Barbados Cherry

A very nice red cherry ready to be plucked. The fruit is slightly sourish but the sourness diminises as the fruit ripens. 

Three Different Gingers

Curcuma longa (Tumeric)

The beautiful white flowers of the tumeric ginger looks even more stunning in the morning sun.  The roots can be used fresh or dried and grounded into tumeric powder, used in many curry dishes.  One to two leaves added to chicken curry imparts a unique spiciness so typcal of Malaysian and Indonesian curries.

Curcuma zedoaria

This ginger produces beautiful deep purple flowers and has roots which produces interesting edible "storage tubers" like a potato.  These tubers are produced from root extensions from the main ginger root.  I tried to produce new plants from these yam-like tubers but it didn't work so i guess they are purely for storage of food reserves.  The plant went dormant for some time and i thought i'd lost it so i bought one more root but soon afterwards it re-appeared, growing even bigger this time. The leaves of this ginger have a purple stripe that runs along the mid-rib.

Unknown Ginger

Another beautiful ginger. But i still don't have the name of this one.

Basil and the Fly

A fly is coming in for a landing on one of the Basil flowers. 

The fly is now leaving the Basil flower (and the mealy bud).

Barbados Cherry

One of my Barbados cherry seedling grew into a plant which produces white instead of pink flowers.  However till today none of the white flowers are able to set fruit.  I wonder what is wrong with the flowers?

Could it be a male plant?

Curcuma zedoaria

After digging them up and re-planting them a few months ago, this curcuma ginger finally flowered again producing a very brightly colored ginger flower.

The brightly colored parts are actually the bracts.

The flower is actually yellowish in color.

The leaves have a purple portion on both sides of the mid-rib.

White Torch Ginger flowering soon

My white toch ginger is finally flowering again after i cut back some of the shoots to tidy them up.

Kota Kinabalu

Kota Kinabalu is full of interesting flora and fauna.  These are some of my encounters.

Poring Hotspring Area

An armored millipede which does not curl up when disturbed.

A green butterfly/moth which almost escaped my attention.  It look just like the leaf on which it was standing, with patterns on its wings imitating the veins and white spots/patches on the leaf.  Remarkable work of nature!!

Another strange looking butterfly/moth.  This one has a blue horn!!

An interesting colony of wild ginger with its fruit very near to the ground.

Wild Durian!!

I have long been fascinated by pictures of the wild Red Durian of Borneo so it is high on my priority on this Sabah trip.  Coincidentally, Durians are in season! However, every durian seller we met said that they either don't have the red variety or they have run out of it. This means that i must make another trip next year.  I managed to get some other varieties of wild durians such as the white flesh and yellow flesh types.  All of them are very round, smaller in size compared to commercial durian varieties and they have much longer spikes.

This is the white flesh variety.  The wild durians don't smell as strong as the commercial durians and i could hardly smell anything near the stall.

It does not taste as strong as regular durians and the flesh is what we would term "dry", in fact "sticky dry".  But it has the unmistable sweet durian aroma (if you love durians).  So everybody can't wait to get their fingers sticky.  It is a lovely treat.

Then of course there is the dark orange variety as well as the yellow variety.  They taste different than the white variety but also very "sticky & dry".

Tarap

This is another of the 'must try' fruit when in Borneo.  It can be found all year round and is related to the Jackfruit, Chempedak and Breadfruit (Sukun or Sokun).  I know many people are not aware of the Breadfruit but somehow when i was young i knew it as Sokun from my kampong friends.  Anyway, back to the Tarap; i am very sure we have it in Bukit Timah nature reserve.  I remember seeing something similar when i was trekking along the paths.

The Tarap tastes sweet and the texture of the fruit is similar to Chempedak but does not have the strong Chempedak fragrance.  It has a bit of very weak curry-leaf  flavour mixed with the sweetness - very unique taste.  A must-try fruit as well.

Rafflesia keithii

How can one go to Borneo without seeing the magnificent Rafflesia!  We were so lucky that day cos the guide told us that there is one blooming just 1 minute walk away from the main road! People had to trek through the jungle and may not even see it!  Furthermore it was a NEW BLOOM!  It is Rafflesia Keithii.

Flies were hovering around the flower so they must have got the stench.