The Mickey Mouse Plant

Year end in Malaysia must be the best.....except for those taking their year exams, of course.:- ) ! I like year end, as the days seemed cooler with more rain and cooler temperatures.  There is also lots of breeze, at least in this part where we live. My plants of course seems to like it too.....somehow they looked healthier and  greener especially my rose plants !   Must be the high humidity from the frequent rains and drop in temperature at night.   However more rain means I have to weed more and prune more.....all part of a gardener's lot!  I don't mind weeding.  Sometimes I come across strange young  plants.  If it looks like an interesting plant from the look of  its foliage,   I let the plant grow a bit before I decide if I should pull it out. 

One interesting plant I came  across is this Mickey Mouse Plant.   I believe the birds must have dropped the seeds  in my garden.  I am not sure if the right name is  Ochna kirki, Ochna Serulata or  even Ochna integerrima) .   The flowers and leaves all looked similiar in the photographs ....  !

{Check out these sites :  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ochna_serrulata ,http://toptropicals.com/cgi-bin/garden_catalog/cat.cgi?uid=Ochna_integerrima , http://www.desert-tropicals.com/Plants/Ochnaceae/Ochna_thomasiana.html}

Anyway, I recognized this plant because of its slightly serrated (fine bristles) oval shaped leaves.   Many years ago, I noticed this strange looking huge hedge grown near my in law's house.  If you have checked the sites mentioned above, you too would have noticed the unusual flowers of bright yellow yet there are those red "flowers" with the black seeds looking a bit like  the Mickey Mouse cartoon.  Since both  colors  appeared on this hedge so prominently, I was curious enough to take a close look..  Later  I checked it out  in books  written about  tropical plants as well search on the internet. for more information.  I was so caught by this plant!   Then about a couple years back  I noticed that  the lady two doors away from my mother's house  actually has this plant as well. This lady  has the Mickey Mouse plant  growing as  a small  young tree (about 4 feet high)  with  the combination of pretty yellow flowers and red 'flowers' growing on the ground in front of her gate.  That was how this plant attracted my attention as well. 
 
So it seems pretty much a coincidence that I should find these young plants (yes, not just one, actually four or five) sprouting up in my garden.......The answer came one day  during one of my evening walks down the road from my house . A neighbor's house actually has this beautiful plant as well, but she grows hers in a pot , it is still a  small plant about 3 feet tall or so. The bight yellow flowers caught my eye!

Yes,  I dug out  these precious young plants.  I now have two growing very well. The others  probably did not like being disturbed.   I have one growing in a pot and another growing  on the ground.....I am keeping my fingers crossed that both will continue to do well....Take a look.

The potted one....

Notice the fine serration (bristles)  on leaves...

The one on the ground......!

These two young plants are very nice looking,  I think.  I am not sure when they will bloom maybe a couple of years?  

Now I am not sure what is the name of this plant,  but  this little  butterfly seems to like it.......This plant is from my neighbor, she said the flowers are fragrant but only open at night. This plant has not been thriving, perhaps the soil is too wet for its liking or it does not like direct sunlight......! It has been growing very slowly. When my neighbor gave it to me about a year back (gosh, is it a year already?), it was just a leaf and some roots......!