Durio ziberthinus - Durian Tree

I pass by this huge durian tree every day and most part of the year it is just a large, leafy tree. But at least twice a year, the branches will sprout bunches and bunches of flowers and that would get everyone in the neighbourhood very excited in anticipation of the fruits.

I noticed the flowers on the tree about 3 days ago and that was when they were all in the flowering stage. Then time flew by and I did not get a chance to take a closer look until today. Most of the flowers have become small oval-shaped fruits and the flowers that remained were droopy and no longer looked in their prime.

Nevertheless, it was better to have captured this photo and several others for in a few weeks, the fruits will drop one by one leaving only clusters of two or tree spiky durians hanging on till they ripen. We were told that ripe durians do not fall to the ground in the day time so as not to cause injury to people under it, assuming that no one ventures out in the night to sit under its expansive crown. Anyway, the durians grow to a good size every time but they mysteriously disappeared after that. Since this durian tree belongs to no one as it stands on government land I am sure that there are people who wait for a time like this when the tree attracts us with such abundance and then watch it for the next few weeks to decide when they could go and enjoy the fruits of its labour.