Sunday, 9 October 2011

RH Trees

Here's a general introduction to all trees that can be found in Raffles Hall:
     
1.   Cannonball Trees (Couroupita guianensis)


It is an evergreen tree and has brown cannon-ball-like fruits. Native to South Caribbean and tropical island northern South America [1].


Location: You can find it in front of Block 2, tropical area


Usage: The trees are used to cure stomachaches and colds. The juice made from the leaves is mainly used to cure skin diseases. Internal fruit can be used to disinfect wounds. Also, the young leaves can be used to ease toothache problems [2].

Flowers of Cannonball Tree


  
Flowers: They grow very large, distinctive flowers. Flowers are orange and pink in color [1]
Overview of Cannonball Tree in Block 2

Fruit of Cannonball Tree


Inner Fruit of Cannonball Tree
Fruit: They produce large spherical fruits ranging from 15 to 24 centimeters in diameter, containing up to 200 or 300 seeds a piece [3]. The internal fruit is deep purple in color and falls from the tree and cracks open after hitting the ground when mature, causing a small explosion sound.

Young leaves of Cannonball Tree
Trees: The above shows how the young leaves look like on a typical Cannonball Tree


2.   Kassod/Cassod Trees (Senna siamea)


Leaves are pinnate, made up of elliptic leaflets and yellowish green in color [4]. The yellow flowers bloom from spring to summer.


Location: In front of Raffles Hall Block 2


Usage: This tree is famous for its hardness of wood and is used for making poles, furniture, charcoal, and firewood, it tends to produce a lot of smoke after burning it. The young leaves can be used in curry dishes. Seeds have been used for medicinal purposes to relieve intestinal worms.


Tree Overview of Kassod Tree

Nearer view of Kassod Tree
3. Bird Nest Fern


It is a very hardy fern. It is considered as a parasite plant because it can grow between the branches of a larger tree. Individual plant forms a funnel-shaped or in a shape of bird’s nest.

      Locations: Raffles Hall Block 2 to Block 4

      Further Description: This fern is widespread in both Tropical Africa and Asia and also found in many areas of the pacific. It is commonly seen growing on top of trees, looking like bird nests. It could strangle trees by absorbing their moisture and nutrition. It needs little or no maintenance at all. If space is given, it can grow into a large diameter of 1 meter all round.


Closer view of Bird Nest Fern Picture 1
Further view of Bird Nest Fern Picture 2
4. Bay Leaves (Daun salam) Tree

The bay leaf is oval in shape, pointed and smooth. The leaves are shiny and dark green in color with lighter undersides at the top [5]. When dried, the bay leaf is matte olive green in color. In warm areas it can grow as high as 18 meters. Inconspicuous white flowers arrive in clusters. The fruits are red-blue single-seeded berries that later turn black and small in overall. 

Location: Raffles Hall Block 2 to Block 4

Usage: Fresh or dried bay leaves are used for cooking. The leaves are often used to flavor stews, soups and braises. After drying up and picking, the fresh leaves are very mild will not develop their full flavor until several weeks later.


Overview of Daun salam

Bay Leaves


5. Tembusu Tree (Fagraea fragrans)

The Tembusu Tree is a huge evergreen tree and often found in South East Asia. Its trunk is dark brown in color, with a deeply fissured bark which resembles a bittergourd.

Location: Block 4 to Canteen pave way and Arts Canteen


Usage: The Tembusu is one of the heavy hardwood timber traded for commerce purposes. The wood is rich golden brown in color. It is resistant to termite attacks and extremely durable. It is used to make chopping boards locally [6].


Snapshot of Tembusu Trees situated at RH BBQ pits

Leaves: Its leaves are light green and oval in shape. 


Flowers: Its yellowish flowers brings a distinct fragrance. The fruits of the tree are bitter in taste and have red berries on it, which are usually eaten by fruit bats or birds [7]. 

Tembusu Trees printer behind Singapore's five dollar note
Interesting Facts: In the Singapore Botanic Gardens, there are two Tembusu trees that are designated as Heritage Trees that are more than 100 years old [6]. Tembusu is pictured on Singapore's five-dollar notes as well. Now, University Town compound has also one residence that is named after it.


6. Sealing-Wax Palm Tree

The sealing-wax palm tree is a beautiful plant with alternating red and greenish-yellow trunks. Leaves are spread out from the ground all the way to the tip of the plant. It blooms all year and mostly found in tropical areas.


Location: Block 2 to Block 4, Tropical plants


Usage: The palm trees are beautiful and can make great addition to homes. Palm wax is a material used for making excellent candles [8].

Overview of a Sealing-Wax Palm Tree
  7.  Rain Trees (Samanea Saman)

      Rain Trees (Samanea Saman) can be recognized easily by its umbrella-shaped canopy [9]. When grown in open spaces, the tree is capable of reaching 15 to 25 m in height. It provides plenty of shade with its big umbrella-shaped crown [10]. The leaves fold during rainy weathers and  evening periods. Hence, "rain tree" and "five o'clock tree" are terms that came out  in Malay.

      Usage: It is important in Pacific regions and it can act as a tree for shades on small farms, in parks, along roads and pastures [9]. 

      Location: It can be found behind block 4, It is found from Mexico South to Peru and Brazil, but it has been widely introduced to Southern regions of the world.


Overview of Rain Tree

      Flowers: The tiny flowers are pinkish heads in mass. The long, bicolor stamens (white in flower half and reddish above) give the whole inflorescence the appearance of a powder puff or feather duster held slightly above the foilage.


   8. African Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla)


      The African mahogany is one of two species that yields genuine mahogany timber [11]. The dense dark green and round shaped crown is easily recognizable. Its leaves changes from pink to dark green in color and changes from orange-brown to scarlet color as they wither. Its crown is dark green in color and its trunk is buttressed with dark greyish scaly bark [10]. One of the most distinctive feature of African Mahogany is the large heavy brown fruit pods that it have and it splits into 5 valves to release winged and flat light-brown seeds [10].

      Location: Between Block 3 and 4, In front of Block 6

      Usage: Its wood is used extensively for constructing quality furniture and musical instruments

African Mahogany in RH

Overview of African Mahogany


9. Fishtail Palm (Caryota mitis)


The Fishtail Palm is the only palm with leaves that are subdivided twice [12]. The shape of the leaflets gives this name known as Clustered Fishtail Palm. It has a unique way of flowering which is to allow the first flowering mop-like cluster to emerge from the top of the mature palm then subsequent clusters emerge from below. When the cluster reaches the ground, it dies [12].

Location: Outside Block 6

Usage: An edible starch is extracted from the stem in India with the palm heart eaten away. Like other palms, it is also tapped for sap to produce palm sugar or fermented form to make toddy. The fuzz from the young leaves is used as a tinder to start a fire. The palm is also used for construction purposes [12].
Caryota mitis leaves of Fishtail Palm


Flowers of Fishtail Palm

10.   Pineapple Plant

This plant itself has a stocky stem with tough waxy leaves and short in overall [13]. When creating the fruit, it is capable of producing up to 200 flowers. Due to its resemblance to a pine cone, it was given the name pineapple [13].

Location: Outside Block 6, originated from South America

Usage: It is produced for consumption and the leaves are used for making texile fibre [13]. 


A pineapple plant that can be found in Raffles Hall

Typical Pineapple Plant

11. Dragon Scale Fern (Drymoglossum piloselloides)

Dragon scale ferns grow on trees rather than on the ground. They consist of sterile fronds, which are small and round, and fertile spore bearing fronds, which are long, narrow, and lined with spores. In the wild, these robust ferns pave the way for less hardy ferns by growing on dry trunks, allowing them a foothold in the tree and increasing the biodiversity in that habitat. It is one of the most common epiphytic ferns in areas of Southeast Asia lowlands and could be found up to 1,000 meters in altitude [14].


Location: Grass patch between Block 3

Usage: The leaves are used to treat smallpox and rashes and can be grounded into paste and applied on the forehead to treat headaches.

Snapshot of Dragon Scale Ferns

Brown spores on the fertile frond

Dragon Scale Ferns outside Block 3

12. Malbau (Premna serratifolia)

Malbau is a small tree shrub, creeping along the ground and capable of growing 1 to 10 m tall [15]. It has a green and brown bark which is smooth and scaly in texture. The leaves are held opposite with each other on the stem itself  [15]. The fruits resemble small berries and changes to dark red in colour when the fruit is mature.

Location: Pathway between Block 3 and 5, it can be found throughout the tropics from Asia and Africa to the Pacific.

Usage: Its leaves are boiled and consumed to treat fevers, stomach ailments and shortness of breath . This particular specimen in RH is the only wild premna in the Kent Ridge campus.

Fruits representing small berries on Malbau

Overview of Malbau


13. Pandan (Pandanus amaryllifolius)


The plant can span from just 30 centimeters to 26 metres in height. It is sterile and can only propagated by cuttings. The leaves are bright green in color and rather long.

Location: Between Communal Hall and Block 3, it is a plant native to South and Southeast Asia.

Usage: Pandan leaves have a unique flavour that  are used widely in Asian cuisine for its fragrant aroma. It has also a sweet taste. Pandan leaves is widely believed that it can be used to deter cockroaches.

Leaves of Pandan

14. Ixora

Ixora is a multi-branched evergreen shrub with 1.2 to 2 meters and capable of reaching up to 3.6 meters in height [16]. The form comes with a spread and round in overall. The glossy, leathery and oblong leaves are approximately 10 centimeters long with the entire margins and carried in opposite pairs or whorled on the stems [16]. Its scarlet flowers in dense rounded clusters 5 to 13 centimeters across are produced throughout the entire year and it has a small tubular in appearance.

Location: In front of Block 3. It is a common flowering shrub native to Southern India.

Usage: Ixora is used in mass floweing beds, foundation plantings and placed during warm climates for hedges and screens. It is usually grown as a small tree or specimen shrub [16].

Overview of Ixora coccinea
The Blooming of Ixora
15. Chinese Hibiscus (China rose)

It is an evergreen flowering shrub. The flowers are generally large, red in color and firm, but generally lack any scent. The flower colors range from white to yellow in color and orange to scarlet and in shades of pink with both single and double sets of petals [17].

Location: Block 3 to Communal hall, native to East Asia.

Usage: Hibiscus flower preparations are mainly used for hair care purposes [17]. The flowers are edible and used in salads for the Pacific Islands. It is also as an pH indicator in most cases. Lastly, the flowers are used to shine shoes in India. [17].

Flowers of Chinese Hibiscus
Overview of Chinese Hibiscus
Interesting facts: Hibiscus rosa-sinensis is Malaysia's national flower and is commonly known as Bunga Raya in Malay language. It has many names in Chinese as well such as chijin 赤槿, fusang 扶桑, riji 日及 and etc. These names came from a different states in China as each state have their own ways in naming the plants.


References
2. Cannonball Tree - Stronger fighter for the goodness of life, http://forestgeneration.com/cannon-ball-tree.html
3. Let's Integrate for Environment, http://life-trust.webs.com/typesoftrees.htm
4. TopTropicals.com - Rare plants for home and garden, http://toptropicals.com/cgi-bin/store/store.cgi?first_mid=4085
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