The Man behind Syzygium ngadimanianum

I take particular pleasure in highlighting a tree I recently found in MacRitchie which bears the name of the first forest ranger of Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. His name is Ngadiman and the tree is Syzygium ngadimanianum - a relatively rare jumbol tree of the rain forest of Singapore and Malaysia.

Leaves and fruits of Syzygium ngadimanianum

Ngadiman was first to discover the tree in Bukit Timah Nature Reserve in 1939. His two botanical collections of the tree provided H.R. Henderson type material to describe and publish the species as Eugenia ngadimaniana in his honour in 1947. It was subsequently revised as Syzygium ngadimanianum by I.M. Turner in 2007.

Ngadiman was first and foremost an invaluable plant collector and assistant to the likes of Corner and Henderson. He was primarily responsible for training Corner's famous monkeys to collect herbarium specimens of the forest trees. His fascinating career can be found in his biography linked here.

In his memory, I like to share with you some photos of the tree and its fruits and leaves, and also an old photo of the bridge which bore his name - Ngadiman Bridge - a concrete bridge spanning a small gully along the now defunct Tiup Tiup Trail of Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.

Syzygium ngadimanianum, MacRitchie 2012

Smooth cracked bark

Close-up of green oblong fruit with tiny incurved calyx

Ngadiman Bridge (Tiup Tiup Trail, BTNR)

Athyrium accedens: New Record of Fern for Singapore

I am pleased to present you today a new record for Singapore - Athyrium accedens (Family: Woodsiaceae). I have found a small population of this fern in Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.

The late Prof. R. E. Holttum described it as a fern of shady mountain stream-sides, found in Malaya only on the Main Range and Taiping Hills. The specimens that I discovered were also near a stream. They are about a meter in height - simply pinnate, tufted and erect, and producing plantlets (asexually) on the rachis besides the usual spores (for sexual reproduction).

Some major characteristics below:

Pinnae (leaflets) - up to 15 per frond (leaf)

Each plantlet arising from the pinna (leaflet) axil.

This mature plantlet is ready to drop off and grow on its own.

Size and shape of pinna: tipped and broad; margin crenate or shallowly lobed.

Sori linear, forming the characteristic V-shaped arrangement.

Close-ups of sori (group or arrangement of spore cases / sporangia).

Stipe (stalk /stem) green, covered with minute and spiky protuberances.

Close-up of the protuberances: each one is actually a remnant stalk that has held a scale (thin membranous hair).

The rachis (branch extending from stipe bearing pinnae / leaflets) is grooved above.

Footnote: A New Record is a species already known to science but not known to occur previously in a certain botanical area in question. Now that Athyrium accedens has been found occurring in its natural state here, it can be added to the flora of Singapore as a native species. So in total, we have now 11 species of Athyrium in Singapore.