Carnivorous Plants, from Legos

Southeast Asia is famous for diverse and bizarre insectivorous plants.

For example these Nepenthes pitchers, seen in Seattle's Volunteer's Park Conservatory. About five inches long, the pitchers capture and digest insects to provide essential nutrients for the plant. Carnivorous plants are most diverse in low-nutrient ecosystems such as tropical bogs.

So I was pleased to see Nepenthes pitchers at the Gardens by the Bay in Singapore.

But wait! those aren't plants, those are built from legos!

Visiting Singapore--Gardens by the Bay

We stood astonished. Huge metal "trees."  This was Singapore. On the Equator, with lush plants but also industrialized and high-tech. So: a tree-like metal framework for tropical vines.

   
Here is how they looked from a distance, from a second or third story walkway.

Visiting Singapore--Sky scrapers and rainforest

Another place that energetically celebrates Chinese New Year is Singapore. (The traditional celebration went for many days, so you could still be celebrating new year for a couple of days into March 2013.)

Singapore is a complex, bustling mix of English, Chinese and Malay cultures, plus many smaller ones. When I was there in 2010, much of the rest of the world was in a recession but the economy of Singapore was strong.