Sulphur Alder

Turnera subulata (Tropical America)

This is a shrub that offers a profusion of flowers when it is in bloom. This is my flower to start the week on a fresh and simple note.

Red Tree Shrub

Leea rubra

This shrub is also found in Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. I saw this plant growing in a large pot along the corridor of a shop house in the Chinatown area in one of my wanderings amongst old buildings that have been designated as conservation structures. The next time I saw it was in the neighbourhood and subsequently I came across this shrub in the Botanic Gardens.

Pachira Aquatica

This flower reminds me of a shaving brush that I used to see in the Indian barber shops when I was a child. Shaving in those days was a more ritualistic affair then compared with shaving nowadays where the deed is performed in minutes using an electric shaver. I have seen this particular tree in the Botanic Gardens flower a few times and each time that I saw the flowers, I counted myself lucky.

Cannonball Tree

The first time I set eyes on this tree was in the Singapore Botanic Gardens many years ago. At that time the single row of about 4 - 5 trees were already very tall with the potential to reach 35 meters. What caught my attention then were the strange looking flowers and the fruits that were like cannonballs waiting to be plucked for a battle.

Couroupita guianensis

The flowers to some extent resemble sea anemones and have a kind of fragrance that made me wonder if one day we might have a perfume made from its crushed petals. The fruits take a year to ripen and it must be really hard for the tree to carry such weighty fruits for such a long duration.

This tree can be found also in our parks and I have seen them in West Coast Park, East Coast Park, as well as lining one part of the Pan Island Expressway. I've always been fascinated by the flowers and have taken many pictures of them. This tree is a native of South America and is common in the tropics.

Kumbah Tikus

Spathoglottis plicata

I came across this flower in a small park next to the Visitor Centre of the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. It was after a rain and you can see rain drops on the petals. The Malay name is Kumbah Tickus. Everything appears so alive after a shower. Perhaps that is why some of us at some point in our life feel that it might be good to just stand out in the rain and get totally drenched to get a new perpective on life.

Flame of the Forest

Delonix Regia

To see an entire tree in bloom is a rare sight in Singapore. I do not find these trees common here and if I ever see them, they are usually at a distance in some secondary forest that is out of reach. So I was pleasantly surprised to see a few of these trees with clusters of bright red flowers hanging just above my head in the grounds of a hotel in Pulau Langkawi in Malaysia. This tree originates in Madagascar.

Coffee flower

Coffea Liberica (Liberian Coffee, Tropical Africa)

It's that time of the day that makes me want to have a cup of coffee to see me through the rest of the day at work except that today I am at home to just take a break and laze around to enjoy a calm before a storm. This is the first time I have seen a coffee plant and the flowers are certainly a refreshing sight. Photographed this at the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

Yellow Saraca

Saraca cauliflora

Countries of origin of this unusual tree where the flowers grow from the trunk and branches: Indo-China, Java and Malaysia. I am always fascinated by the bunches of flowers that adorn the Yellow Saraca trees each time they flower. The picture above was taken at East Coast Park near McDonalds. I have also photographed them at the Botanic Gardens, Bukit Batok Park and a small park in my housing estate. The clusters of tiny flowers attract large bumble bees that flit from cluster to cluster.

Saraca tree taken near the Gazebo in the Botanic Gardens.

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Powderpuff plant

Calliandra emarginata

Originates from tropical America. Plant photographed in West Coast Park. The fruits remind of raspberries that were plucked off the bush next to a golf course in England. Never tasted anything like that because it was free from pesticides and was simply yummy. The powderpuff reference is obvious and needs no explanation. Reminds me of my kids when they were babies because I used to powder them with Johnson Baby Powder each time after I bathe them. I can still recall that feeling of babies fresh and clean. Hmmmmm :-)

Pride of India

Lagerstroemia Speciosa

Also known as Rose of India and Crepe Myrtle. There are many trees like these in our parks and I first took notice of this tree when I saw the beautiful clusters of flowers on the trees up on Kentridge Park. The more common colour is pink. I have seen clusters of pink and white flowers and this particular cluster is photographed in West Coast Park. It is rather unusual to find the Pride of India flowers of this colour and I have not seen many trees with blooms of this colour since then.

Yesterday I was at the Singapore Swimming Club to meet a friend who is a member there. After parking my car on the 4th storey I happened to see a few trees next to the pool and used my Olympus 10x zoom to capture these blooms. Just when I said I hardly saw flowers of this colour, I seem to be in luck all of a sudden.

Sea Grape

On Sunday, we went for a walk at Labrador Park with the kids to enjoy the sea breeze and the sun setting on the horizon. There were several Sea Grape trees in the later part of the flowering stage. The flowers were tiny and really pretty to look at.

Cocoloba uvifera

When the sea grapes form, they look like this.

This tree is native to South America, Florida and the Caribbean. Thanks to our National Parks Board, we have such a delightful variety of trees and plants from all over the world.

Golden Penda

Xanthostemon chrysanthus (Golden Penda)

I came across this small tree and many others in a housing estate and went crazy photographing them. Now these cheerful blooms are pretty common in Singapore in our parks as well as in open spaces. They have been introduced from Queensland, Australia in the early 1980s and have been found suitable for growth in our climate.

Weeping Bottle Brush tree

Callistemon viminilis

The flowers of the bottle brush tree make you think that it would be neat to have this tree growing outside your kitchen window. How handy to just reach out to get one of these whenever you need to wash some bottles. There are many species of this tree with flowers of varying colours. So far I have only seen trees that have white or crimson flowers. I think this picture shows a Weeping Bottlebrush because of the drooping leaves but can't really be sure. The bottlebrush tree is native to Australia.

Bat Lily

Tacca Integriflolia

This is the second time that I have seen this flower. The first time was in our Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. This picture was taken of a bloom that I found in the Bukit Batok Nature park. Seeing this flower fills me with wonder for it is rather rare to see flowers that are close to black in colour. It is also known as black lily to some and is found in the jungles of south-east Asia.

Angsana

Pterocarpus Indicus (also known as Burmese Rosewood)

There are many Angsana trees in Singapore that line our roads and that grow to towering heights. I have seen these trees flowering occasionally, usually when I am driving thus having no chance to photograph them except for this one time when I was crossing an overhead bridge and viola, finally I got to see the flowers at close range. Found in Malaysia, Philippines, Borneo, Burma and New Guinea.

Welcome to my blog on flowers

Sharing some of my digital photos of flowers taken over the past 5 years since the day I got my first digital camera, a 2 Megapixel Olympus C-200 Zoom. Two years ago, I switched to a 4 Megapixel Olympus C-750 that has a 10X zoom feature and saw the quality of my pictures improvely markedly. This blog enables me to display the results of my two interests - flowers and photography. All the flowers on this blog have been taken in parks and gardens and the names given are the common names as I only seek to share the beauty of flowers with others on this blog. Setting up this blog leads me to refer to the numerous books I have in my possession on plants, trees and flowers that I have bought over the years to feed my curiosity about them and it is a pleasant discovery that just the idea of a blog on flowers will result in my gaining greater knowledge about the flowers that I admire.