Lagerstroemia indica (Crepe Myrtle)

Crepe paper flowers? No they are real. Once in a while you see them at the Singapore Botanic Gardens, a small shrub near the carp pond at the entrance of the Singapore Botanic Garden.

Flowers - simple to complex

When I first drew a flower as a child, the flower looked like this Kopsia flavida flower. My flowers always had 5 simple petals that are either round or oval in shape no matter how many times I drew them.

But in my child's limited view, I could not have drawn them to look like the flowers of the Ruellia brittoniana (Desert Petunia).

Like life, there is so much variety amongst flowers. Other than the shape of the petals, some flowers have distinctive features like the flower of the Strophanthus gratus(Climbing Oleander).When I first saw the flowers I thought that they must have come from some exotic land like Africa and I was right.

What I could not stop to marvel at is how the flowers of the Lagerstroemia indica (Crepe Myrtle) from Japan and China reached this level of sophistication where the flowers are many times removed from the basic form of the Kopsia flavida.

Finally, what more is there to say about the flowers of the Torch ginger - Etlingera elatior 'pink' here except that it impresses through sheer size and quantity of petals.

Lagerstroemia indica var. alba - Crepe Myrtle

The lack of colour in this flower is made up for by the interesting form it takes. Wavy petals all crinkled up probably gave it its common name - 'Crepe Myrtle'.

Burst of flowers

They say blogging is addictive. I agree. I have no time to look up the name of these exuberant blooms currently at the prime of their lives at Lower Peirce Reservoir but I was dying to put it up on this blog. So I thought I would just put this one picture and if a kind soul could enlighten me on the identity of this flower it would surely save me some precious effort in ploughing through my books. I promise to upload more photos of this flower to show how I went wild with my camera when I chanced upon these flowers, most of which were taken with the right hand in control of the camera and the left hand holding my handphone to my ear as I chatted with a friend who happened to call at that time. I have never enjoyed multitasking so much before, never mind what the joggers and other park visitors thought of me. I only hope that after I left, they would take an interest in these lovely flowers if only because someone else (like me) found them refreshingly beautiful against the backdrop of the Lower Peirce Reservoir.