Contributors
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Chong Kwek Yan
Kwek Yan is a graduate student with the Plant Systematics Laboratory at the Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore. The total flora of Singapore project is the fruit of his undergraduate Honours year research thesis. His research interests are: alien plant naturalization and invasion, phylogenetic community ecology, urban ecology, plant biodiversity and conservation. He also struggles to keep up on topics and taxa that his supervisors and lab mates work on, such as: plant phylogeny and systematics, pollination and seed dispersal, fig ecology and aroid diversity in Singapore. Other wandering interests include herpetology. He has recently been hauled up to a Johor Bahru court of law for jaywalking, and has been the laughing stock of Malaysians and Singaporeans alike ever since.
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Alex Yee
Alex is a final year undergraduate student at NUS. He has been with the Plant Systematics Laboratory since he did his Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program in Science (UROPS) project in his second year (which was about compiling a checklist of beach forest species for the Southeast Asian region). Having thoroughly but perversely enjoyed himself, he went on to do another UROPS in his third year, mapping out the vegetation types in the Central Catchment Nature Reserves. He is now producing a vegetation map of the whole of Singapore for his final year project. His (dried and shrivelled) dream is to do some real plant systematics, especially on the Smilacaceae family, but also seems to have found a new love in Landscape Ecology. He screams at the sight of blood and regularly talks to small figurines of anime characters (small girls) on his desk.
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Teo Siyang
Siyang is a research assistant under a joint project between the Plant Systematics Laboratory and the School of Design and Environment. His earlier encounters with anything photosynthetic includes spending his final undergraduate year researching on coral productivity in the Marine Biology Laboratory. He also have a fetish with sea cucumbers and butterflies. However, when it comes to gastronomic preferences, he gives anything short of the Ipomoea genus a wide berth. His dress sense and great rail-perching skills have convinced us that he truly lives in Hougang. After his latest trip to Vietnam, he has further strengthen his resolve to get a Vietnamese bride.
Website
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Chung Yi Fei |
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Yeo Chow Khoon |
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Louise Neo |
We warmly welcome any offers of additional information or suggestions for corrections! Simply leave a comment on this page.
Author guidelines for species write-ups
General Comments
Please use the Syngonium podophyllum entry as an example when you write a new entry. Although the purposes of our blog are (1) to facilitate community contributions to our collective knowledge of local flora and (2) communicate this information in an accessible and readable manner to the general public, a pain-in-the-ass consistent format will make the entries look neater and presentable while maintaining a high quality of science. Blame this on my indoctrination by one of my thesis supervisors! I have already tried to keep housekeeping rules to a minimum and as painless as possible.
Photographs
To reduce the size of the blog, upload photos at the exact resolution as it will be displayed in the blog. Crop away unnecessary background and zoom in on the feature you want to show.
Add a caption below the picture in the following order: Location; Habitat; Year when the picture was taken. Put ‘cultivated’ for the habitat if it is a cultivated plant. Photographs not belonging to any of the contributors need to be acknowledged as follows, e.g., Photograph © Tan Ah Lian.
Add the picture description in the alternative text, i.e., the words will show up if the mouse is hovered over the picture.
References
References should be cited as much as possible, and the full reference added to the Bibliography page.
If the essay-writing becomes painful, you can choose to just lift entire sentences or keywords from the reference source, but use the quotation box to enclose it. See examples. There are two main aims for adding details: (a) if it aids in identification or (b) if it points towards ecology of the plant, such as pollination, dispersal agents or adaptations.
Main Entries (in consecutive order)
Entry Title
Entry titles should be the Species name, without sub-specific epithets or authorships. See the example entry.
Species Name
Full species name with authorship, listing sub-specific taxa if present and known.
Status
State if native or exotic (or "likely exotic" or "possibly native" for those which we are not sure of), and conservation status if native, or naturalized status (casual or naturalized, or invading natural habitats, or only cultivated etc). If not cultivated only, please state if cultivated at all.
Recent Synonyms
List synonyms used in recent literature. See example.
<first slot for a photograph, if the best or only available one does not fit into the categories for the other slots>
Growth Form or Habit
Should at least state if woody or herbaceous, preferably whether tree or shrub (for woody), prostrate or creeping or erect (for terrestrial herbs), climbing or epiphytic (for non-terrestrial herbs). Even better if can provide an estimate of size (or height from ground for epiphytes and climbers). Qualifications and intermediates, such as "shrub or small tree" or "sometimes climbing (scandent)" or "hemi-epiphytic" are okay, as long as comprehensible.
<another slot for a habit shot>
Leaves
Should be described at least whether compound (and degree thereof) or simple, type of insertion, sessile or petiolate, and margin type. Texture, odour, size, shape, stipule and venation descriptions are appreciated. The thing to remember is that this should help identification of a vegetative voucher as much as possible without being unreadable. Choice of technical terms should keep to those that are easily google-d or wiki-ed.
<a slot for a photograph that shows a whole leaf – diagnostic features best>
Stem
Information may not be always available or even useful. Some possible information can include whether stems are hairy or presence of prickles or thorns. Special roots such as aerial or prop roots can also be mentioned. State also presence/absence of vegetative propagation. More helpful than words is…
<…a photo, if it helps in identification>
Ecological interactions with fauna or other flora involving vegetative parts e.g. hosts caterpillars, can be mentioned here in a new paragraph.
Flowers
Can be described in terms of colour and whether it occurs solitary or as an inflorescence. A rough adjective for size is sufficient e.g. large or tiny. What would be really great is…
<… a shot of a whole inflorescence, that helps in identification>
Pollination syndromes can be elaborated on in a separate paragraph here.
Fruits
Should be described, when photos are not available, whether simple, aggregate, or an infructescence, and whether dehiscient or not when dry, or colour if fleshy, etc. Rough sizes and special structures are good. If seed descriptions are more helpful for pointing out ecology, such as presence of an aril, please provide.
<shot of whole infructescence and/or seed(s)>
Dispersal syndromes should be mentioned in a separate paragraph here.
Habitat
Full range of habitat types can be listed if known.
Occurrence
Approximate locations in mainland Singapore can be listed if rare, or if exotics are invading native habitats. Offshore islands can also be mentioned.
Distribution
Gives the geographic range of the species. Approximations, such as "Tropical Asia" or "Malesia" are fine.
Other information
Can be mentioned if useful or interesting, especially relating to ecology. A description of how to tell apart similar species is encouraged. Also can include common names.
More pictures can be found at
List other sites which require permission to post, such as Flickr or hobby blogs.
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lekowala said
Hi Guys,
Nice effort, I didn’t know this existed. Well Done!
Cheers,
Adrian Loo