Clappertonia ficifolia - Bolo bolo

Flower to commemorate the election of the

first black President of the United States of America.

Origin: Tropical Africa

Clappertonia ficifolia - Bolo bolo

These are photos of the bolo bolo plant taken on two separate occasions at the Singapore Botanic Gardens. I tried to look for more information about this plant and could not find any interesting information although a plant that has flowers and fruits that look like these must come with an exotic past and a host of uses, I had imagined. I imagined wrong. Anyway, I started out to select photos that I thought I could improve upon, did some cropping , adjustment of brightness, contrast and tone before uploading them. I wanted to do some self-critique here, only that I got side-tracked into looking for more information. So here goes...

Clappertonia ficifolia, Honckenya ficifolia
Bolo Bolo
Tiliaceae
Tropical Africa

I did a reasonable good job given that I used a point-and-shoot camera with auto settings all the way. I like the presence of the spiky fruit that made the background less flat.

Blurred image but I like the angle.
Another blurred image that I could not salvage. It's here because I thought that the formation of the stamens and pistils was quite orderly.
Slightly better image than the one before. I like how the curves of the petals set off the exuberance of the centre piece.
This flower and the pictures below were taken on another day. There were a few insects hovering over the flower as I was taking these few shots. The yellow leaf in the background complements the colour of the flower.
I wish I could have gone closer to the flower, if only I had a more sophisticated camera then.
Not a very sharp image. I guess it looks interesting enough because the slight blurring takes away the harshness of the 'spikes'.
Buds and fruits, young and mature - the intention was to show diversity in just one plant.
Two where only one would suffice as they look almost the same. I wanted to 'freeze' the insect flying around the flower.
It decided to fly away for good leaving me with the profile of the flower against the strong mornig sun.
Flowers and fruits - enjoy!




Now this was one photo I enjoyed 'doctoring'. No sophisticated software involved, just Microsoft picture manager to do the basics.

Sayonara!