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Exotic Heliconias
 Heliconias, over the past ten years or so has become increasingly popular as an ornamental, as well as cut flowers, in this country. In the inaugural issue of Gardenasia, we featured heliconias and Prof Halijah wrote on the Morphology of the genus. Gardenasia issue/volume 1 is now out of print so we are reproducing the paragraphs here in this issue for the benefit of our new readers. We were introduced to heliconias by Mushlim Musa of Desa Paku, in Malacca, when he was importing the exotic plants from South America and Australia for the collection in his private show garden. That was more than ten years ago and now heliconias have become a familiar feature in gardens and landscaping in the cities in this country.
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Growing With Enzymes
 Angela Percival has been in touch with us, sharing her experience in gardening using natural products especially for control of pests. We visited her to learn more on her home made enzymes. Angela’s house is an end lot and thus has ample space for planting. She has extended the house to have a terrace, a space where she can have breakfast or tea surrounded by her plants. The lawn has plantings only bordering the wall and so gave the area a spacious feeling.
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UPM Aromatic Garden
 Horticultural or plant therapy is not new in medicine. It was introduced since the 19th century to help in healing sick patients. Positive effects of beautiful plants or gardens in triggering serenity and management of stress have been widely recognized. Thus, it is now a must for hospitals to have plants or gardens as a recreational facility for the patients.
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Speaking of Gardens & Parks |
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National Park - Taman Negara
 We have added Parks into this column as we realise that our gardens are begining to merge into the tropical look of our forest, because that is where our source of plants and trees come from. Landscape architects and garden designers are now more and more inclined to use jungle species in their design since they realise that our flora would stand the ravages of tropical weather better than the imported exotics. As we speak of parks we include our National Parks as well.
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How Plants Are Named
This issue, we feature Cycas revoluta, although commonly called Sago Palm due to their palm-like habit, are not related to palms but associated to conifer and ginkgo trees belonging to the group Gymnosperm. Also featured are Couroupita guianensis and Cosmos caudatus.
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Scribing Michelia
Michelia champaka is an ever flowering tree that gives an abundance of fragrant blooms, all year round. Having one in the garden not only gives you a constant supply of scented flowers but will also bring in the feathered visitors.
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Serai Kayu (Syzygium polyanthum)
Do you usually pay attention to what sort of vegetables that you eat when you are eating out? If you do, were you able to recognise all of them? Many Asian dishes are simple - some served with raw vegetables after thorough washing while some dishes have leaves added for flavouring purposes.
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The Environmentalist
I have jumped off a plane less than two days ago and just finished my night survey for amphibians, had a quick wash, input the data, read some papers and when I have exhausted all my options, watched all the episodes of “Glee” that I brought with me that week. With nothing else to do, here I am waiting for sleep, which is looking as elusive as it has been the past couple of days. I finally shut my eyes for what seemed like a minute when my alarm goes off at 6am. Time to go to work.
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Vernonia cinerea (L.) Less
For many centuries, communities have been using parts of plants for the cure of skin ailments. Later, with modern medicine, cures came in the form of creams and oral medications. Some contain parabens or steroids. With the return of interest in herbal cures and traditional medicines, much have been done to study the plants that are known to contain compounds that can help in alleviating the sufferings of skin ailment patients.
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