Serendipity strikes at the Vailima Botanical Garden

Serendipity strikes at the Vailima Botanical Garden



Entrance to the Vailima Botanical Garden

On a recent weekend I decided to go down to Mulinu’u Peninsular to take some photographs of some plants and landmarks (I will be posting the photos in a number of posts later on). Afterwards I decided to go on for a drive on the East Coast Road and take some photos. However, I had this strong feeling of unease about going and just after the bridge at Letogo I decided to listen to my intuition and turned around opting to go up to the Vailima Botanical Garden instead and maybe up to Tiavi also.

When I got to the Vailima Botanical Gardens there were two cars and a motorcycle parked in the small parking lot and not a soul to be seen. I took a couple photos of some Ixora that were in the parking lot and made my way through the main entrance although to be honest I was already disappointed as for a botanical garden what I could see through the chain link fence was pretty dismal.

Ixora (flower buds)

No doubt Cyclone Evan is in part to blame but there really was not much to be seen. There seemed to be some effort to make paths and beds but there was not much growing so I moved along up to where the path to the Pool of Apaula’s Tears and the start of the trail known as O le ala o le alofa which is usually translated as the Road of loving Hearts although as with Robert Louis Stevenson's Samoan name Tusitala being translated as Teller of Tales I have serious issues about the accuracy of the translation but will address that in my blog "The Blood of Souls" which is about language, etymology and translation since this blog is about plants and critters.

Ixora

Since there are two ways to get to the top (short and steep or long and gradual) I am not sure which one is the original trail cut by those bearing Stevenson’s body up to his final resting place.

I know from previous visits that often there are quite a lot of nice plants that flower along the trails in ideal locations for photographs. That is no rubbish or other human detritus to detract from the photos. But as I approached the start of the trail I saw a sign advising that the trails were closed due to damage by Cyclon Evan and any entry was at your own risk.

Aside from the questionable legal ethics and issues inherent in an official notice stating that the trail is closed and then leaving it open to people to take at their own risk ... I decided that I did not really feel like scrabbling over fallen trees and missing bits of trail especially in jandals with my camera.
Instead I decided to go to the pool and take some photos for a post I want to write for another blog as well as some other writing projects. But again I was thwarted this time by the sound of laughter and splashing and the realisation that some people were no doubt having a Sunday swim. As I did not feel like dealing with people and have never been comfortable taking photos when people are around staring at me I decided that the whole trip had been a bust and that I would do better to come during a week day when the only likely visitors would be tourists if anyone is there at all.

Many-coloured-fruit-dove Ptilinopus perousii

I was just near the gate when a movement in a tree caught my eye so I stopped and all of a sudden the whole trip was salvaged and more than worthwhile because perched up there without a care in the world was a bird I’d never expected to see. A Many Coloured Fruit Dove (Ptilinopus perousii) known in Samoan as a Manuma.

Many-coloured-fruit-dove Ptilinopus perousii

Although the distance was perhaps ten meters or so and the lighting not the best due to the angle of the sun not to mention that the dove was partially hidden by leaves I managed to zoom in and take some photos. Then as I fiddled with the camera, keeping it focused on the dove as I tried to switch through the options to video (to get a clip for the Internet Bird Collection) I accidentally got a setting that greatly improved the lighting and contrast.

Many-coloured-fruit-dove Ptilinopus perousii

After taking a number of photos I decided to try and get some photos from the other side of the tree. Exiting the botanical gardens I saw that I could actually get a much clearer shot of the dove even though it was from behind. Still, it turned its head a few times as if to let me get it in profile. Then lo and behold it turned around and gave me an excellent frontal view turning its head to either side every now and then as if posing for me.

Many-coloured-fruit-dove Ptilinopus perousii

When it finally flew off I was quite satisfied as now I had some pretty decent photos of a bird I had been hoping to see but doubted I would ever get to see.

Many-coloured-fruit-dove Ptilinopus perousii

I ended up going up to Tiavi as well as Papapa Falls and got some more excellent photos including some of a Cardinal honey eater ... which I will share in a later post.
Incidentally after looking it up on the internet to confirm my identification and find the binomial name I saw that it was indeed a Many Coloured Fruit Dove but more specifically a female as the males have more white plumage and lots more colour as well.

Many-coloured-fruit-dove Ptilinopus perousii

Getting There

Take the Cross Island Road up to Vailima. When you approach the big white concrete and Iron fence of the Vailima Estate take the small road that runs along the side towards the mountain. The car park is clearly marked.

Additional Information:

Binomial Name: Ptilinopus perousii

Common names: Many Coloured Fruit Dove (English) Manuama (Samoan)

Taxonomy

• Order: Columbiformes - Family: Columbidae - Genus: Ptilinopus - Species: Ptilinopus perousii
•  Order: Gentianales - Family: Rubiaceae – Subfamily: Ixoroideae – Tribe: Ixoreae – Genus: ixora

References:

Wikipedia Entry on Many-coloured fruit dove LINK

The Internet Bird Collection LINK

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/

· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/

· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

More flowers and random kitten cuteness

More flowers and random kitten cuteness

This is Pebble looking thoughful ... for once. Usually he leaps into action before thinking although he is usually able to figure out how to get out of trouble when things get ... complicated.

The Pink Orchid Tree  is flowering AGAIN. Oh and I have 4 seedlings that I found under it which I assume are from seeds that dropped and germinated. I need to try and harvest the seed pods and germinate some myself.

This  is Ghost cozening  up to Brown Dog. They are best of freinds and Ghost has a strange habit of sticking his face in her fur and then doing the whole kneading thing.

Bleeding Heart

Gloriosa superba ( Gloriosa lily, glory lily)

Rocky a.k.a Nirvana Kitty / The Benevolent One ... in this instance looking very guilty because I was telling him off after catching him climbing the new shelf on which I had moved all my Zepheranthes rosea (Pink Rain lilies).

Photographic evidence. Unfortunately it only proves he is able to climb up NOT that he is responsbile for the paw prints amongst the squashed seedlings. I have covered the seed trays with coco wire to hopefully avert any further damage.

 Dwarf Red Ixora

 Dwarf Red Ixora

Blue Iris (Neomarica?)

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Additional information:

Here is a list of my blogs:

·         Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/

·         The Blood of  Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/

·         Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

Transplanting cuttings

Transplanting cuttings

About a month after making a whole variety of cuttings from Cordyline fruticosa (Ti Plant) to Gardenia jasminoides Gardenias and Ixora I am now starting transplanting the plants into individual poly bags or into the ground.

These Ti cuttings have different root development due to my having made the cuttings over a period of several weeks.

This is one of the nicest examples of root development that I had. There were about ten cuttings in a big poly bag of river sand.  I also have ten smaller cuttings which I planted directly into 3/4 inch bags. The ones that were in the sand have been carefully transplanted along one side of the driveway. Earlier on I had planted a whole batch of cuttings directly into the bed on the otherside.

Here you can see the different stages of root development. Ideally I would have preferred to have them like the plant on the right. Now I know that I should leave them in for at least four weeks for the plants to develop roots of that extent. In any case all the Ti cuttings I prepared have survived.
However, next time I will make sure I do not mix cuttings started at different times in the same bag because the faster and better the root development the faster the plant will become established and grow. Unfortunately given the space available ... that is dog safe space I only had one big poly bag of river sand and another bag of soil.

For the Gardenias I used river silt in a seed tray 6 x 10 which gave me 60 plants per tray. I only did one tray because I was not sure what the result would be. In all I got 56 plants. The other 4 that did not make it were due to the silt being washed out of the holes and the cutting dying. So I would say that the success rate for rooting Gardenias is quite high.

For both the ti plants and the Gardenias I kept the sand or silt moist and in partial shade. I do not have a greenhouse / shadehouse or even shade cloth put up but although the area they were in gets some direct sun they are shaded by the house and a large mango tree and lemon tree.
River sand seems to work best in keeping the stems moist while providing good drainage. My main problem was keeping them from being disturbed which would damage the emerging rootlets.
Just today I discovered that one of the cats (Lamuja the mother cat) has just decided that one of the seed trays with hedge cuttings makes an ideal soft and cool spot to lie on.

I  think that the Gardenias I have are Gardenia jasminoides  but I am not 100% sure.

Here is an interesting plant I came across driving  in Safatoa Lefaga. Apparently the Samoan name is Ava o le Pusi which means The Cat's Whiskers. I have not yet identified the plant. I was kindly given four young plants which are now recovering.

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.
 

Additional information:

·         Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters)

·         The Blood of  Souls (language, translation and etymology)

·         Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general)

References

Whistler, W. Arthur, “Wayside Plants of the Islands. A Guide to the Lowland Flora of the Pacific Islands including Hawai’i Samoa Tonga Tahiti Fiji Guam Belau”, Isle Botanica, Honolulu, 1995.

ISBN 0-9645426-0-9