I made 2 relatively short explorations in the same nearby nature park recently, about 6 days apart. Each walk last about 3 hours. On any field trips, I was always looking out for plants that were flowering or fruiting, paying special attention to those that rarely do so. Usually, I will spot a few of them. It was no different this time round.

One of them was the tree, Berrya javanica (Java Berrya). This was a non-native species planted in the park probably in the more recent era as it was not listed or mentioned in any of the local publications so far. The then unknown tree came to my notice in 2015 when it was fruiting with bundles of dried, wing-liked fruits looked rather unique. Over time, I was able to observe its flowers more closely but no luck with its identity after serval years. A few years back, I chanced upon a picture of its fruit from the Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants website that finally solved the mystery.

When I first spotted the tree, I thought it was the Cola Tree (Cola gigantea) which had large leaf with long leaf stalk as well. But Cola’s leaf was less elongated compared to that of Java Berrya tree. Their fruits were also very different.

My next move was to look up online for local plants with similar-looking fruits to hopefully narrow down the plant family. The one that came close was a native forest tree species, Pentace triptera from the Malvaceae family. A follow-up online search for Malvaceae in Singapore yielded nothing close to Java Berrya tree. Moreover, this family had more than 4000 species which made it hard to filter the candidate further. With no further clue in sight, I sort of left it on the unknown shelf until the picture from the Australian website came along years later.

In the recent most trip, I had managed to take a closer look at its fruits that were littering the path where the tree stood. After taking apart the dried fruits, small bean-like seeds could be found in the chambers. The fruit that I dissected contained 8 seeds in there. Seedlings could be seen sprouting under the tree. It seemed that this tree species was adapting very well to our local condition and likely to become a naturalised species.

Even today, online information of Java Berrya tree was still relatively scarce. There were many pictures of Pentace triptera online with the most extensive one from Cerlin Ng’s album (over 200 of them!). As for the Cola Tree, I had yet to collect its pictures for my website. I was aware of a very tall one in a nearby park. Hope to take some pictures soon to add to my collections.