Mussaenda erythrophylla

Feels like a cherry blossom encounter. Just ahead, just that moment in time, after a heavy shower along Orchard Boulevard - a much more peaceful place than the mad car-and-people traffic along Orchard Road a few hundred meters away.

Saturday in the city, walking to the bus stop from Borders Bookshop with my bargain books.

Mussaenda erythrophylla

Hearts and stars
to remind me of the time
when I need to be strong
have hope and faith
in things not in my realm
of control but love holds
everything in place
and someday my heart will beat
to the twinkle of the stars

Mussaenda erythrophylla - Queen Sirikit

I remember seeing these shrubs as a child always from a distance in a moving car and have wondered about these lovely flowers. I don't see them so often nowadays except on this particular occasion when I spotted a row of these shrubs in bloom below a block of HDB flats. Curious I went closer to examine them and found to my pleasant surprise that what I had always thought were petals of flowers were actually bracts and the flowers are small but delightful in shape and colour.

Family : Rubiaceae

Origin: Tropical Asia and Africa