Ficus species

Ficus species also known commonly as fig tree is native to the tropics and is from the family Moraceae.

This is a huge tree reaching a height of 18 m and a width of 21meters. The crown is dense, rounded and full of graceful drooping branches. Branches will weep toward the ground forming a canopy so dense that nothing grows beneath it. 

The foliage and branches exude a white, latex-like sap when wounded. The leaves are thick, shiny, growing up to 12cm in length. 

The actual flower of the fig is unseen unless the fruit is cut open. The flower is pollinated by fig wasps that crawl through the opening in search of a suitable place to lay eggs. Without this pollinator service fig trees could not reproduce by seed. In turn, the flowers provide a safe haven and nourishment for the next generation of wasps. This accounts for the frequent presence of wasp larvae in the fruit. 

Technically, a fig fruit proper would be one of the many tiny mature, seed-bearing flowers found inside one fig, the flowers will appear as fleshy "threads", each bearing a single seed inside. Tiny figs eventually turn a deep red. 

The specific identification of many of the species can be difficult, but figs as a group are relatively easy to recognize. Many have aerial roots and a distinctive shape or habit, and their fruits distinguish them from other plants.

Hopea odorata

Hopea odorata, also known as Ironwood, Chengal Kampong or Chengal Pasir is native to Bangladesh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Indo-China, Malaysia and Indonesia. It is part of the Dipterocarpaceae family.

A large evergreen tree that has a conical shaped crown reaches a height of 40m. 

The leaves are alternate and are oblong to ovate in shape with an entire leaf margin. Its simple leaves are about 10-20 cm long. 

Its small, yellow flowers are fragrant and located in leaf axils or branch tips. They are radially symmetrical with triangular petals. Its pedicels are up to 3 mm long. 

The small, brown fruit is a winged nut. The single-seeded nut is approximately egg-shaped with a pointed tip. It has 2 long wings about 5.5 cm long and 3 short wings which promote seed dispersal by wind. The texture of the seed is smooth. The fruit contains only one seed. 

This species is used to treat a variety of ailments, such as diarrhoea, and gum inflammation. It is also used to help wounds and sores heal. The wood is not easy to cut, but it is very durable and strong. It is often used to make boats and canoes.

Peltophorum pterocarpum

Peltophorum pterocarpum commonly known as Yellow Flame is native from India and Sri Lanka, through Southeast Asia to Northern Australia. It is from the family Fabaceae.

Reaching a height of 25 m, the Yellow flame is a deciduous tree with a crown shaped like an umbrella. Its leaves are bi-pinnate and reach to 60cm in length, with 16-20 pinnae attached. Each pinna has 20-40 oval leaflets, each 0.8-2.5cm long and 0.4-1.0cm in width. 

Flowers are bright yellow and grow in clusters on upright stalks. They have orange stamens and, crinkled petals with a reddish brown mark in the centre. It would be fragrant particularly at night. These flower clusters would then develop into seedpods of about 5-10cm long and 2.5cm broad. Trees will flower after 4 years. Flowers may occur throughout the year for younger trees, however, flowering usually occurs from March-May and a second flush of flowers may occur in September-November in Singapore. 

Seedpods are flat, thin and winged. In the initial stages seedpods are red, and then gradually turning black. Its flowers are pollinated by insects. There are currently two individuals of Peltophorum pterocarpum listed as Heritage Trees in Singapore. One can be found at Jalan Tan Tock Seng, while the other at Singapore River bank.

Roystonea regia

Roystonea regia also known as the Royal palm is native to the region South Florida, Mexico, Central America and Caribbean. It is from the palm family, Araceae.

This tall and attractive palm is able to reach a height of 25m. The single trunk is massive and often has a presence of a bulge that is slightly towards the middle of the trunk. The crownshaft is glossy green, smooth and up to 2m in length. It is topped by a crown of leaf fronds. The fronds are simple, pinnately-compound (feather-like) and are up to 3m long. The fronds appear tangled in appearance. Dead leaves are self-pruning and fall off the plant as single whole fronds. 

Cream-coloured, small, and unisexual, flowers are separated on same plant. Clustered in threes with female flower in between 2 much larger male flowers, the flowers are borne on large, much-branched panicles (up to 1m across) below crownshaft, emerging from horn-shaped bracts. The flowers are pollinated by insects like bees, ants, beetles, flies, thrips, and wasps. 

Fruits are round to oval, they mature from green to brownish-red or dark purple and are single-seeded. The Royal palm is a fast-growing ornamental palm that looks especially impressive when formally massed along avenues and boulevards.

Cocos nucifera

Cocos nucifera or commonly known as coconut palm is native to Originally Western Pacific but now known as Pantropical. It is part of the Araceae family.

The tall, slender, grey, stem reaches a height of 30m. It is often ringed with old leaf scars that is produced when the leaf dies off, leaving a neat rectangular pattern of circular scars as they fall off cleanly from the trunk. Fronds are large and are up to 5 m long. Yellowish-green to dark green in colour, ascending to spreading to drooping, bearing 80 to 100 pairs of leaflets that taper to a split tip. They have prominent elevated midrib and the leaflets are simple, 1.5 to 5 cm wide, 50 to 150 cm long. Spreading, 1.2 to 1.6 m long, the inflorescence are cream to yellow. 

Arising from within the lower fronds, and consisting of 5 female flowers, each set of five are between 2 smaller male flowers which are enclosed by two bracts that are 60 to 90 cm long for protection purposes. The inner bract is woody and pointed while the male flowers will open about 10 to 20 days to encourage cross-pollination, before the female flowers open. 

Fruits are egg shaped, that measure up to 30 cm long, ripening from light green or yellow to brown. They consist of a smooth outer skin (exocarp), a fibrous husk (mesocarp) and a hardy woody shell (endocarp). The seed has a narrow, white layer of edible endosperm (known as coconut flesh) and a large cavity filled with water. (known as coconut juice) 

Other than the popular coconut juice, flesh, oil and milk, the coconut has also other uses like the youngest part of the shoot makes a succulent vegetable and is edible. The midribs of the leaves can be used for making brooms or it can be cut into short sticks to make skewers for the kitchen and darts for blow-pipes. The leaves are also utilised for roofing thatch and for weaving of baskets. The thick outer husk is a source of fibre which can be used to make doormats, brushes, ropes, carpets. The water can be used in culutre media for growing of orchid seedlings or in tissue culture. Almost all parts of the Coconut palm can be used.

Lagerstroemia speciosa

Lagerstroemia speciosa, also known as Rose of India, Pride of India, and Queen's Crape Myrtle is from the family Lythraceae. It is native to the Indian Subcontinent, Southern China and Indochina.

This small tree can grow up to 20m in the wild, but in an urban area, it usually grows up to about 15m. This is because the terminal branch growth is halted by every blooming period. Thus greater tree heights are attained under more forested conditions, where blooming is delayed as a result of more abundant moisture. 

The crown is dense and broadly conical when young, but it becomes rounded, relatively low and pendulous when older. Simple and oppositely arranged, the leaves of the Pride of India are broadly oblong and somewhat leathery, with prominent veins on the underside of the leaf. Young leaves emerge glossy red, turning pinkish, light orange, light green and then finally green. Old leaves wither to orange-red before being shed. The tree is drought-deciduous, shedding leaves over a few days or gradually over a few months, depending on the severity of dry period. 

Conspicuous and measuring 5-7cm across, the flowers only shed 2-3 days later. The 6 papery-wrinkled and crepe-like petals turn from pinkish-purple to fading white before they shed. They are pollinated by large bees. Flowers are held in elongated panicle inflorescence that is 30-40cm long, sticking out from the crown, with individual flowers opening progressively from bottom to top of panicle. It blooms several times per year, with flowers appearing with new shoots. Blooming often more spectacular in climates with distinct dry-cool weather, taking place from late summer to autumn. Its fruits are woody dehiscent capsules, around 2cm across. 

They are seated on persistent woody calyx and mature from green to brown, splitting radially into 6 parts when ripe. Only larger flowers in cluster set fruits. The seeds of the Lagerstroemia speciosa are numerous, small (165,000-235,000 dry seeds/kg), triangular, flattened apically winged and dispersed by wind.

Couroupita guianensis

Couroupita guianensis, commonly known as the Cannonball tree is from the family Lecythidaceae. It is native to Costa Rica, Panama, French Guiana and Tropical South America.

It is a medium sized deciduous tree reaching a height of 35m.

Its leaves are smooth to slightly velvety with serrate margins. It is simple and arranged spirally at the ends of branches. As the species is semi-deciduous, it shed its leaves around once to twice a year, usually in response to dry weather. The leaves grow up to 15 cm long.

Measuring 7.5cm to 12cm in length, the flowers that grow directly on the bark of the trunk are pollinated by bees and bats. The complex nectarless structures each consist of 6 large and fleshy-waxy petals that are red to orange on the inside and yellow on the outside. Flowers last only a day, but several are produced at any one time throughout the year.

The tree bears fruits directly on the trunk and main branches, large globose woody fruits which look like big rusty cannonballs hangs in clusters, like balls on a string. Some can grow up to 24 cm in diameter. The long dangling fruity branches give the tree an unkempt appearance. Some fruits take 18 months to attain maturity. Upper part of fruits crack open upon dropping to the ground, exposing 200-300 hairy seeds embedded in 6-segmented jelly-like pulp that oxidizes from white to bluish-green and emits an unpleasant fermented-like scent when exposed to air. In native range, fruit pulp eaten by wild animals like pecaries. The fruit contains small seeds in a white, unpleasant smelling edible jelly, which are exposed when the upper half of the fruit goes off like a cover. The hard shells are used to make containers and utensils.