Name: Nazrana Khaled Group Number: B05 Matric Number: A0074726Y

A walk through Kent Ridge Park; an insight into the legacy of the ridge

The Kent Ridge Park which spans over 47 hectares is a public park, only over half a century old, which was adopted jointly by NUS and Ascendas Pte Ltd in 2002 under the Adopt-APark scheme offered by the National Parks Board. Perhaps, this is why it was so befitting that this would be our first field-trip destination and the fact that it is but a stones throw away from the Faculty of Science. The objective of our trip was to identify several species of flora (and some fauna as well) that adorn the ridge. We were given samples of the 11 or so major plant species that we would encounter beforehand so that we could easily spot them in their habitat. A large portion of the vegetation found in the park consists of secondary forest areas known as Adinandra belukar which comes from the scientific name of the dominant species Adinandra dumosa and the word belukar; the Malay equivalent of secondary forest. It is no wonder that we saw an abundance of this tree with its distinctive flowers which have their pistils sticking out. This is a keystone species meaning that it fruits and flowers throughout the year, providing a constant source of food for several species of bats and insects such as Carpenter Bees which are also major pollinators of this plant. There were several other keystone species we came across including the Dillenia suffruticosa and Ficus grossularioides. At the start of our route to Kent Ridge Park, right behind the NUS campus, Simpoh Air (Dillenia suffruticosa) was found in abundance. These shrubs have large, green leaves with highly visible secondary veins which are parallel to one another. We managed to see some fruits with the scarlet pulp-covered seeds sticking out of them and its bright yellow flowers as well. The white leaved fig tree (Ficus grossularioides) was interesting to observe since its leaves are quite peculiar (white on the underside) and it has structures called syconia which contain flowers inside them. Tiny wasps (of the Agaonidae family) can enter through a hole at the head of syconia to mate inside them. According to what we learnt from our TA, after mating, only the female wasp may emerge out of the syconium while the male is left to die inside; an interesting law of nature. Only one species of wasp has a mutualistic relationship with an exclusive species of Fig. In a recent study, (Wang et al.,2010) it has been found that fig wasps change their genotypes, phenotypes or behaviour when faced with competition from other species of wasps for the syconia of figs. Similarly, Fig trees many also adopt different strategies to aid in the evolution of their mutualistic wasps or to reduce any harmful affect by said wasps. Unfortunately, we were not lucky enough to spot any wasps inside the syconia we split open.

Other than the keystone species, there were also several exotic species of plants we came to see such as Clidemia hirta from South America, Acacia auriculiformis originating from Eastern Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Torres Straits and Northern Australia and Brazilian native Hevea brasiliensis more commonly known as Rubber Tree. I thought the fruits of the Rubber Tree were rather interesting given their pumpkin-like shape. Another peculiar species was the orange felt algae so named because of the carotenoids present in them that give them their characteristic orange appearance. Perhaps it was due to their comparatively smaller size, great camouflaging ability or the fact being that we had not been shown samples of the epiphytes that we did not spot very many of these. We did, however, see some Dragons scales (Pyrrosia piloselloides) present on the bark of a few trees. Our TA offered us to try out the dark blue fruits of the Sendudok (Melastoma malabathricum) but no one was daring enough to try one out! Not surprisingly, we were curious about the plants not mentioned in our hand-out including the tree with heart shaped petals and beautiful pink flowers our TA mentioned is called the Queen Tree in Vietnam and the Sea Almond tree with its brown, nut-like fruits. As a travellers palm tree waved us goodbye from the roadside and we approached the forest gap, we were wondering where the very elusive Tembusu tree was. We had to hold in the anticipation for quite a bit before we found the Tembusu (Fagraea fragrans) on the peak of Kent Ridge Park. It was quite a sight to see a bunch of these trees with their wonderful, fissured trunks. Next, we made our way over a wonderful wooden trail over a plantation area which had to be the most scenic part of our trip. We saw tropical rain trees and other coniferous trees here. On the way back, there were huge Eucalyptus trees with their pallid barks. It was clear in an instant if you crushed and smelt the leaves that they had the traditional medicinal smell to them. At Kent Ridge Park, we were also lucky to have spotted a Plantain Squirrel (Callosciurus notatus) prancing among the trees, probably in search of food. Of other animals we didnt see many except for a group of fruit eating bats taking their mid-day nap and a cleverly constructed round nest of weaver ants (Oecophylla smaragdina) which are well known for their terrible bites. As the day drew to an end, we were left with a better knowledge about several plants and animals that possibly didnt even get a second glance from most of us before. Personally, I enjoyed the informative tour and Im sure that if I had been there before I came to know about the ecological aspects of the various species, it would not have appealed to me as much as it had. LITERATURE CITED: Wang, R.W., Sun, B.F., Zheng, Q., 2010. Diffusive convolution and mutualism maintenance mechanisms in a fig-fig wasp system. Ecology[Ecology]. Vol. 91, no. 5, pp. 1308-1316. May 2010.