Simpoh Air

Description:

This fruit's bud has an outer color of green and red. However, the fruit has a eight petaled pod for the seeds to be in. The size is about the length of a pointer finger, whereas the bud is about the size of the top part of your thumb to the knuckle. The fruit (when opened) has a very smooth outer layer. The inside of the fruit was a little bit sticky but had a faint fragrance. This fruit apparently has a flower, however, we could not find any flowers nearby. Instead, we found the flower at a different location. The flower has a very smooth texture, and possibly has a relationship with a particular insect called the shield bug. We think this because we found a lot of this insect in the area of the flower/fruit; therefore, we believe that this might be a pollinator of this plant. The leaves of this plant had a length of 25 cm and a width of 14 cm.

Habitat:

We had found this plant in the rainforest of Singapore American School. The soil nearby has been disrupted by fences that were built to protect the students from big animals such as monkeys. Nearby, there are a lot of dead leaves as well as a small tree being very close as well as being tall. The area was not getting a lot of sunlight, but the leaves were wide so we think that because of the leaves trying to spread itself to get energy to photosynthesise, the flower/fruit is able to grow.

Notes:

On the website of http://www.natureloveyou.sg/Plant%20Stor..., it said that the Pycanum rubens was a common resident of this plant. In addition, it says that the flower attracts a variety of small to med-size insects.