My Itchy Fingers

The Yellow Flower Road…

Itchyfingers were driving when we saw this phenomena…A look up at the nearby trees and we got our answer…

Pavement along the road were covered with a layer of yellow flowers….

These flowers were from the Angsana Tree (Pterocarpus indicus), a large deciduous tree that grows up to 40m tall, with trunk up to 2 m diameter. It can be recognised by its drooping, dome-shaped crown

It was actually quite a pretty sight with the road covered by the flowers….They bloom for only a day, then rain down the next morning, creating yellow carpets on the ground

Close up of the flowers…we could still smell the faint fragrance…

Many of us are familiar with the fruits, which are flattened pods with disc-like papery wings since we often see the fallen brown ones on the roads. But we are less familiar with the flowers because the trees are so high for us to see the tiny flowers clearly….well, that is, if they were to flower. According to this Singapore infopedia site, “Flowering in Angsana is related to temperature variations and rainfall. In habitats where there is a marked dry season, the Angsana flowers twice a year. Leaf shedding followed by flowering occur conspicuously after a period of dry weather. However, Angsanas in Singapore do not flower twice a year as a distinct dry period is uncommon. They do not flower at all, unless there is an exceptional hot and dry period, for example, in 1982 and 1983.” No wonder I have not much memory of such mass flowering of the tree. The recent change in temperate must be the trigger for this!

Dried leaves among fallen flowers….According to Wiki, the flowers are used as a honey source while leaf infusions are used as shampoos in Indonesia. Both flowers and leaves were said to be eaten. The leaves are supposedly good for waxing and polishing brass and copper. It is also a source of kino or resin

Good thing there was an overhead bridge next to the flowering tree, so we could climb up and take some shots of the flowers…

But we weren’t too happy cos the most flowers were already gone…So we walked around and looked for more Angsana trees….Following the yellow flower road led us to this whole rows of flowering trees….Itchyfingers decided to go up to the nearest block for an aerial view…..hahahah…

Wow! From just the 10th floor, we could see this! What a beautiful sight to open your door every morning and be welcomed by flowering trees and not another block of HDB flats! The older government flats were built more spaced out with more matured trees….

There were so many flowers that we were spoilt for choice!

By the way, do you know that the Angsana is the national tree of the Philippines? Itchyfingers just found out too! 😀

Also see related posts:
> Tree On Fire

Tree On Fire

Believe it or not, but it was the first time, or rather first time in my conscious mind, that Itchyfingers sees the Flame of the Forest tree up close. Why did I say that? Well, the tree was supposed to be a common wayside tree in Singapore, but for some reasons, we seem to be seeing lesser of them nowadays. I remember vividly reading about it on the primary school Science textbook and always wondered how it looks like in real life. I think I might have seen it then, but I couldn’t remember much. As we grow up and get tied up with our daily lives, we seem to be noticing lesser of things around us. Gradually, I have forgotten about the tree….

So it was to Itchyfingers’ greatest delight when we finally saw the tree. The discovery was followed by a report on a local Singapore Flowering Facebook page on a heritage Flame of the Forest tree blooming with flowers. The page was recently set up after various sightings of flowering trees blossoming to full glory, probably triggered by the recent dry spell.

We were in awe when we saw the magnificent tree…

So beautiful! The Flame of the Forest (Delonix regia) is a medium to large deciduous tree with a broad umbrella-shaped crown

You can reach this heritage tree by climbing the stairs at Hill Street to the top of Fort Canning Hill Park. According to NPark site, this beautiful tree has a girth of 3.4 metres and a height of 10 metres. Heritage trees nomination is opened to public, then inspected and chosen by arborists and the Heritage Tree Panel. The program aims to conserve and promote appreciation of our natural heritage

The branches spread so far out from the trunk that a vertical support was put in place to prevent breakage….

The tree is native to Madagascar and the name came from the flaming-red flowers that cover the entire crown when they are in full bloom, usually after a prolonged dry spell and lasting only a few days. One of the Chinese common name to the tree actually translates to “Fire Tree”. Wow, so what we were seeing was not even half as spectacular!

The flowers possess a prominent uppermost petal, which is streaked yellow and white

But we also realised some have lesser or no white on the uppermost petal….

The flowers give way to long, flat pods (up to 50 cm long) that hang down from the branches…This one has dried and split up already….

Oooo…how cute….this should be the young compound leaves…

Yeah….this is how it grows….

Strangely, after seeing this magnificent Flame of the Forest tree, Itchyfingers found at least another six or seven small trees, all flowering but less spectacular….I think most of us didn’t realise they are still around cos either the flowers didn’t bloom that often or maybe they are too tall for us to take notice…I think we should really try to slow down our pace and look around us more often, so as to discover the many beautiful trees around us… 🙂

Also see related post:
> Flame of the Forest – Woody Woodpecker #4