Distraction...

                                          The South China Sea at Paka, Trengganu

I have been away from this blog for five months already (since my last entry on Trengganu, 06/06/15), distracted by Instagram. But I will try to get back and do backdates as best as I can with notes from my diary/journal.

SA Garden Catalogue: Velvet Bean

Scientific name: Mucuna pruriens
Common name: Velvet bean, Cowhage, Picapica, Cowitch
Malay name:
Family:
Origin: Africa/India

The Velvet bean is a climbing flowering plant with flowers the colour of white, light purple or dark purple. There are loose hairs covering the young leaves and seed pods (hence the name Velvet bean) of the flowers and these can caused severe irritation of the skin when contacted.

I was given four beans to grow but only three thrived. The plants grow rather quickly and there were flowers which I did not have the opportunity to capture with my camera. Hopefully the beans can be documented.

Actually it was only out of curiosity that I grew this legume plant, whose major use is as manure and animal feed. As a minor food rich in protein, the beans can be a garnish, condiment or vegetable (not unlike soyabean, cowpea and groundnut). But the beans must be cooked to get rid of some toxic chemicals that they contain. The beans also contains serotonin and nicotine that can be mind altering substances.

SA Garden Catalogue: Bunga Telang

Scientific name: Clitoria ternatea
Common name: Butterfly pea, Blue pea, Cordofan pea, Asian pigeonwings
Malay name: Bunga Telang
Family: Fabaceae
Origin: Tropical, equatorial Asia

This is a perennial herbaceous plant which grows as a vine usually. The flowers are a beautiful vivid blue with light yellow markings. (There are varieties that produce white flowers.) The fruits are flat pods that are edible when tender.

Throughout Southeast Asia, the blue flowers are used to colour food. Like the blue in our Nasi kerabu from Kelantan and the blue in our Nyonya kuihs. (In Thailand they make a blue drink and fry the flowers in batter too.)

I grew my plants (above) from seeds given to me by B's teacher friend Santhi. There are four plants growing together, though you cannot really tell from the picture. But they are not doing too well because I tend to over-water (and sometimes the rains aggravate the problem). But I do hope they do well enough to produce some blue flowers for me in the near future.

The weather in early October was rather wet and there have been thunderstorms. But then the 'burning forests' in Indonesia still make for unhealthy air pollution indices. Like today, the API is an unhealthy 339 at 4.00 pm (299 at 5.00 pm). So the smog is still very much upon us!
(2 Dec 15)

Tenggelamnya Kapal Van Der Wijk

We went to see the Tenggelamnya Kapal Van Der Wijk theatre at the Istana Budaya on the night of October 17th and liked it tremendously. The cast of popular actors of our Malaysian small screen was a good move of the producer/director to reinvigorate the theatre scene. We hear it was nearly full house most nights.

Amar Bahrin and Nabila Huda played the romantic tragic couple well enough to have some in the audience reach for their tissues. Was I affected in the same way? You bet!

4 Dec 2015

SA Garden Catalogue: Portulaca Oleracea

Scientific name: Portulaca oleracea
Common name: Purslane, Moss rose
Malay name: Ros Jepun
Family: Portulacaceae
Origin: South America (?)

The Purslane in my little urban garden is of the Portulaca oleraceae, a small semi-perennial fleshy herb bearing showy flowers in many colour variants, ranging from yellow to orange to pinks and reds. The two containers I have bear yellow flowers only.

The plants are free-flowering throughout the year, but get moribund (near dying!) rather quickly and need to be renewed by cuttings. I have done this and so multiplied the single container of these plants my good neighbour gave me to two.

The bright pretty flowers are radially symmetrical with four to six petals. They open in the morning (at about 9 o'clock) and close in the afternoon (at about 5 o'clock from my observation). Flowers that go to work 9 to 5! They grow well in full sun on well-drained soil, and are easy to propagate by cuttings.

Note: The Portulaca oleracea differs from the other common Purslane Portulaca grandiflora in having broad instead of narrow leaves and the flowers are multi-layered. Once upon a time in Pulau Pinang we grew P. grandiflora in many colours on our lawn. Maybe I should try growing it again. Anyone with cuttings for me?

The weather in September saw some rains but the air pollution index in Shah Alam was sometimes above 200.
5 Dec 2015

SA Garden Catalogue: Tabebuia rosea

Scientific name: Tabebuia rosea  Syn: Tabebuia pentaphylla
Common name: Trumpet tree
Malay name:
Family:
Origin: Mexico to Venezuela

The Tabebuia rosea tree bears fairly big bell-shaped flowers, white to purple in colour. The flowers are produced intermittently sometimes coinciding with the shedding of leaves. The tree grows well in full sun, preferably in parks or the roadside. Propagation is by seeds.

I did not grow this tree in my little urban garden knowing that it is a fast-growing potentially large tree, up to 30 m tall. But a seed must somehow have taken growth, so I had a tall tree on my tiny piece of front yard. I let it and it grew very fast but when it started scraping against the gutter during windy days, I had to do something drastic. I pruned it down to only my waist height (on July 9). Now there are a lot of branches sprouting up and I will monitor the growth so it does not overwhelm the garden.

SA Garden Catalogue: Caladium Humboldtii

Scientific name: Caladium humboldtii
Common name: Angel wings, Elephant ear
Malay name: Keladi ?
Family: Araceae (Genus: Caladium Species: Humoldtii)
Origin: Brazil

The Caladium humboldtii is one of the smallest Caladium species, a small rosette herb 2 to 5 inches tall with delicately patterned foliage that are white with green veins. Usually there are no flowers. Grow in partial or full shade or even indoors because they make pretty ornamental plants. Propagation is by division of the tubers.

The plant tends to die down and rest periodically. When the leaves die down, I always think the plant is gone. But then the tubers sprout leaves again, and the plant thrives well another time.

Note: Caladiums may not be ingested as all parts of the plant are poisonous. So it is not a good idea to have them around if there are children involved.