Annona squamosa)
3. Durian (Durio zibethinus)
4. Banana (Musa spp.)
5. Starfruit (Averrhoa carambola)
6. Guava (Psidium spp.)
7. Cacao (Theobroma cacao)
8. Coconut (Cocos nucifera)
9. Passion Fruit (Passiflora spp.)
10. Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus)
(Additional) 11. Nutmeg (Myristica fragrans)