"Springtime of sorts" in Penang

Angsana in bloom

Bungor (purple flowers) and Flame of the Forest (red flowers)

April showers in Penang comes after a period of drought of 3 months. The cloudless skies during the drought means more sunshine and daylight hours and together with the coming rains in april trigger off the flowering of trees and plants.......the longer the drought the more dramatic the flowers. A synchronous mass flowering of trees particularly in the northern states of the Peninsula (Perlis, Kedah, Penang & Kelantan) occurs once in three or four years......they are a sight to behold.....(yet many in penang are oblivious.....)

The most showy ones are the Angsana and the Flame of Forest (Semerak api) and in Penang, the Bungor (purple) and Jacaranda......the roads in Penang are sometimes littered with yellow confetti made up of fallen petals of the Angsana flowers........ a dangerous hazard to motocyclists as the wet petals after rain makes the roads slippery.....