Wild love on Sentosa's shores
Ron and friends were out on Sentosa today. We were joined with the Republic Poly sea cucumber team led by Amy, and also Teresa and Tia.
While the sea cucumber folks and Siti checked out echinoderms and seagrasses via the short cut, the rest of us took the 'adventurous and character building' longer route.
The tall cliffs and weird rock formations along this route were awesome. Chay Hoon christened the rocks 'Petra Pink'. Ley Kun waxed lyrical about them endlessly. Andy pointed out the rock pools that were full of amazing animals!
As we turned around the corner to the reef proper, we were astounded by the countless floating white specs on the water among the seagrasses of Sentosa. The white specks look like styrofoam and were sprinkled on the water all around us. Some gathered together in large flotillas.
The Tape seagrasses (Enhalus acoroides) were blooming like crazy!
The little white specs are the male pollen that float on the surface. The 'frilly portion' of the male pollen repels water while the opposite end is attracted to water. Chay Hoon demonstrated this with little pollen 'standing' up on her wet hand!
The female flowers, we observed, had water repellent petals (see the curvy water around the petals). The petals closed together when the flower is submerged. But when the flower peeked out of the waves, the petals floated upon the water surface to expose the innermost portion. Probably, only the innermost portion between the petals is NOT water repellant.
This must be how male meets female! Ah! Mystery of Seagrass Love finally explained.
The little male pollen are produced from bracts that appear at the base of the seagrass (left). While the female flower is held up on long stalks, to reach the water surface. When pollinated, the female flower turns into a large furry fruit (right).
Just when we thought we had seen it all, Siti calls us over to see a fruit that had just opened up to release its little seeds! Wow, I've never seen this before!!
Sentosa is of course more than just seagrasses. The reef flats have lots hard and soft corals.
Today for some reason, the coral rubble was colourful with all kinds of encrusting lifeforms.
The Republic Poly team will no doubt blog about the sea cucumbers they saw. While we await a more delicious and R(A) rendition of seagrass love by Budak on his blog.
It may not appear like much from a distance, surrounded by busy shipping and artificial beaches, but this little hidden shore on Sentosa is very much alive with natural marinelife.
We hope it will remain that way for all Singaporeans to enjoy.
While the sea cucumber folks and Siti checked out echinoderms and seagrasses via the short cut, the rest of us took the 'adventurous and character building' longer route.
The tall cliffs and weird rock formations along this route were awesome. Chay Hoon christened the rocks 'Petra Pink'. Ley Kun waxed lyrical about them endlessly. Andy pointed out the rock pools that were full of amazing animals!
As we turned around the corner to the reef proper, we were astounded by the countless floating white specs on the water among the seagrasses of Sentosa. The white specks look like styrofoam and were sprinkled on the water all around us. Some gathered together in large flotillas.
The Tape seagrasses (Enhalus acoroides) were blooming like crazy!
The little white specs are the male pollen that float on the surface. The 'frilly portion' of the male pollen repels water while the opposite end is attracted to water. Chay Hoon demonstrated this with little pollen 'standing' up on her wet hand!
The female flowers, we observed, had water repellent petals (see the curvy water around the petals). The petals closed together when the flower is submerged. But when the flower peeked out of the waves, the petals floated upon the water surface to expose the innermost portion. Probably, only the innermost portion between the petals is NOT water repellant.
This must be how male meets female! Ah! Mystery of Seagrass Love finally explained.
The little male pollen are produced from bracts that appear at the base of the seagrass (left). While the female flower is held up on long stalks, to reach the water surface. When pollinated, the female flower turns into a large furry fruit (right).
Just when we thought we had seen it all, Siti calls us over to see a fruit that had just opened up to release its little seeds! Wow, I've never seen this before!!
Sentosa is of course more than just seagrasses. The reef flats have lots hard and soft corals.
Today for some reason, the coral rubble was colourful with all kinds of encrusting lifeforms.
The Republic Poly team will no doubt blog about the sea cucumbers they saw. While we await a more delicious and R(A) rendition of seagrass love by Budak on his blog.
It may not appear like much from a distance, surrounded by busy shipping and artificial beaches, but this little hidden shore on Sentosa is very much alive with natural marinelife.
We hope it will remain that way for all Singaporeans to enjoy.
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