Wild Ixora

The boardwalk by MacRitchie Reservoir and the trail leading up to the Jelutong Tower and HSBC Treetop Walk was as crowded as a pasar today. Besides the usual early morning joggers, the holidays brought forth a good number of families and friends whose banter silenced the cicadas and drove away all the little bugs that my duck would normally have fed upon. Only at Rifle Range Link could I find a quiet opportunity to fester amongst the ants and poke around for grubs.

Sadly (or fortunately perhaps, for it seems some folks find sheer joy in casually plucking flowers and branches from trailside flora and casting the remnants aside), most of the crowd seem to have missed the flowering patches of Ixora congesta that dot the forest floor this season. Ixora belongs to the coffee family (Rubiaceae) and like the source of my favourite drug, produces bright berries when the florets have been pollinated. Cultivars of Ixora javanica are commonly used as roadside and garden greenery. Other native congenerics, however, are neglected by local horticulturalists for some reason: the fragrant Ixora concinna, Ixora lobbii, Ixora finlaysoniana, Ixora umbellata and Ixora pendula with its lantern like flower clusters.

Spider having a meal of beetlejuice. These little red beetles seem to be in seaon too.

Some colourful katydid nymph.

Guess what my duck had for lunch....