Nature Walk Series

Tree Top Walk Trail

17 February 2010

Highlight:

It was the begining of a 5 hours walk on the 4th day of Chinese New Year. This was the 4th time that I was on this trail over the years. As usual, I prefer not to come by during weekend or public holidays to avoid any crowd. Since the suspension bridge is narrow and I do want to take my time moving across plus taking some photos, I do not feel good when people are queuing behind me. Simiar to previous attempts, I had started off from the carpark at Venus Drive since it is the shortest route to the bridge.

There were quite a number of butterflies along the trail where I managed to take some shots (see below). I will not attempt to name them. You can visit the Butterfly Circle website if you are interest to know more about butterflies in Singapore.

I came across troops of well-organized caterpillars on the leaves of a Leea indica (Bandicoot Berry). The way they line up to feast reminded me of the troops movement of ancient time. No idea on who are the parent butterflies.

Besides the butterfiles and caterpillars, here were some of the insects seen. From left to right below: (1) An unusual insect that looked like a longhorn beetle but its neck region seems to be quite narrow and long compared to a typical longhorn beetle, (2) a robber fly, (3) an assasin bug feasting on a prey, and (4) the largest ant (Camponotus gigas) in our forest.

New plants added to my website from this trip:

Rothmannia macrophylla (Angel's Trumpet)
This is a wild Angel's Trumpet which differs from the cultivated version. I have seen the picture of this plant in the book "1001 Garden Plant in Singapore" for quite a while. This was one of the most exciting find for this trip. I do not know how long the flower lasts, but the flowers seen was definitely not newly bloom ones.

Champereia manillana (False Olive)
The one shown here was the only female plant seen with immature fruits. There were a copule of plants with male flowers. The plants seem to be in flowering season since a number of them were seen with flowers though located at different spot along the trail.

Hoya verticillata
This is the third Hoya plant in my website. It is a climber with thicken leaves that does not look attractive. However, their flowers are rather unique and this feature makes them an attractive plant. In fact, Hoya has a great number of fan with websites dedicated solely to it. I do have a pot of Hoya plant growing at the boucany at home.

Croton griffithii
The first time I saw this plant was in October 2009 at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve back in October 2009 but was not able to identify it then. The more commonly know croton plant, Croton tiglium (Croton-oil Plant), is sometimes cultivated for its medicinal value.

Photo Gallery:

These are selected photos from this trip. They are arranged according to the sequence that they were taken. For plant where more photos are available in my website, you will be able to click on the text link under the photo.