Hort Park

This trip is the shortest of all the trips I took. It is only 1.48 KM but it took me 2 hr 22 minutes to walk through it. The reason is that there are a vast variety of plant species available here. It is the reason why this trip is not in my blog after 19 days. I had a hard time finding the name of the plants even though many of it already have tags on it by NParks.

This trip is actually an aborted trip. The original plan is to walk from Hort Park to Kent Ridge. I tried twice and failed to start due to heavy rain. I tried it the third time and both my camera and handphone run out of juice due to the huge number of pictures taken. I had to abort the trip at the end of Hort Park. It is a badly prepared trip.

I went a fourth time to take more pictures just on the park itself. The result is that there are over 560 pictures and I counted about 150 species captured in the photos. To tell you the truth. All photos on the fourth trip has no GPS info as I did not bring my HTC along. Just my luck trying to take pictures here. One more bad luck is when I try to put this in FB "Places", it failed repeatedly. Finally, I gave up and just post a picture with the link to this blog.

Since the trip is short and the pictures are plenty. I will only show some of the nicest plants. You could go to the Picasa Album to see the full list.

This is a Split Leaf Philodendron. The holes in it are natural. This plant is outside Hort Park. It is taken along Alexandra Rd.

This Micky Mouse Plant is also taken along Alexandra Rd. It has a cute name due to its fruit.

This Red Flowering Banana looked more like a Ginger plant. Both Ginger and this plant actually belongs to the same Zingibrales order.

This White-flowered Golden Plum looks very unique.

This is another specie of the Shrimp plant. I prefer the white variety. They looked nicer.

This Shrubby White Vein don't look like a real leaf.

This Kelulut Tanjong Plant is very nice.

This Bamboo Orchid is so nice that I took a picture of it three times without realizing.

Hidden at a corner of the park is this Rattle Snake plant.

This Corkscrew plant is right at the roadside before the main building of the park.

The African Spiral Flag is a nice flower but just don't know why is it named like that.

Torch Ginger is supposed to be red, this pink specie also looked nice. The leaf behind it is actually a Calathea.

Finally took a picture of this nice Green Aralia. Previous trips failed to take a good picture of it.

Don't miss this Crown Flower if you happen to be in the park.

Indian Heliotrop is a small but unique looking flower. Its flower forms an arc.

This Red Silk Ork is just awesome.

The Costos Osae is a nice plant but it does not have a common name.

I took a large number of pictures on this Water Canna flower but each time I had to delete it due to it being blurred. I finally have a chance to take a sharp picture of this plant using flash. Its size is smaller than a 5 cent coin.

This Ulam Rajah is a nice flower. Its not a sharp picture.

Finally found the White Powderpuff flower. The red specie is nice but I super like the white one.

This Yellow Peanut Plant is small but when it blooms in a large area, it is simply nice to look at.

This Butterfly Bush looks nice. I just don't know why it gets its common name like that.

This Philipine Violet is actually white color.

The Rice Button Aster is at the end of the park where I abandoned the trip.

The Pride of Barbedos plant has a number of variety. This all yellow specie looks plain but is very nice.

Cape Leadword is a nice flower plant.

The Trinanad Pink Trumpet Plant is nice when you take a close look.

The Roselle flower bud is actually sold in the market. I saw it in the market but could not name it till now. It is actually a Hibiscus.

Another of my favorite is the White Butterfly Pea flower.

Another nice flower is Orange Marigold.

The Brinjal flower always looks down. I have to tilt my camera at an angle to capture it.

Another nice but funny named flower is this Bolo Bolo.

Blood Flower don't look like one to me but is still nice to look at.

The Thailand Powerpuff is not so nice as the common PowderPuff but is still quite unique.

Seldom do I see a Red Passion Flower. The more common one is purple color.

The Lobster Claw Plant look like a lobster claw?

This Ixora Dwarf Flower looks very nice when enlarged.

This Archer's Hibiscus simply rocks.

Don't miss this Fairy Lily.

There are other plants that I have captured in the Hort Park to Kent Ridge trip. That trip's blog is also pending as I have quite a number of plants still unidentified.

The WikiLoc map is not necessary as it is just around a park.

The full Picasa Album is here.

Farrer Park to Sommerset

This is a walking trip from Farrer Park MRT to Somerset MRT. From the map it looked like there are quite a number of parks.

The trip originated at Farrer Park MRT. The original plan is to walk from the MRT to City Square where the New World Eco green is. On reaching, I realize that  I could walk through the exit "I" to reach it directly. Thus the actual route starts at City Square.

The Eco Green is just a small garden with some plants in it. There is nothing interesting except maybe the Blue Butterfly bush.

The route then goes through Race Course Rd, I was hoping to find some plants there but it yields nothing except the White Trumpet Tree. This particular tree branch is low enough to take a picture on it. This tree is very common but most of it is too high to take picture. I am lucky that this one is low enough and have flower.

The plan is to cross Bukit Timah to Mt Emily Park. Instead of crossing via the Little India MRT passage way, I end up going the long way via Serangoon Rd and back. Then I was caught by the heavy rain near the Little India exit point on the other side of Bukit Timah Rd. It is luck that I took the long way otherwise I have no where to hide from the rain.

As the heavy rain subsides and I though I could proceed. It started to rain heavy again when I reach the heavy vehicle car park at Mackenzie Rd. There is no time to search for a passage way to Mt Emily Park. I took the nearest dirt track up the hill onto Mt Emily Rd and subsequently enter Mt Emily Park. This park has plenty of tree but no shrubs. Since it rained quite heavy now, I have no choice but to go directly across the park and stop at the only shelter there near Upper WiIlkie Rd. No picture is available in this park.

The rain again subsides and I continue. Just barely 50 meters down the road, the rain starts to go heavy again. Just not my day. Luckily there is nothing worth taking picture along the way. In a hurry, I took the wrong turn and end up in SMU. While trying to get back to the original route, I end up going through the SMU then Museum before turning back to Orchard Rd. Again it is a wasted effort walking in the rain as there is no interesting plant to take picture with.

Walking through Dhoby Ghout Park and Istana Park, there are some flowering plants. Unfortunately, they are already in my picture collection. Surely I don't want to get my equipment wet just to take pictures of them.

I then found a park that is not a park but there is a name for it. It is called "Penang Road Open Space". I wonder why there is a name for an open space that looked like a park. Again there are no interesting plants to take picture with in this park. Moreover, I passed it in a hurry as the pestering rain gets heavy again.

Took the wrong path again and had to turn back and hide at Winstand House to avoid the heavy rain again. The Scape Skat Park is just opposite the road. After a while the rain is not so heavy so proceeded into the park. Took a picture of this Good Luck Plant with nice red border. I could have chosen a better looking one but the rain keeps dropping thus just take a picture of it and get over with it.

The Sommerset MRT entrance is just beside this park. On checking myself, I realize that I am only half wet. Not bad for walking this far in the rain. I just need to hide in a corner of the train where the aircon does not blow at me directly and I can get home without catching cold.

The original route is just slightly more than 4 KM. The actual distance covered is 2 KM more. On Endomondo it showed that I walked 8 KM.

The wikiLoc route map is here.

The Picasa album has only 9 pictures thus not worth showing. You can see almost all the pictures in WikiLoc map.

Serangoon Hougang Park Tour

This blog is way over due. I was too caught up with Hort Park's 600 plus pictures that I have not been actively focusing on finding the plants in this trip.

This trip covers a number of parks in Serangoon and Hougang Area. The original aim is to visit the Japanese Cemetry in Serangoon. However, it is way too small to pay a special visit. Thus I looked up for parks in the area and plotted a cycling path that covers most of it.

The first park is near Block 622 Hougang Ave 8. I can't find its name. It starts to drizzle a bit thus there is hardly any people around. It is a nice and small park. The only flower worthy of note is a Shower of Gold Climber. This plant is very common in Singapore. It is the only picture on this park.

Cutting across it and exit on the other side, the next park is the Punggol Park. Although I have passed it many times, I have not visited it to take pictures.

The first plant is the Fern Tree. Its pictures are quite blurred due to the dim light and auto exposure setting of my hand phone.

There is nothing much on the east side of the park/lake. I was thinking this could be a wasted visit. Thus I looked for common plants to take picture. This tree hugging fern is very common. Its scientific name is Pyrrosia longifolia.

The next tree is the Golden Shower Tree. There is no flower but its fruit attracts my eye.

At last I found a flowering tree, the Golden Chain Tree, It is in full bloom.

This Butterfly Pea Tree is one plant that I cannot find in the few web sites I have. I tried to simply describe the flower in the Google search and it turned out to be this plant.

One weird plant is this Pencil Tree. Its leaves are really pencil thin.

This Wild Water Plum's seed pod looks like a tuning fork.

Moving on to the next park, I reached Hougang Neighborhood Park. There is nothing on it that attracts my eye. Some how, I missed the Evergreen Park in my map plotting. It is so near yet so far.

Going down Serangoon Rd, I reached the Hougang Ave 1 Park. It is also void of any interesting plant. The next destination is the Jalan Pelikat PC nearby. This is a lonely PC that is not connected to others. Here I met a fellow member of Silver Hair Club. Had a chat with him before proceeding my way.

Half way through the Jalan Pelikat PC, I made a detour to the Surin Ave Neighborhood Park. This is a nice smelling park. I loved the light fragance smell. It probably come from this Champaka tree.

On turning back to Jalan Pelikat PC, I some how missed the Maplewood Park. It is just beside the PC across the drain. I just hope that there is no nice plant that I missed.

There is no interesting plant on the rest of the Jalan Pelikat PC. The next park is near Kovan MRT. It is the Richard Ave Park. Unfortunately, there is nothing interesting there.

On the way to the Japanese Cemetery Park, I took two picture along Parry Ave.

The first one is the Purple Allamandar tree.

The other one is the Golden Penda. It is the yellow version of the Penda gender.

I simply cannot miss this pink Oleander plant at Parry Ave. It is still drizzling thus you see water droplets on most of my pictures.

The Japanese Cemetery Park is just round the corner. I will not show the pictures I took inside. You an view it in the album (see link at the end).

On exiting the park, I discovered that I made a mistake in my path plotting. Chuan Hoe Ave is one way only and it is towards me. I have no choice but to go around it via Philips Ave.

Well, it is a blessing in disguise. It took a picture of the Simple-leaf Chasetree en-route. 

This Common Milk Hedge is also found in Philips Ave.

Make a mistake at Yio Chu Kang Road. Had to turn back to the planned route to Serangoon North Ave Park. The park itself is void of interesting feature. However, there is a nursery there too. This lizard seems to appear just for me to take a picture of it. It simply stays still right in front of me.

This variegated ginger plant (Calathea Looserneri) is found in the park.

The Red Leea is just near by.

The rain finally gets heavy along Yio Chu Kang Rd. I had to take cover at Blk 210 near Boundary Rd. While waiting for the rain to subside, took this Cloud Plant (Japanese Holly) picture in the rain.

After the rain fizzles off, I continue the route to Sunshine Park. It is a bit off the way but my plan is to cover as many park as possible.

This Cut-leaf Philodendron leaf really resembles a cut leaf.

The above picture is the only one I took from this park. All the efforts just for this picture. It is still worth it.

Looping back all the way, I reach Serangoon Community park at Boundary Rd. It is quite a large park with over head bridges and tunnels. There is no interesting plants worth taking picture. Instead I took this man made sculpture surrounded by colorful panels. Too lazy to go near to find out what it is.

The next destination is the Travistock near serangoon Garden. Here again I made a mistake in the plotting of the path. The Hemsley Ave is one way and is in the wrong direction. I end up going into Hythe Rd which is a dead end. Luckily there is a small foot path out of it. A sign board written in French indicates some thing which I have no idea. The reason is that the Lycee Francais de Singapore school is at this location. Anyhow, I managed to pass between the two school building without entering the premises of the school and end up in AMK Ave 3. It is not planned but at least I reach my destination without having to detour back.

The Travistock park is nice but void of interesting plants. I managed to take just one picture of a tree but cannot identify it.

After this park, the route ends.

The WikiLoc route map is here.

The Picasa album is here.