Malpighia glabra

I seem to enjoy exploring the world through my taste buds. Just the word "edible" uttered by anyone I trust will see me putting whatever that item is into my mouth, followed by tentative crunching.
So it is again, but this time, unlike the last grub challenge at a Kinabalu culture village, there's no diarrhoea involved.

Taste tested the fruit of Malpighia glabra aka Barbados cherry. It was along one of the lanes of LCK (in front of the Dragon Fruit Farm), ruffled the leaves of the bush a bit to get to my choice cherry. Was told it's not ripe enough cos it was still bright red. It has to be about the colour of a dark grape for the sweetness to ooze forth. It was (in hokkein) "Siap" and bitter, the skin that is. The actual flesh was kinda sour, but on the whole ok.

Red obscura blooms!

Red Hoya obscura bloomed. Lately the Hoyas are having a field day blooming. Only my imbricata is either not mature enough or still being coy about letting loose. Hah! Orange Hoya obscura's doing much better in the new location after all. Glad and relieved.

Hoya obscura (orange)

Have had a thing for Hoyas since... Oh, I don't know... Especially love the cutsie, furry, button look of the H.obscura. Have only been able to get a faint saccharine scent, and the nectar problem is well... not a problem. This one is orange and it doesn't flower as generously as my red obscura. At least that's what I think the red one is... Can't be sure. Hoyas have always been a bit tricky for me. I will post photos of my red obscura when the current buds open up. So when I finally saw one tiny little umbel with like a sad 20-ish stars, you can guess how elated I was anyway! Initially, I thought perhaps I wasn't putting it in the right location, that's why it doesn't bloom as much as I'd like it to, but even after I moved it up to a sunny spot, still the same and what's worse is the leaves yellowed more! But at least it flowered. Don't know if I'm killing it but yes, it flowered. Finally opened up yesterday and if you live around my neighbourhood, that loud ruckus in the afternoon... It was me. teehee...

Dendrobium findlayanum

4 blooms on my latest love! Bought this beauty when I prowling the nurseries in ChiangMai after the Ratchatpreuk Flower Show in Nov06 and it surprised me by finally opening its first buds on 17th Feb! Chinese New Year! Talk about 好预兆!

I've compared it with the pictures on Field guide to the Wild Orchids of Thailand. Except for the stems, the flowers look like different plants! Mine's a fainter pink and the sepals and lip are fused together and are tinted a brilliant yellow. Take a look see. It also smells faintly of Jasmines during the day but scent goes at night. Fantastic!

The main reason I bought this is cos the shoots look so unusual, bulbous and all. Got my interest even when I don't know what the flowers looked like. 'Multi-talented'!