It is about time for me to get back to my Weekly Notes series that I had left off in August 2017. I had been spending less time in the nature stuff in order to balance my time on other activities. Nevertheless, I was glad that some folks are still very active in this area, sharing interesting finds in nature that they have uncovered.

Many of you reading such nature stuff would already know that the latest new pictorial book in town on nature Singapore is from Jon Boon and his co-author, Louise Neo who conducts botanical research in the National University of Singapore. This book titled "Wayside Flowers of Singapore" released recently in May is the second book by Jon Boon that showcase the beauty of the often overlooked wild flowers around us. These flowering plants come in different forms and sizes, some are native while others are results of cultivated species escaping into the wild. Comparing to the first book published in 2012, the current book had expanded its content in term of both quantity of plant species displayed as well as the quality of information.

Although I have been in this "trade" for slightly over 10 years now, there are still a few plants mentioned in the book that I could not get hold of a picture yet. For examples, Japanese Mazus (Mazus pumilus) and Baby Jump-up (Mecardonia procumbens). A few of the plants are relatively rare and had yet to be included in the Singapore flora checklist published in 2009. One of them is Pygmy Bishop's Hat (Mitrasacme pygmaea) which I had only seen in one location back in 2011. Unfortunately, the location had been cleared for housing estate several years ago. Indeed, someone had written to me in January to seek confirmation that this plant is found locally.

Wayside flowers have their own set of beauty. Pictorial books on them are hard to come by. The new book will again serve to close the information gap with the most up-to-date encounters of these plants in Singapore and hopefully will kindle some interest in folks on these plants.

And yes, I did grab my copy last weekend from a Popular Bookstore. I certainly look forward to more of series of such books in the coming years.

Related Notes: | 3 April 2016 |