With the La Ninya weather this year, we have had constant rain and virtually no rainy season, but a few things in the garden are flowering at the moment.
Alstonia angustiloba, the common pulai tree (left), initiated this feature on current flowering as one of our trees was laden and the fragrance permeated the plaza, but like so many tropical plants the flowers are small, short lived and either white or green. The unusual fragrance lacks the sweetness of more temperate flowers but it punctuates the experience of walking in our tropical garden.
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- The fragrance of Pulai, Alstonia angustiloba.
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- A fairly recent acquisition, the creeper Chonomorpha penangensis displays its beautiful tassels of pink flowers.
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- Commonly known as the coconut orchid, presumably because of the similarity of leaf form, this species flowers freely in full sun, one of the few things in Taman Sari that always provides some colour. This I think is a dwarf hybrid of Spathoglottis aurea.
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- Dillenia flowers are spectacular, even if never prolific and not long lasting, opening before dawn and dropped by evening.
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- Gardenia tubifera, with the distinctive scent of the genus, flowers prolifically but for just a week, and by the time I took the photo the tree was well past its best.
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- The creeper Hoya coriacea flowers regularly and attracts butterflies.
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- This epiphyte I think is in the Moraceae family, kin to the figs, but if anyone can provide a closer ID I would be happy to hear about it.
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- This Alpinia zerumbet was sourced from the Sungai Buloh Leprosaureum and is flowering for the first time.
