Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Gmelina dalrympleana - Grey Teak

It was a Sunday morning stroll around the Tanjong Pagar area after breakfast at Maxwell Food Centre. The original plan was to visit the Red Dot Museum but the plan changed in favour of walking outdoors. It was a good decision to do so because walking towards Tanjong Pagar from the Red Dot Museum, we came across a few medium-sized trees bearing fruits that looked like bunches of grapes from afar and when you get closer, you see that they look more like cherries.
Family: Verbenaceae
Common name: Dalrymple's White Beech, Grey Teak
Origin: New Gujinea, Tropical Australia
Within a bunch you could see buds, flowers and fruits of different ages. It was amazing! We were just wondering why these fruits did not attract any birds. Could they be poisonous?

I was not able to identify this tree initially because I had missed seeing it in the '1001 Garden Plants in Singapore'. It was only later when I was looking through the book for photos of another plant that I saw it. So, finally, this tree has a name on this post.

4 comments:

slurp! said...

well, i sure hope those are coffee plants. :)

Mableinsingapore said...

If only that can be confirmed ;-)

Mei said...

Hi Mabel,
That looks like some berries, how you posted the question on the Green Culture Spore website?

Mableinsingapore said...

Thanks Mei for the suggestion. Will give it a try. Cheers!