I went for a cycle ride in Taman Wawasan the other day. I might have mentioned this place before in an earlier post. It is a pretty park in the centre of Putrajaya. It’s like having my own private park because I am usually the only person there apart from the teams of gardeners from countries like Bangladesh, Myanmar and Indonesia who keep the park looking pristine.
I don’t know why the park is so empty. You would think that hordes of civil servants from the Ministry of Finance next door would come here at lunchtime to eat their sandwiches. Too hot I suppose.
I suspect there is not a lot of drama going on at the amphitheatre either. Better to convert it into a rockery.
It is probably time to remove the phone booths now – even I’ve got a mobile phone. The phone companies must be saving millions from not having to maintain call boxes any more.
The civil servants are missing out on the many exotic plant species found in the park. Here are a few I snapped (I looked up the names in my copy of ‘1001 Garden Plants in Singapore’ so please correct me if I have misidentified them):
These heliconia marginata look like flamingoes.
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A different type of heliconia – heliconia rostrata.
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Spathoglottis plicata or Philippine Ground Orchid.
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Lophanthera lactescens. Common name: Golden Chain Tree.
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Cochlospermum (said the Chinese fertility doctor to his male patient) religiosum. Known as the buttercup tree among other names.
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Maniltoa browneoides or handkerchief tree sprouts new growths of leaves which suddenly appear in white bunches.
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Ixora ‘Sunkist’. I have some ixora in my garden but not this variety.
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These would have been lunch if I could be sure they were not poisonous.
Taman Wawasan is a nice place to spend a couple of hours.