Fruiting Dipterocarps at MacRitchie

Have heard from SY that the dipterocarps at MacRitchie were fruiting too, and thus last Sunday (2 Aug 2009), I decided go to take a look. I started at the MacRitchie Nature Trail near the main entrance, headed towards the HSBC TreeTop Walk, looped around Golf Link before heading back to the main entrance.

Indeed, there were lots of dipterocarps fruiting! Unfortunately, being no forest expert, I was not able to identify them. So here's just a quick photo listing of the things I saw. Will be really grateful to anyone who can help with the ID :P


The beginning of the trail was mostly secondary forest plants, but about three-quarter of the way, I started seeing giant towering trees - the dipterocarps, indicating that I had entered the primary forest patch.


About the same time, I also noticed some winged fruits on the forest floor! These are probably fruits of a Shorea sp. Each fruit was about 5cm long.


Not too far away, I saw quite a number of these much bigger fruits. Each wing was about 10cm long. Looks like a Dipterocarpus kunstleri, but can't say for sure.


Not too far away, I found 2 of these much larger ones (on the left), with the wing about 15cm long. Not sure if they were the same species, but I only found these 2.


Around the same area, I found lots of these fruits, probably from another Shorea sp. Each fruit was about 5cm long.


Not far away, the ground was covered with these smaller winged fruits, each between 2-3cm long. They could be the fruits of Vatica sp.


Among the small fruits, I found this bigger one. It looked different from the earlier Dipterocarpus sp., with some elaborated flap-like structure on the main fruit. Could it be a Dipterocarpus sublamellatus?


As I walked on, I cam across more fruit trees. These look like the ones I first saw, but again, can't say for sure.


A number of them had in fact grown roots already.


You can see how many fruits there were above. Simply uncountable!


And then, I came to this patch with lots of Dipterocarpus kunstleri fruits on the forest floor.


One of the fruits almost hit my head when it dropped down from the tree! There were so many of them every where! I also saw some monkeys eating the fruits, which I will blog in a later post.


Some of the fruits were kind of purple in colour, which I assumed just dropped recently.


This one looked like an immature fruit.


I walked on until I reached the ranger station near the TreeTop Walk before I found more dipterocarp fruits. These were about 5-6cm long.


Among the fruits I found earlier, I also found many of these smaller ones, about 4cm long. They look rather different, but not sure if they were Shorea gibbosa.


At the same area, I found one single fruit that looked like the Anisoptera megistocarpa I saw when I was at the Singapore Botanic Gardens, but like I said before, can't say for sure.


Not too far away, I found these fruits which were about 6-7cm long. The seed looked more rounded too.


After the TreeTop Walk halfway through the Petaling Trail boardwalk, I found these dipterocarp fruits, probably Dipterocarpus grandiflorus, by the side on the forest floor. They were like more than 20cm long - the biggest I have seen so far!


As I proceed on along the boardwalk, I came across several of these fruits, probably Shorea sp.


At the end of the Petaling Trail, they were almost every where on the forest floor!


I headed towards Golf Link, and eventually reached Lornie Trail which had quite a number of these fruits that looked like Anisoptera megistocarpa.


And again, I came across this fruit which looks like Dipterocarpus sublamellatus with elaborated flaps.


This looks like the one I found near the ranger station.


At one point along Lornie Trail, the forest floor was covered with these fruits which looked like Shorea sp.


And the last dipterocarp fruit I saw was another these with elaborate flaps on the seed. Dipterocarpus sublamellatus?

It took me about 8 hours to walk one round around MacRitchie Reservoir including the time spent on photo taking - a very tiring but certainly, a very fruitful day!