"I don't want to leave the world in a state of fright. I want to know what's happening, accept it, get to a peaceful place, and let go..."
- Morrie
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Since returning to Singapore, I have not posted any blog on plants in Singapore, except for the one on our visit to the Singapore Garden Festival. This can only mean two things - either I have become, like most Singaporeans, too busy to smell the flowers, or that the flowers in Singapore are not as noteworthy as those in the US.
Photo: A flowering Talipot Palm
As I was plowing through old photos, I came across a rare photo of a flowering Talipot palm. This photo was taken at the Singapore Botanical Gardens in late 2004. You may asked, what is so special about the pictured palm? My answer: Try visualizing 20 million mini flowers on a single plant! ..
Cultivated throughout southeast Asia, a Talipot palm flowers only once in its lifetime, producing the biggest inflorescence in the flowering kingdom. The palm grows for 30 to 80 years, storing up energy and strength in its trunk to send out this massive inflorescence. The flowering stalk grows to 6 m tall and may bear over 20 million tiny cream flowers. The golfball-sized dull green fruits will take almost a year to mature. Gradually, all the food reserves accumulated in the trunk over the decades would be used up and the plant dies. In botany, this mode of life is called monocarpic which mean "once fruiting".
The Talipot seeds were introduced from the Calcutta Botanic Gardens, India in August 1920. The seedlings were planted in the Palm Valley in 1925 and after 79 years, two Talipot Palms (Corypha umbraculifera), flowered from October 2004 to January 2005. Source: http://www.bgci.org/worldwide/news/0096/
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A flowering Talipot is truly a rare and impressive sight. Prior to 2004, there were only two previous recorded incidents of Talipot Palm flowering at the Singapore Botanical Gardens; the first in 1984 and the second and last one, in 1996. But between Oct 2004 and Jan 2005, two of Talipots in the Singapore Botanical Gardens flowered at the same time. This prompted a writer to share, "to see two massive palms flowering simultaneously is a once-in-a-lifetime treat."
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I visited the Botanical Gardens then and was very fortunate to have this lifetime opportunity to see the two majestic flowering Talipots. The flowers will only last three months or so, and after the flowers turn into fruits, the plants will die. Not a bad way to exit! Indeed, I called it a "flourishing end".
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scripture: righteousness live in the fertile land. The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence for ever. My people will live in peaceful dwelling-places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.
- Isaiah 32: 16b-18
