No_4_May_and_June__1950 — Page 48

CLIMBERS

AND

CREEPERS

(Left)

Photo No. 1

From the visitor's point of view, one of the most attractive features of Hong Kong is the hilly character of the place. From whichever aspect the Colony is viewed, one is confronted with the sight of hulls rising up in varying degrees of steepness from the shore. And, of course, the buildings perched on every available spur, sometimes grouped in solid mass along the lower levels and sometimes scattered in haphazard fashion on seemingly inaccessible points, add no little measure to the admiration of the visitor.

To the builders of Hong Kong, however, this varying con- figuration presents problems of construction that add con- siderably to the normal hazards of the profession. Then, too, the provision of retaining walls enters into the site formation requirements of practically every residence erected in the Colony, these retaining walls being built of reinforced con- crete, of mass concrete, or of masonry in which rough cubes of the local granite are used.

Such retaining walls are a necessary evil but it is very seldom that they add anything of an attractive nature to the appearance of the completed building. It is practically always necessary to cover them with climbing plants and creepers before they can blend into the landscaping work that must be done to bring out the character of the building.

Through the courtesy of Mr. Dean of the Gardens Depart- ment of the Hong Kong Government, we are able, in the following article to suggest some plants which can be easily cultivated under local conditions and can be used for this purpose.

In Photo No. 1 above, which is of a high retaining wall at the Botanic Gardens itself, several different types of creepers are shown, including Thunbergia Grandiflora and its variation Thunbergia laurifolia (laurel-leaved thunbergiaj, Passiflora quadriglandulosa and Telasma cordata (Chinese violet). Thunbergia_laurifolia is a large climbing plant, native of Burma, and bears flowers almost identical with those of Thunbergia grandiflora. The leaves differ in shape, being long and tapering. When trained over a wall or fence, the large flowers, 21 inches across of the palest lavender colour with white centres and the racemes hanging vertically, make it a most attractive plant. The Telosma cordata is a vine with slender downy branches, native of India and China, and is grown for the delightfully fragrant flowers. The long- stemmed leaves are opposite, broad heart-shaped, 2 to 4 inches long. Flowers are borne in clusters at leaf axils and yellowish green in colour. In the same photograph is a large tree, Euphoria Longan, with smooth grey bark, native of the low country of Ceylon, South India, Bengal, Burma and South

China. The aril surrounding the seed is edible and sweet, but inferior to that of the litchi of the same family.

Photo No. 2 is of the Solanum Wendlandii (potato vine). This attractive climber of rapid growth with spiny stems and large deeply cut, prickly leaves, is suitable on large arbours or as a screen to verandahs etc. Flowers in large trusses, lilac blue. The plant can be grown in a pot where it produces a long stem with a terminal truss of bloom. As however they bend, really circular loops or knots can be made in the stem to obtain short plants. The plants shown in the photograph were planted three months ago. It is a native of Costa Rica and is easily propagated by cuttings.

Photo No. 3 is of a dry rubble retaining wall, quite common in Hong Kong, which ought to be covered with greenery as quickly as it is built. In this illustration the

Photo No. 2

climber at the extreme left of the picture is the Ficus pumila (creeping fig), which is a vigorous vine and a native of South China through Malaysia. It is well suited to cover stone walls to which it clings closely by means of a rubbery exudation from the roots. It needs to be trimmed from time to time to form a close mat of growth against the wall.

The Nephrolepis exaltata is a native, long narrow, fern growing in close masses. The protruding angle on the upper side of each leaflet makes it fairly easy to distinguish it from other species. It is most adaptable for vegetating a loose rubble wall. This fern is growing along the top of the wall.

Photo No. 4 shows two interesting shrubs, Caesalpinia vernalia, on the extreme left, is a large native prickly shrub, with trailing branches and large bipinnate leaves and makes a thick impenetrable hedge. The flowers are yellow, in large racemes, and appear as though they had been dusted with copper-dust. It flowers from March to April and bears pods with one, two or rarely three large flat seeds.

The shrub in the foreground is the Strophanthus divergens, a wild common shrub, abundant on the Island and the New Territories. The flowers are pale yellow, with five narrow long petals, borne several together at the ends of the lateral branches. It bears large horn-like fruits which split along one side and the seeds are disclosed. The seeds are dark brown with a turf of silky white hairs at one end. As the seeds dry, they are carried away by the wind for a very considerable distance. This plant is said to be poisonous on account of the alkaloid strophanthin which is present in the tissues.

Photo No. 8

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