Another Visit to Sengkang Riverside Park

I didn't have much time to properly explore the new Sengkang Riverside Park the last time, and hence I decided to visit it again on 26 Nov 2010.


The park is located at Anchorvale Street along Sungei Punggol. In the middle of the river is a constructed wetland that collects and filters rainwater naturally through its aquatic plants.


Many of the aquatic plants were flowering, and attracted several sunbirds. There were also several herons and kingfishers, but unfortunately I did not get any decent photos of them :P


The Water Horn Fern (Ceratopteris thalictroides) that I spotted during my last trip was still there!


Next to a patch of pandan leaves, I saw a lonely Crinum Lily (Crinum asiaticum). Suspect it's either a naturally occuring one, or the workers planted it here wrongly, as there was a planted patch not too far away. I later found a naturally occuring Crinum Lily among the mangroves plants though. Was quite sure it is not planted as it was a very mature plant right among the other wild mangrove plants.


Standing on the bridge over the constructed wetlands, you could see the nice stretch of mangrove trees on the river bank.


I did not really find any rare true mangrove species, but most of the usual suspects can be found here. The most abundant mangrove tree should be the Api-api (Avicennia alba). I later found a few Avicennia rumphiana and Avicennia officinalis too!


Several mature Mangrove Apple (Sonneratia alba) can also be found here.


There were several Bakau Putih (Bruguiera cylindrica), including a few young ones.


I also saw a few Bakau Kurap (Rhizophora mucronata), with their long seedlings. Some people actually use these seedling to cane their children, and they supposedly do not leave much markings!


Among the minor local mangrove species, I only saw the Blind-your-eyes (Excoecaria agallocha)...


and Dungun (Heritiera littoralis).


There were quite a few mangrove associates though. As per the other mangrove forests in Singapore, I saw many Sea Hibiscus (Talipariti tiliaceum) trees. The flowers only last for a day - starting off yellow in colour, and eventually turning orange towards the end of the day. It will usually drop off the next day.


The rather similar-looking Portia Tree (Thespesia populnea) was interestingly rather abundant here.


I saw a young Mangrove Trumpet Tree (Dolichandrone spathacea), but did not see any mature plant.


They authorities planted quite a few trees too, including the Sea Poison (Barringtonia asiatica), which was fruiting. The seeds are ground into powder in some places and used as a poison to stunt fishes. The poison is destroyed when the fish is cooked.


Several Mempari (Pongamia pinnata) were also planted. All parts of this plant are also poisonous. The oil extracted from the seeds is known as honge oil, and has been used in soap making, as a lubricant and as lamp oil for thousands of years!


I found a few Wild Jasmine (Clerodendrum inerme), but mangrove climbers on the whoel were certainly not as abundant as other mangrove forest in Singapore, since Sungei Punggol had already been made into a reservoir and the water was no longer brackish. Most of the climbers I saw were the usual secondary forest climbers instead.


Another mangrove climber I saw was the Sea Derris (Derris trifoliata), again another poisonous plant.


I later went over to Serangoon River, and again saw the same old usual mangrove plants. An exception was this naturally occuring Yellow Flame Tree (Peltophorum pterocarpum). Naturally occuring Yellow Flame Trees are considered to be critically endangered in Singapore, even though there are many planted ones in parks and along the roads! Wild Yellow Flame Trees can still be found on some of our islands, such as Pulau Ubin, Pulau Semakau and a few other of our southern islands.


Saw several of these birds at Punggol, but can't remember its name and too lazy to search my books. Have seen it several times at Semakau as well, and the name is definitely in my head some where. Maybe I'll remember it after a while. Haha...