Blue Jacaranda. Taman Botani, Putrajaya, Malaysia

            Malaysia is ambitiously building an entirely new city which is to function as its administrative capital. It's about 20 km south of Kuala Lumpur on the site of what were once coconut, oil palm and rubber tree plantations. Putrajaya is an enormous, spacious place with innovative and highly modern architecture; there's an elegant thin-wired suspension bridge over the river-lake that's a got-to-see! The city already houses many governmental offices, but it's meant to be 'a city in a garden'.
Indeed, the place is replete with new gardens. There's the Taman Botani, the Taman Warisan Pertanian (Agriculture Heritage Park), the Taman Wetlands and the wonderfully landscaped Taman Putra Perdana. 
I've visited Kuala Lumpur before, but had never ventured out to Putrajaya. This morning the KLIA Transit train took me there efficiently in about half an hour and taxis were plentiful. A ride through the rolling forested hills dotted by office buildings and apartment houses for civil servants led to the Botanical Garden on the edge of a large lake.
This is a new garden, so I didn't expect any ancient trees or age-old paths. It was only officially established in 2003. Still, a visit  is highly to be recommended. The gardens are thematically laid out and finely landscaped. As far as I could tell, I was this morning's only visitor (and yet there were many tourists in Kuala Lumpur)! The receptionists were utterly friendly and informative, and gave me their material, including a nice little book on the Taman's plants, free of charge.
The day was bright and the sky blue and clear: a perfect day to be happily surprised by this Blue Jacaranda (probably 'filicifolia', but I'm not sure...).
After this visit, I continued on to the Agricultural Park, where - again as the only visitor - I greatly enjoyed yet another wonderful jaunt (although there were many mosquitoes!).
(For those with a curious and roving eye: yes, those are caesalpinia pulcherrima in the background.)
   

Taken in: Malaysia / Putrajaya / Putrajaya (show map)

Taken on: August 25, 2009

Tags:

Putrajaya, Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Taman Warisan Pertanian, Putrajaya

Taman Wetlands, Putrajaya

Taman Putra Perdana, Putrajaya

KLIA Transit

Blue Jacaranda

Jacaranda filicifolia

Malaysia

Caesalpinia pulcherrima

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Camera: Sony DSC-T900, f/4.5, 1/640 sec, 6.2mm, ISO 80 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Sony DSC-T900
Aperture:	f/4.5
Exposure Time:	0.002 sec (1/640)
Focal Length:	6.2mm
ISO:	80
Exposure Bias:	-0.3 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Center-weighted average
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
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