Friday, September 24, 2010

Diversity of Flora and Fauna of Jurong Lake Park

Hooded Pitta Hooded Pittas can reach a length of 16 to 19 cm and a weight of 42 to 70 g. Theis diet consists of various insects, which they hunt on the ground, and berries. In the breeding period, which lasts from February to August, they build nests on the ground; both parent take care of the eggs and the fledglings. They are highly territorial and their fluty double-noted whistle calls can be constantly heard from their territories, sometimes throughout the nights.


Red-winged starlingThe male of this 27-30 cm long starling has mainly iridescent black plumage, with chestnut flight feathers, which are particularly noticeable in flight. The female has an ash-grey head and upper breast. The juvenile resembles the male, but is less glossy than the adults, and has brown rather than dark red eyes. The Ethiopian subspecies 0. m. rupelli is longer-tailed than the nominate form and intergrades with it.


Cerbera odollam/Pong-PongThe kernels of C. adollam contain cerberin, a potent alkaloid toxin related to diqoxin, a poison found in foxglove. The poison blocks the calcium ion channels in heart muscle, causing disruption of the heart beat. This is most often fatal. Cerberin is difficult to detect in autopsies and its taste can be masked with strong spices.


Coconut Tree The coconut palm is grown throughout the tropics for decoration, as well as for its many culinary and non-culinary uses; virtually every part of the coconut palm can be utilized by humans in some manner. The queen palm was originally classified in the genus Cocos along with the coconut, but was later reclassified in Syaqrus.


Saga Tree/Abrus Precatorius The seeds are also often used as beads and in percussion instruments. The seed contains the poison abrin. The plant is native to Indonesia and grows in tropical and subtropical areas of the world where it has been introduced. It has a tendency to become weedy and invasive where it has been introduced.


Moss Fern/Fern

Ferns first appear in the fossil record 360 million years ago in the Carboniferous but many of the current families and species did not appear until roughly 145 million years ago in the late Cretaceous. Ferns are not of major economic importance, but some are grown or gathered for food, as ornamental plants, or for remediating contaminated soils. Some are significant weeds. They also featured in mythology, medicine, and art.

Mushroom A mushroom is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. The standard for the name "mushroom" is the cultivated white button mushroom, Aqaricus bisporus, hence the word mushroom is most often applied to those fungi that have a stem, a cap, and gills on the underside of the cap, just as do store-bought white mushrooms.

Squirrel Squirrels belong to a large family of small or medium-sized rodents called the Sciuridae. The family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, marmots (including woodchucks), flying squirrels, and prairie dogs. Squirrels are first attested in the Eocene, about forty million years ago, and are most closely related to the mountain beaver and to dormice among living species.

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