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SCMP Reporter

One of the most noticeable plants growing wild on the slopes of Mid-Levels is the Scarlet Sterculia. 
This prominent plant flowers in May producing a bright red star-shaped flower on bare leafless branches. It is this fiery bright flower which has earned it its common name of the bonfire tree. 
The Sand Paper vine or Tetracera Asiatic is a flowering climbing shrub which is found in areas where there is clean, fresh water. 
It produces a beautiful white flower. It gets its common name as the sandpaper vine or tin-leaf vine from its rough leaves which in the past were used as sandpaper for sanding wood or filing finger nails and polishing tin.
The attractive Chinese fan palm or Livistona Chinensis is also a Mid-Levels plant which in the past has proved to be more than just decorative. 
A hardy, slow growing plant, the fan palm has tough fibrous wood which our ancestors would bind to make brooms, umbrella handles and walking sticks while its distinctive fan-shape leaves were made into fans and hats to provide shade from the hot summer sun. 
The Cyathea Lepifera is one of the Mid-Levels rarest fern trees. It grows up to 3 metres high and is relatively hardy and can withstand Hong Kong's coolest winters.
The new unfurling fronds of the Cyathea fern have a distinctive shape which looks like the spindly arms of a spider monkey: a feature which has earned it is common name of the flying spider monkey tree.
The Giant Alocasia also gets its common name from its resemblance to part of a wild animal. Its huge glossy green leaves are similar in shape to the round ears of the African elephant and hence its name as the elephant ear plant.
It is a tropical-looking plant which grows in abundance throughout Hong Kong and can reach up to 2  metres in height while its giant leaves will grow to about  half a metre in length. Its sap can cause skin irritation.
In Hong Kong's past, the huge leaves were used as decorations on fruit stalls and as place-mats for displaying fruit. In some countries, the leaves with their stalks intact have  a different use - as impromptu umbrellas for people caught in sudden rain showers.
Another tree found on the slopes which has long had a practical use is the Camphor Tree, or Cinnamomum Canmphora, a tall tree with a huge, dense canopy of foliage. The Camphor tree can be found all over southern and eastern China and is also widely grown in Japan.
Its leaves are white on the underside and its veins take the shape of a bird's claw. When crumbled, they emit the smell which gives them this tree its insect repellent properties.
In the past, people would store clothes in trunks and cupboards made of camphor wood to stop them being infested with insects. Today, the camphor balls you buy and place in drawers and wardrobes are infused with camphor which is extracted from the bark of the tree and refined.
Another tree easy to spot is the Ficus Variegata, or the Common Red Stem Fig. These trees produce clusters of green figs throughout the years.
Inside each fig are hundreds of tiny flowers which are pollinated by a specific species of tiny wasp, sometimes called the fig wasp, which climb into the fruit in search of somewhere to lay eggs. When the eggs hatch, the females carry the pollen with them when they leave, taking it into other figs to pollinate flowers and begin the cycle again.
These figs are an important food source for a wide-range of  insects and wildlife, including fruit bats, several types of butterflies, birds and beetles.



Mother Nature gets up close and beautiful