The Flowering Garden

African Tulip Tree

Timothy Tye — Thu, 07 May 2009 13:03:21 +0800

The African Tulip Tree is a showy evergreen tree. Known by the scientific name Spathodea, the African Tulip Tree is a monotypic genus in the flowering plant family Bignoniaceae. There is only one species, Spathodea campanulata, also known as the Fountain Tree, "African tulip tree", Flame-of-the-forest or Nandi Flame. More ...

Cherry

Timothy Tye — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 23:47:41 +0800

The Cherry belongs to the same genus, Prunus, as almonds, peaches, plums and apricot. As it falls under the Rosaceae family, it is a distant cousin of the rose. The name cherry comes from the French word "cerise". There are basically two types of cherry trees, those grown for their fruits - the cherries - and those grown for their flowers. Within the fruit-bearing category are two main species, sweet cherry (Prunus avium) and sour cherry (Prunus cerasus). Cherry trees grown for their ornamental value are of a different species. These include the Japanese sakura (Prunus serrulata). Many of the ornamental cherry cultivars have additional petalsn instead of stamen and pistils, so they are sterile and unable to bear fruit.

Tecoma pentaphylla

Timothy Tye — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 22:37:15 +0800

Tecoma pentaphylla is a beautiful roadside flowering tree in Penang, Malaysia. It produces flowers that range in colour from white to various shades of pink, and is often regarded as the "Cherry Blossoms of Penang". Incidentally, it blooms around between late February and early March, approximately one month earlier than the famous cherry blossoms of Japan. Having seen "the real thing" in Japan, I have to say that Tecoma pentaphylla is just as pretty, if not more so.