Rangoon Creeper Vine (Combretum indicum / Quisqualis indica) Single-Petaled Floral (WILD)

 

INTRODUCTION:

I actually found this particular vine growing wildly along the roadside, often time to time a grass cutter or City Hall workers will clear and cut down this wild shrub, however this one will spring back to life due to the strong well developed root structure which had grown over the years. These root-ball had grown so well that it had stretched itself and spanned over the whole roadside plain.

Due to the abandoned and grown wildly, this particular plant had developed spikes and thorns along the vine to add it to climb above the tree trunk to receive more light - and therefore helps more blooms.

However the downside of it - where it is not manually pruned to create a well balanced structure and the vines spreading everywhere - it may have to discount on the blooming factor where the plant is very much focus on plant growth.

Combretum indicum / Quisqualis indica is commonly known as Rangoon Creeper Vine is a tropical vining plant that is native to Asia from surrounding regions of India to South East Asia and also found in the tropical regions of Africa.

FLORAL BLOOMS:

As I have mentioned earlier where I had found this grown in the wild, abandoned areas - these flowers are not as showy or graceful due to the lack of care and cultivation - hence the flowers are very much sparse and appear to be insignificant.

Even the flower buds are very much produced in a singular cluster rather than multiple cluster.

FOLIAGE AND VINE STRUCTURE:

Here I want to show you how disarrayed it is in appearance when it is not pruned and properly cultivated into one single main stem plant, the vines are scattered everywhere and the plant can't focus its direction on it's growth. It does appear like ground cover plant with shrubs and vines evey where - almost like a jungle / forest appearance. 

It amazes me to note, what a singular plant can actually do, though it appears to be a colony - it is actually one singular plant that creates this jungle like structure on forest floor.

Another factor due to the lack of lighting received from the forest floor -the leaves spanned on bigger in pairs and have a fan like appearance and cascade in layers.

The growth of the vine often appears as such that it will shoot up first and then cascade all the way down and the flowers in pendant formation, creating the chandelier kind of effect. It can be slightly frustrating to actually identify the main vine as they are very much inter-twined.

CATERPILLAR:

I was very much shocked to find a huge caterpillar consuming this plant - it was need camouflaged with the environment , almost like a twig sticking together with it.

Commonly known as he castor semi-looper or croton caterpillar (Achaea janata) is actually a moth found around the Indo-Australian tropics and subtropics and throughout the world.

The moth however does not have a strong visual features, usually in brown tones and considered as a pest due to the crop damage.