Hello,
This first post shall be dedicated to someone special as a Christmas gift. And it will be about the mangroves of Pasir Ris Park. I went with Ron and Jiayi to find out more about the mangroves at the park and at the same time check how many species are present there.
We started off with...
Mata Ayam (Ardisia elliptica) also known as "chicken's eye" as its fruits turn shiny black when it is ripe, resembling the eyes of the chicken. It is easily recognised by the swollen base at its twigs.
There were a lot of sea almond trees (Terminalia catappa). Although they may not be true mangroves, they can be found along the coast of the shores. They can be easily recognised by the big elliptical shaped leaves and their stem usually branches out into two as they grow.
There are also two kinds of special ferns that can tolerate the seawater. The one on the top with the longer and rounded leaflet tip is the Golden Leather Fern (Acrostichum aureum) while the other one which is Acrostichum speciosum has shorter and pointed tip leaflets.
This is the Dungun (Heritiera littoralis). While some of us would like to call it the "Ultraman" plant due the the shape of its shape being like the head of the "Ultraman". However, this plant is not as strong as him as you can see that it is badly eaten. The feature that allow us to easily identify it is that its leaves has a silvery underside.
The mangrove habitat also has its own cannonball trees. This one above is the Xylocarpus moluccensis. This plant is easily recognised by its compound leaves and it can be distinguished with the other species (Xylocarpus granatum) as it has pointed leaflet tips while granatum has rounded leaflet tips.
One shrub that can be found at the shores of the mangroves is the Chengam (Scyphiphora hydrophyllacea). It is identify by the teardrop shaped leaves that hs different shades of colour on one side of the leaf and the other. The leaf contains so much tannin in it that when it dies, it will turn black.
There were a lot of sea almond trees (Terminalia catappa). Although they may not be true mangroves, they can be found along the coast of the shores. They can be easily recognised by the big elliptical shaped leaves and their stem usually branches out into two as they grow.
There are also two kinds of special ferns that can tolerate the seawater. The one on the top with the longer and rounded leaflet tip is the Golden Leather Fern (Acrostichum aureum) while the other one which is Acrostichum speciosum has shorter and pointed tip leaflets.
This is the Dungun (Heritiera littoralis). While some of us would like to call it the "Ultraman" plant due the the shape of its shape being like the head of the "Ultraman". However, this plant is not as strong as him as you can see that it is badly eaten. The feature that allow us to easily identify it is that its leaves has a silvery underside.
The mangrove habitat also has its own cannonball trees. This one above is the Xylocarpus moluccensis. This plant is easily recognised by its compound leaves and it can be distinguished with the other species (Xylocarpus granatum) as it has pointed leaflet tips while granatum has rounded leaflet tips.
One shrub that can be found at the shores of the mangroves is the Chengam (Scyphiphora hydrophyllacea). It is identify by the teardrop shaped leaves that hs different shades of colour on one side of the leaf and the other. The leaf contains so much tannin in it that when it dies, it will turn black.
The next major mangrove plant is the Teruntm Putih (Lumnitzera racemosa). The leaves of this plant has a gland at the end of them and is believed that it contains nitrogen-fixing bacteria. This plant could easily be mistaken as Teruntum Merah (Lumnitzera littorea) as their leaves are rather similar and one sure way to identify it is by the flowers and we are lucky enough to see it that day.
This is the Excoecaria agallocha. This special plant is the relative of the rubber tree but do be careful of its sap as it is known to cause blindness if gets into your eye. Hence, the name "Buta-buta" meaning blind-your-eyes. It is also one of the mangrove plant that is deciduous.
The growing buds like a sword together with the red-collared propagules would have given this plant away as Ceriops zippeliana. Its bark and sap can be collected to make dyes in some countries.
One new mangrove plant that I personally have not seen it anyway is the Bruguiera parviflora. And amazingly, there are many of the young shoots growing out in Pasir Ris park and some of them may be planted while others are grown naturally.
Another major mangrove plant would be the Rhizophora mucronata. This plant will have black spots on the underside of the leaves and its leaves are the biggest out of the three Rhizophora plants found in Singapore.
One plant that I will have difficulties identifying it is the Avicennia alba. As it has many different shapes of leaves, depending on the amount of sunlight and nutrients, it is very hard to tell the Avicennia genus apart just by the shape of the leaves. However, it is always good to take a look at the underside of them if possibe and have a good knowledege of mangroves in order to identify them.
Just before we left the park, we went to see the rarest mangrove plant in Singapore. And it is the only one left that can be found in Singapore. It is the Kandelia candel. It is commonly known as the sea banana as the seedling in the fruit greatly resembles a banana and hence its common name.
It was a great experience to revise through what I have learnt throughout the holidays. And it is indeed a wonderful walk with the nature...
