This is one of our gorgeous indigeneous trees that are preserved at the beautiful KLCC Park. It bears bright yellow flowers that appear intermitently on the trunk and larger branches. The flowers which turn from yellow to orange to red as they mature look like big cauliflowers. These 'cauliflowers' measure up to 17 inches. The tree is medium sized. It can grow to a height of 15-20 ft with a spread of 8-10ft.
“The Yellow Saraca Thaipingensis Tree At KLCC Park”, a copyrighted post, was written for My Nice Garden blog by Autumn Belle @ http://www.mynicegarden.com/ on August 19th, 2010.
Scientific name: Saraca cauliflora
Synonym: Saraca thaipingensis
Family: Fabaceae (Leguminosae)
Native to: Malaysia and Indonesia
Common names: Yellow Saraca, Yellow Ashoka, Handkerchief Tree
Malay name: Pokok Gapis or Gapis tree
Category: Evergreen tree
Category: Evergreen tree
The signage at KLCC Park reads as follows:
Habitat: Found along forest streams, in damp but well-drained grounds.
The tree is from the Taiping town (in Perak state, Malaysia)
A spreading tree that grows up to 10m with a dense crown. It has large leaves.
Flowers are clustered, apricot-yellow, fragrant.
Seedpods are large, flat and dark-purplish red.
The timber is used for temporary light constructions, packing cases and wooden pallets.
The roots are used to make 'parang' (a Malaysian machete) handles.
This tree is grown for its beautiful foliage and flowers. The new leaves are pink or purplish in colour and they are produced in flushes, appearing soft and hanging limply from the branches, earning the name "Hankerchief Trees". Later the leaves will stiffen up and turn green within a week or so.
Grow in full sun to partial shade. Propagation is by seeds. Can be grown as an ornamental tree in gardens for its foliage and flowers.
I extremely delighted to receive a bounty of seeds sent by Wendy of Greenish Thumb blog. I was one of the lucky recipient of her First Blogiversary Giveaway. I am ecstatic and jumping with joy. Yay, yay yay! This is the first time I am receiving real seeds sent all the way from a foreign country, i.e. from Maryland, USA! Wow!
Today, I would like to dedicate this post to Wendy and I also have a Chinese legend to tell.
This picture was taken at the Art Gallery of Perak Cave Temple, Ipoh.
It is a hand painting by an artist and it depicts a fairy from heaven.
A Chinese Valentine's Day: A Late Summer's Tale
On Monday, August 16th, 2010 was the 7th day of the 7th month of the Lunar Calendar. Long ago, until the mid 20th century, we celebrated this 'Valentine' festival of romance between "The Cowherd And The Weaving Girl".
It is the story of a fairy princess from heaven, the grandaughter of the Heavenly Mother. She was Weaving Girl and the clouds in the sky are her handiwork. Bored with life in heaven, one day, she got into mischief and came down to earth with her 6 other sisters. She was the 7th and the youngest. In the events that followed, she was accidently left on Earth where she met a young and handsome cowherd called Niulang and both of them fell in love. They had a pair of kids, a girl and a boy but their happiness was shortlived. As it was against the rule for a Fairy Princess to marry an earthling, The Heavenly Mother was very angry when she found out and the pair of lovers were forcefully separated. Seeing the heartbroken Niulang, his ox began to talk and asked Niulang to slaughter it and put on its hide so that he could fly to heaven. When Niulang reached heaven, The Heavenly Mother was very angry to see him. She used her hairpin to scratch a wide river in the sky to separate the lovers. The river became The Milky Way with Weaving Girl on one side (the star Vega) and Niulang (the star Altair) taking care of their kids on the other side, forever separated. The magpies took pity on them and once a year, all the magpies in the world will gather together to form a bridge in heaven so that the lovers can be reunited again on this single night of the 7th day of the 7th lunar month.
You can find more details about this 2,000 year old legend by clicking this link: Wikipedia, Qixi Festival, (七夕节).
In the prayer ritual which my grandmother told me, ladies used makeup, flowers, fruits, sweet cakes and sewing/embroidery kits to pray to Weaving Girl, wishing to be blessed with beauty, excellent living skills and a good husband. Gentlemen used clothes, comb and wallet to pray to Niulang for good looks, job opportunities, money and a good wife.
At this age and time, this festival is no longer practised and almost forgotten in Malaysia but it is still celebrated in Taiwan, China and maybe Hong Kong.
We may see the story retold in movies and drama serials. In the 2010 remake of The Karate Kid, Jackie Chan's character attends this festival with his female friend and sees the story reenacted in a shadow play.
This is my entry for Fertilizer Friday. To visit other great FF posts, please visit here.
This is also my entry for Today's Flowers, please visit here.