Spindle Ginger

A walk along Senapang Road in the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve this morning brought several rewards in the form of a variety of fungi growing on the rain-soaked logs and truncated tree trunks on either side of the trail. The prize 'catch' was the sighting of a bright red ginger that I recall seeing on the January issue of Gardenwise, the newsletter of the Singapore Botanic Gardens. We spotted three of these colourful 'spindles' but they did not have any flowers in the bracts and all three ginger plants were growing on slopes.

Fungi by the side of a road

If you ever see someone photographing mushrooms by the side of a road, it is probably me. I was not alone and it was a blessing that I had a friend who was game enough to help me take good pictures of these fungi by holding the stem of one of them to give an idea of its actual size and who flattened the surrounding blades of grass around a baby mushroom so that I could get a good shot of it.

Fungi - Orange and black

The fungi we found in the Dairy Farm Nature Park on Sunday looked like they were on the decline. There were only two types growing on the logs lining the trails.

Labrador Park fungi

The heat was beating down on earth
Little parasols appeared
big ones and little ones
Mum and dad, siblings all
had a picnic in the park
they call Labrador.

Fungi in Bukit Timah Hill Reserve.

These were hidden from view and perhaps that has helped its survival to this day. All photos were taken without flash and without the use of a tripod.
This was seen on the edge of the path leading to the Quarry pond near the Visitor Centre.

Singapore Botanic Gardens

I wasn't looking for fungi this morning. Just passing through a bamboo grove in the Singapore Botanic Gardens and a bit of orange caught my eye. I knew it would be something worth investigating.

Fungi on Mt Ophir (Gunung Ledang)

A short day-trip across the causeway to the national park of Mt Ophir or Gunung Ledang resulted in an unexpected haul of fungi photos. The easy trial around the foot of the mountain was dotted with interesting fungi. There were the common ones we see quite often in Singapore but we saw some that we had never seen before like the bright orange ones and the black frilly one growing on the buttress of root of a tree that I almost missed seeing.

Fungi in Labrador Park