Flowers and Fruits of Caesalpinia crista

It appeared to be the flowering season for Caesalpinia crista now! I have been seeing the flowers and even fruits in several of my mangroves, including Pulau Ubin and my trip to Punggol last week. Thought I will do a short blog on this since this is not something I often see throughout the year.


The flowers are yellow in colour, clustering to form a branched inflorescence. The fruits (on the left) are somewhat semi-circle in shape.


As this mangrove climber is often found creeping over the canopy, they are sometimes mistaken for the flowers of the Yellow Flame, a coastal plant which also has yellow inflorescence but flowers more frequently. And as I was taking photo of this plant, I suddenly saw some movements. Can you spot the animal that made the movement in the above photo?


It was a Green-crested Lizard (Bronchocela cristatella)! It's always nice to see our very own native lizard at our nature areas, instead of the exotic Changeable Lizard! :)