Magpie Robin Nesting in Style

I was pleasantly surprised seeing a Magpie Robin building a nest in the head of a figurine at the Land Art Exhibition of Singapore Botanic Gardens. Call it nesting in style in Tanglin District. : )

Above photo: the busy Magpie Robin returning again with nesting material.

Coralline Record in Singapore Botanic Gardens

It is the most unusual place to find corals - Singapore Botanic Gardens. Coralline boulders of all shapes and sizes, intact or fragmented, line the garden paths and flower beds even today. As is evident to me at least, these were used as decorative borders long ago at the infancy of the garden during the colonial days. Their numbers and the impressive size of some of these marine relics easily suggest a time when our island is surrounded by a most spectacular 'garden in the sea' brimming to the shores with livid corals of all sorts and harvested as readily available material for such purposes. I have found them similarly employed in Ss. Peter and Paul Church at Waterloo Street.

Such grand visions of pristine seas may be lost forever but if one were to be interested in the study of corals in Singapore waters, I think a visit to Singapore Botanic Gardens is a most invaluable trip to the past. Who knows, a never-before recorded taxa might be found amongst these relics. Taken at the microscopic level of enquiry, one might even find traces of micro-fauna entombed within the recesses of their silent calcareous walls. Her coralline record could certainly hold many secrets waiting your discovery.

For a start, you may want to venture down to Area G [photo above] where most of the corals can be found. It is nestled somewhere between Swan Lake and the car park of Ginger Garden. Two or three narrow stairways will lead you down to a lower labyrinth of narrower pathways bounded by relatively high walls of corals resembling limestone gullies where even the enigmatic single-leafed herb Monophyllaea horsfieldii (a limestone specialist) grows in the company of mosses lush and plentiful. [plant photos right below]

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Monophyllaea horsfieldii flowers

Monophyllaea horsfieldii inflorescense

Felled

If you can hear, my inner voice speaking behind these written words is soft to the point of void in a vacuum. I make the effort though. A giant Shorea ovalis (of about 250cm girth) has been felled by humans. I wished it not. A tree in the wild state of the Rain Forest in the Singapore Botanic Gardens; fruited July last year 2009; visited again recently and witnessed its full glorious crown... before it went down... and now an empty space of sky in the forest canopy.

8 Jan 2010: I saw the stump. It is healthy to the notch. Open flesh fresh a-lingering still. A few steps away lies two other stumps; trees of the same fate... silent... in the forest.

I make noise today though. A soft voice it is to speak the grievances the trees spoke to me that day. I want you to know how the wind came. Coming hardly the 10th minute of my wandering, it took post so strong and swept the sunlit floor into the gloom of angry clouds gathering above. Within the minute, wind and pelting rain released together. I hid and huddled below some trees with umbrella as I watched. And it rained and rained so forcefully; time standing still. The whole forest shook. How acutely I felt a great life force wrenching itself off the forest into the void above... so powerful and ominous a remonstration. Today this incomparable little voice tells you it happened. I cannot begin to ask why.

[Note: if you want to see the site of destruction, it is at the last bend along Liane Road, on the right as you approach the side-gate at Cluny Road.]

1) Fruits found July last year 2009.


2) Close-up of winged fruit.


3) Health stump of Shorea ovalis.


4) Galls on underside of leaves.


5) More galls of a different type. Amazingly I also found these same hairy type in an old herbarium voucher of the Gardens' Jungle Shorea ovalis collected by H.N. Ridley (no. 6393, dated 1894).


6) Looking for answers, a few days later, I went to ask the garden staff I found in the Potting Yard and to my horror saw the remains of the tree's trunk. [photos below by Angie Ng]

Trees that touch and inspire

I planted the fig saplings more than a decade ago and she painted them years on as handsome trees that they have become. This is a sweet chapter of my life unfolded to me by chance a couple of weeks ago when I found the painting in a students' art exhibition at Lasalle, our famed school of the arts.

You can imagine the pure joy I felt then seeing my past effort rendered on canvas in beautiful colours. It felt like a fairy tale; sweet as memory-dews, coming full circle at a time for me to recall every step I took in the early life of these trees. I knew I had to share my experience with budding artist Ms Denise Jillian Tan (above). She should know, I thought; the story that enriches must be told and she is so much part of it now. I found her contact in due time and wrote her.

This is the story of the fig trees I shared with Denise:

"These fig trees were destined for the rubbish truck when I found them as forlorn-looking two-meter tall wiry saplings in torn-up bags at the waste-yard. They caught my heart and I salvaged them from sure destruction. I am happy for them now - so strong and spreading - providing figs for animals and shade for man, and not to mention, inspiration for Denise to paint them so beautifully."

[Photos above & below: Ficus benjamina var nuda (synonym: Ficus nuda)]

Subsequently I met up with Denise and her mum Catherine for a memorable lunch together. In her own words, she shared how the trees inspired her:

"I chose that tree [foreground] in particular because of its beauty. Its many branches stretching towards the sky, giving shade to the pathway, and its roots were most perculiar: emerging from the ground, almost like a reflection of the branches above - an assymetrical beauty of nature".

I must say I am extremely blessed with Denise's generosity of heart as she presented the gift of the painting to me. For this I remain forever thankful. I hope she will realize her dream of becoming a successful artist.

I also hope this charming story ends not here but continues as a first chapter to many many other stories of people drawn to the life of these trees. May they continue to grow, touch and inspire anyone who come under the spell of their generous loving embrace.

[Footnote: the 3 trees are figs: 2 nos. Ficus microcarpa and 1 no. Ficus benjamina var nuda (synonym Ficus nuda); located above slope overlooking Symphony Lake, Singapore Botanic Gardens]