Quisqualis indica, The Rangoon Creeper - Wordless Wednesday

This post is dedicated to Ms Eileen of Traveling with Eileen who was the first commenter of my previous post "The Yellow Cassia Trees of KLCC Park."

Botanical name: Quisqualis indica

Family: Combretaceae

Common name: Rangoon Creeper, Burma Creeper, Chinese Honeysuckle, Drunken Sailor,

Bunga Akar Dani, Bunga Setanduk

Origin: Burma, Peninsular Malaysia, New Guinea, and the Philippines

Photographs taken by Autumn Belle at The Secret Garden of 1-Utama

Grateful thanks to Dr. Francis Ng of The Secret Garden of 1-Utama. You can visit Dr. Francis Ng's blog here.

To view other WW posts or to participate, please click here.

The Yellow Cassia Trees of KLCC Park

* Scientific name: Senna spectabilis

Synonym: Cassia spectabilis, Senna macranthera

Family: Fabaceae (Leguminosae)

Common name: Cassia, Scented Shower

Origin: Tropical America

* Thanks to Dr. Francis Ng, who pointed out to me that the ID of this plant is most likely Cassia spectabilis, I have updated my post accordingly.

Information sourced from http://www.toptropicals.com/:-

Cassia spectabilis is:

One of the most spectacular trees. Fast growing small to medium size tree with architectural crown structure and narrow pointed leaves that make this plant stand out from other cassias/sennas. Showy yellow flowers are scented and attract butterflies. The flowers come in big clusters and when the tree is in full bloom (Spring to Fall), the view is spectacular, hence the name. This plant looks very pretty as a container specimen or as a separately standing tree for a small yard. Prefers soils that are deep, moist and sandy but will tolerate calcareous soils. The rare plant doesn't exist in a wild anymore and can be found only in cultivation. The seeds of Cassia spectabilis are a potential source of commercial gum.

I found these beautiful yellow cassia trees at KLCC Park during my visit in October 2009. It was planted a short distance away from the Elevated Bridge.

At the time of posting, I am still unable to locate a signage that gives the details of this tree.

As with many plants in Malaysia, it is an evergreen small tree that blooms the whole year through. Malaysia is situated just above the Equator and our climate is hot and humid with plenty of sunshine and rainfall. Average day temperatures are 35 C and night around 25 C.

This is how the tree look like from afar.

Here is another yellow cassia tree planted at the Children's Pool area.

Scientific name: Cassia fistula

Family: Fabaceae (Leguminosae)

Common name: Golden Shower Tree or Indian Laburnum

Origin: Sri Lanka and India

Information source: Tropical Horticulture and Gardening Book by Dr. Francis SP Ng

A small to medium-sized tree, 5-10m tall, bearing pendent inflorescenses on the larger branches. In its native countries, flowering occurs once a year in the dry season, when the crowns are bare of leaves. In the humid tropics, a full flowering display is uncommon, but some trees manage to flower twice a year and some even produce a trickle of flowers throughout the year. Grow in full sun. Propagate by seeds.

The Cassia fistula is also another small tree with pretty cream yellow flowers and long bean pods where the seeds are stored. It provides some shade at the children pool area at KLCC Park.

Do visit malaysian-explorer.com's Suria KLCC's page for quick facts and interesting information about KLCC.

Today's post is dedicated to The Stopwatch Gardener, my first commenter for the Erythrina Glauca, The Red Flower Tree post.

This post is my entry for Mellow Yellow Monday # 43. My grateful thanks to Drowsey Monkey for hosting this fun site. To participate or to view other MYM posts around the world, please click here.

Erythrina fusca, The Red Flower Tree

This post is dedicated to Ms Tatyana of My Secret Garden for being the first commenter of my previous post "Wordless Wednesday - Crinum Lily".

Scientific name: Erythrina fusca,

Synonym: Erythrina glauca (according to Trees For Life Malaysia website)

Common name: Indian Coral Tree, Tiger's Claw, Cape Kaffirboom, Gallito, Coral bean, Bois immortelle, Bucayo

Family: Fabaceae / Leguminosae / Papilionaceae

Category: Ever-flowering desiduous small tree

Native plant of: Malaysia, India, Thailand and the Pacific Islands.

They grow wild along sandy beaches and riversides. Inland, they are cultivated as ornamental shade trees.

Our local name for this plant is dedap merah. I was initially very much attracted to the beautiful bright red flowers of this tree. I love red because it is very auspicious and brings me good luck. It took me a long long time to find out the name of this plant. Actually, my knowledge of trees is very limited. I am so very happy that finally I have unveiled the mystery of this tree. It is actually a small tree. Under the right conditions, it can grow to a height of 60 ft.

The flowers are large, bright red and have a claw-like shape. Leaves are alternate, compound, with three heart-shaped leaflets. The foliage is a shiny dark green colour. The base of the petiole is swollen and cylindrical.

This deciduous tree has a spiny bark. It is a species of flowering tree in the legume family. The dark brown seeds are stored in bean shaped pods that measure up to 20cm (8in). I notice that when it is growing well, the branches are spread out like an umbrella. When it is blooming with striking red flowers, it is indeed a spectacular sight amidst the clear blue sky. When the flowers fade and petals fall to the ground, it will look like spent red fire cracker papers strewn all over the ground. Just like Chinese New Year season. Very auspicious!

Here, in Malaysia, we can find a lot of these trees planted by property developers and city councils at housing estates, public parks and walkways.

There are some planted near the entrance to Suria KLCC, Kuala Lumpur at the base of the Petronas Twin Towers and overlooking KLCC Park. There are sidewalk cafes here such as Starbucks and Coffee Bean where you can enjoy your cuppa in the outdoors and admire the greenery and scenery of KLCC Park and surrounding skyscrappers.

We have a local malay saying "Bunga dedap" which means a person with good looks but without good manners and who can't seem to run the household properly. Like the red flower that is very beautiful but without any scent.

Have you seen this plant in your area?

Update:

1. Some of the trees planted along public roads and walkways in the Klang Valley had to be felled by City Hall due to termites infestation.
2. My article about this tree appeared in the New Straits Times Press on August 13th, 2010. The link is here.

This is my entry for Blooming Friday, 2nd Week of November. The theme today is "Winter time storage". My grateful thanks to Katarina at Roses and Stuff for hosting Blooming Friday. To see what others have posted or to participate, click here.

This is also my entry for Fertilizer Friday. My grateful thanks to Tootsie at Tootsie Time for hosting Fertilizer Friday. To see what others have posted or to participate, visit here.

This is also my entry for Today's Flowers #66. My grateful thanks to the TF folks: Santilli, Denise, Pupo and Valkyrien for hosting Today's Flowers. To participate or view other floral displays around the world, click here.

This is also my entry for Ruby Tuesday. To view what others have for red today, click here.