beautiful

RED ALERT RED ALERT - INVADERS FROM PLANET ORDHIUM ARE ATTACKING EARTH!!!!




Ha. fooled you huh. they're orchids!


and i was at the botanic gardens' orchid walk on tuesday after my windsurfing course with MW, a friend from malaysia who was staying with me, and TC, a friend from my windsurfing course!


first up, for all u LOVERS out there: i have found the perfect place to express your love. remember in Shakespeare's 'As You Like It', where Orlando carves the name of Rosalind on trees?

O Rosalind! these trees shall be my books
And in their barks my thoughts I'll character;
That every eye which in this forest looks
Shall see thy virtue witness'd every where.
Run, run, Orlando; carve on every tree
The fair, the chaste and unexpressive she.

yup... shakespeare's romantic notions clearly still exist today!



ok... first up... we have.. *drumrolls* The Dancing Ladies (or 'golden shower' as they are more commonly called in Singapore). have a look at their perfect figures and fashionable sense of style (yellow is an outstanding colour of choice!)



also introducing.... *drumrolls* The Singaporean (orchid)!!!!!



This is a weeping orchid that we saw at the VIP garden of orchids (the VIP garden is where all the orchids are named after some famous person - like gloria arroyo or princess masako of japan or the late princess diana) - i don't recall seeing this named after someone, it was a Crying shame it wasn't named after anyone..




ok some information about orchids - the reason why they are able to thrive and survive in singapore is because they are hardy durable plants that are able to thrive in our hot climate. one interesting thing about orchids is that they photosynthesize at NIGHT (when the stomata of the leaves are closed- so they gain energy while preventing water loss) - another interesting thing is that some of their roots (the green coloured ones in the picture) are able to photosynthesize too!! :) aren't orchids awesome! :)




i'm going to attempt to explain the mechanics of pollination (probably inaccurately but nevermind). the tongue-like petal of the orchid allows insects to land on the orchid. as they have to nose around deeper to get the nectar from the orchid, their bodies brush agains the pollen cap and the pollen is carried to other places via the insects. the tiny white dot (the size of a fullstop) on the tongue-like petal is a pollen cap.




we also saw amazonian water lilies in a pond. now these lily pads, when fully grown, are 1.2Meters in diameter and capable of holding up to 4kg of weight! I think they have stiff thorns on their underside which lend support to the lily pads.




we also found out that the natives use the spikes of the nibung plant as darts for their blowpipes! wanna make some blowpipes anyone??



we also learnt that we can tell different types of ferns apart by looking at their spores - the way they are arranged and the position on the fern (some spores are found at the bottom of the fern, and some spores are found at the top!!)




did you know that mosses also have spores?? try to locate the spores on this patch of moss! (hint: they are small little white dots) -- these moss was found in the airconditioned orchid garden where temperatures are kept from 11-15degrees to create a temperate climate - we saw a variety of ferns, mosses and temperate pitcher plants there (couldn't find the venus fly trap though!)




this is the largest moss in the world




pitcher plants





of course, one of the weirdest insects we saw was a small little bug faced insect that secretes bad smelling oils that will leave ur clothes stinking for ages should you try to agitate/touch it. this one's a real gem - not fully grown yet though. ting ching says that when they are fully grown their 'human' features are more clearly defined.




so that's a little virtual story of the most wonderful time i EVER had in the singapore botanic gardens... and the thing that started it all was a little grasshopper we found along orchard road - it was inspiration for ting ching to offer to bring us around the botanic gardens. she used to be a nature guide - and she rocks!