Saturday, September 21, 2013

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.

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