Tabebuia are in flower July 2012

Last week (17 July 2012) I noticed the big tree in my condo car park was flowering. I have never seen this before. And I saw many of the same trees flowering in Ipoh along the main road around Simpang Pulai.

Pink against blue

The trees are Tabebuia, or trumpet trees. They are native to America. They only flower in the dry season. And Malaysia is going through a dry period even though the SW monsoon has started.

Tabebuia is widely used as ornamental tree in the tropics due to its impressive and colourful flowering. Because a lot of the leaves have dropped off in the dry season, the flowers are even more conspicuous.

The flowers come in various colours ranging from bright pink, light lavender to white. They are tubular in shape, like a trumpet. Different species are known as Pink Trumpet Tree and White Trumpet Tree.

White and lavender (above) and white (below)

The flowers only lasted about a week. As they were falling in the wind it looked like it was snowing! A carpet of flowers

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission

Old parts of Brickfields

I read in the New Straits Times on 22 July 2012 that more parts of old Brickfields would be pulled down for development. Already a lot of the old Brickfields has been lost, and there are lots of new highrises, especially around KL Sentral. The old police station closed down as well as the Pines restaurants.

It seems that the 100 government quarters along Jalan Rozario will be the next to be demolished. These are the rows of double storey link houses, between the Vivekananda Ashram and the old green by the traffic lights. The houses have relatively recently been renovated. The green or padang by the traffic lights disappeared when the Little India developments happened. Luckily one tree was spared.

100 govt quarters and the back alleys -

1997 view of the tree

Same tree in 2012 but the field has gone

Vivekananda Ashram

Fresh milk

Methodist school, and tree in school grounds

Jln Padang Belia where the old buffalo sheds were, the kandang kerbau

Old and new -

Blind society , printer

Paper supplier (above), old house -

This tree was in a car park in 2008, same car park 2012

This building is now occupying the car park
Old shop houses with washing hanging out

Siewdor, used by high ranking police 1967- early 1980s

Siva temple 70 yrs old

I will put the temples in a separate album.

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission