My Lamma Forums

[Lamma-Gung]

Hello everybody,

While taking pictures around Lamma Island, I came across these amazing-looking fruits on a tree besides the road, halfway up to Tai Peng.

Does anybody know what they are called, in English or Chinese? Are they edible? What can they be used for? Any info would be most welcome.

[zep]

The tree bearing the fruit is Sterculia lanceolata - the "common name" is given as Scarlet Sterculia, but that doesn't sound much commoner than the Latin name. There are descriptions and pictures (not quite as good as yours) in two Urban Council books, Hong Kong Trees, by S.L. Thrower and Hong Kong Fruits and Seeds byT.C Godfrey.

There seem to be a number of these native trees on the path up to Tai Peng, the biggest just behind the "bus shelter" - there are also quite a lot around the Peak area.

Zep

[Lamma-Gung]

[zep]

The red flower is a Hibscus - lots of varieties in Lamma gardens - nice picture. Not sure about the others, except for the banana and the pawpaw. I assume one of the others is a jak fruit - I've seen them growing in the gardens on top of Pak Kok village. And another looks like the huge Eucalyptus on the Tai Peng path.

Interesting that so many trees planted here seem to be from Australia or other places outside Hong Kong or the East Asian region. I'm not a botanist, by the way. If there are any real ones out there maybe they can put me right.

Chi Sin Gweilou? No, I think it was worth the embarrassment for the fine pictures!

Zep

[Lamma-Gung]

Thanks for your help, Zep!

Your comments were most helpful!

I did a bit of online research after you told me the name of the Scarlet Sterculia (cool name! It would make a good username on this forum) and found quite a lot!

I've been thinking of changing my avatar (the little picture on the left) to the Hibiscus blossom above, with my initials added (L-G for Lamma-Gung):



What do you think? Maybe a bit too sissy for a grumpy gnome like myself (see left)?

I love flowers but couldn't admit this in a pub...

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By the way, what does Zep stand for? Zeppelin? If yes, here's a great avatar you could use:

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Going to Hung Shing Ye for lunch yesterday, I've shot another two rolls of film. I wonder what the results will be.

Digital photos would be easier, cheaper and so much faster, but I haven't found a digital camera yet that's as good, powerful and cheap as my stone-age SLR 180mm zoom camera. I've used three generations of digicams since about 1995 (Apple Quicktake, anyone?). But their quality is still not good enough for professional use, except you're willing to pay far beyond US$1,000...

Maybe somebody here on My Lamma has a semi-professional digicam to sell for a good price? Minimum 3M pixels and 5* optical zoom...

[zep]

"Zep" is in fact nothing to do with zeppelins - it's an incarnation of my own name (Geoff) as pronounced by some of my Papua New Guinean friends when I was working over there, and it stuck.

But, I've never been offered an "avatar" before, so I suppose it would be churlish to refuse! (I hadn't actually seen the word until a couple of days ago).

The Scarlet Sterculia - they seek him here, they seek him there - sounds like another good identity. If you have pictures of trees, the banyan trees - those huge fig trees with with dramatic aerial roots hanging down- would also be a good choice, as in Yung Shue Wan (= Banyan tree Bay) - there are some good specimens around Tai Peng.

[Lamma-Gung]

[Lamma-Gung]

[john]

Actually the photo is not of a banyan tree. The big mutilated tree outside the Regent Store is a Ficus Elastica (Indian Rubber Tree). Same family but a bit different.
John.

[hissing sid]

One further note regarding the STERCULIA LANCEOLATA the males open much earlier in the year than the females.

[zep]

Thanks Sid for that - i didn't realise that there were male flowers on the same tree until you mentioned it. I've searched but can't find any - probably becuase they are earlier as you mention. I did notice a good covering of (female) flowers in early spring though and was waiting for the first scarlet fruits to appear.

Perversely, the large Sterculia behind the "bus shelter" on the way up Tai Peng Hill has started to shed its leaves in the middle of summer. I did notice a few scarlet fruits appearing, though, next to the path from Pak Kok village to the Pak Kok point.

[Lamma-Gung]

The Sterculias are fruiting again all over the island right now. Here's one in the jungle above the first phase of the harbour reclamation:



This Sterculia fruits topic was one of the very first on Lamma.com.hk, soon after it started on July 23, 2002. Almost one year later now, first anniversary coming up...

[zep]

The name Sterculia sticks in the mind thanks to Lamma-Gung's publicising the scarlet fruits of our native variety. So I was interested to see this tree - another and quite different species of Sterculia, in the Brisbane botanical gardens.

[Lamma-Gung]

This is one of the oldest topics in this forum. I started it almost 7 years ago as "Anybody know this fruit?", just a few weeks after the forum opened on July 23, 2002.

The Scarlet Sterculia (Sterculia Lanceolata) fruits are ripe once again!

They look so much like dates, it's tempting to try one. In the 7 years of this topic we haven't established yet if these are edible for humans!
Some birds seem to like them and being on a high-fruit diet myself I wouldn't mind expanding the range of fruits species to enjoy in my müesli...

These photos were taken this early morning on the top of the Snake Path to the windturbine, in Tai Ling. This is easy to get to in under 10 minutes, as it's just a 12 minute walk from Main Street to Lamma Winds.
Sorry for flashing this fruit, but it was shot from below inside the dark bushes, in-between several huge Woodland Spider webs...

[Lamma-Gung]

I've just found this fruit in the Lamma Forest above Pak Kok Village. I don't recall ever seeing one like this before, it's 11 inches long!

Anybody got an idea what it is?

I wonder if I can get this fruit to grow in my new rooftop garden?

[Lamma-Gung]

An Alert Reader and nature lover has just replied to my query:

"Did you know the pods in the middle image of your story 'Harvest Season in the Lamma Forest' possibly contains poisonous seeds? if indeed it is the same plant ... From Hong Kong Shrubs (Hong Kong, 1976), p. 93:

Strophanthus divaricatus
Common name: Goat's Horns

'The seeds of this species are probably very poisonous as other related tropical species yield an active poison, strophanthine, which has been used for poisoning arrows.'

and from http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache:gTtlzhQuabUJ:www.hkmj.org/article_pdfs/hkm0810p405.pdf+Strophanthus+divaricatus+toxic&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=hk&client=firefox-a:

'Besides Rhododendron, more than 100 toxic plants have been identified in Hong Kong and some are extremely poisonous. Among them, Datura metel (洋金花), Strophanthus divaricatus (羊角拗), Gelsemium elegans (斷腸草) and Strychnos angustiflora (馬錢子) are collectively known as the ‘Top Four Toxic Plants’ (四大毒草) in Hong Kong.' See below.

(at least three of which are found on Lamma! Not sure about Gelsemium Elegans.)"

After this email, I couldn't resist to open my Goat's Horns seed pod, of course. I compared the look of the leaves with some Internet photos of Goat's Horns and it's this exact plant alright, but it's not ripe yet and the seeds haven't fully formed yet, it seems.

A really nice discovery in the Lamma Forest! Has anybody has seen this somewhere else on Lamma, easy to spot as they grow so huge, mine is over 11 inches long. Fortunately, I resisted the temptation to taste this seed pod, one of the ‘Top Four Toxic Plants of HK'!

[Lamma-Gung]

It's prime growing and bug season, but we're getting so few Flora & Fauna pictures these days.
Whatever happened to anonymous_guy, Zep, Harry_Li & friends? All of them too busy to shoot wildlife these days?

Show off your best shots in this Flora & Fauna forum to your fellow Lammaites!

[zep]

Yes, too busy, loo lazy (insert more excuses here) and it's just too hot! However, point taken. We'll be out and about when the weather gets a bit cooler. More people taking photos of wildlife would be good too.

I did hear a rumour of an exciting new bird in Yung Shue Long valley, never before photographed in this forum, so keep an eye open for news.

Meanwhile, to keep the pot boiling, here is a picture of a frangipani I grew from seed I gathered from that old tree that had dark red flowers at the bottom of Yung Shue Long valley opposite the current waste tip, (the tree is, alas, no more). The seeds were planted 3 or 4 years ago and this small tree is in a pot on my rooftop. I'd been waiting to see what the flowers were like as the flowers of some young trees grown from the same seeds that I gave to friends were red but had no smell (like the parent), while others were fragrant and yellow. This one is different again - the flowers are mainly white/yellow, with a beautiful pink tinge around the edges and in the centre, and a very strong sweet scent. Isn't sexual reproduction wonderful!