Flowers And Animals

Flowers, seasons and animals are bonus tiles that never go in a set. In Singapore Mahjong each animal earns 1 tai, and each flower or season matching your seat earns 1 tai.

Bonus tiles never go in a set, yet they hand out tai all game. Here’s which ones are yours, what they pay and what to do the moment you draw one.

The Bonus Tiles

The four flowers and the four seasons, numbered 1 to 4.

A Singapore set has twelve bonus tiles, one of each:

Four flowers: Plum, Orchid, Chrysanthemum and Bamboo.
Four seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.
Four animals: Cat, Rat, Rooster and Centipede.

None of them can be part of a Chi, Pong, Kong or Eye. When you draw one, put it face up beside you and draw a replacement from the other end of the wall. If the replacement is another bonus tile, do it again.

Which Flower Is Yours

Flowers and seasons go by their printed number, matched to your seat:

1 (Plum, Spring): East, the Banker.
2 (Orchid, Summer): South.
3 (Chrysanthemum, Autumn): West.
4 (Bamboo, Winter): North.

Your own flower and your own season are worth 1 tai each. Everyone else’s are pretty, but pay you nothing. Go by the number, not the colour, as colours differ between sets. Your seat moves when the deal passes, so a flower that was yours last hand may not be this hand.

The Animals

Cat, Rat, Rooster and Centipede.

Animals belong to nobody’s seat. Each one you hold is worth 1 tai, whoever you are.

They also come in biting pairs: Cat bites Rat and Rooster bites Centipede. Your own flower and own season together make a marriage (kahwin, as the table says). This game pays for those pairs as soon as you collect them, separately from the tai you count when you win, and a pair in your opening deal pays more than one completed later.

Full Sets

Bonus tiles at a Singapore table
Table	Called	Worth
Singapore	Your Own Flower Or Season	1 tai
Singapore	Each Animal	1 tai
Singapore	All Four Flowers Or Seasons	1 tai
Singapore	All Four Animals	1 tai

Collect all four of a family and it adds more. All four flowers, or all four seasons, add 1 tai on top of your own flower’s 1 tai: count each tile once, and don’t add your own flower twice.

All four animals are 1 tai each plus 1 tai for the set, which reaches the usual 5 tai from bonus tiles alone. All eight flowers and seasons is a separate win: see Eight Flowers.

Remember that any bonus tile spoils Ping Hu, even one that pays you.

At Other Tables

Hong Kong has flowers and seasons but no animals. Your own flower is 1 faan, a full set of four is 2 faan, and holding no flowers at all is worth 1 faan, so a stranger’s flower can cost you.

Malaysian 3 Kaki adds face tiles and Fei. Nobody sits North there, so the number 4 flower and season count for everyone, and a hand with no bonus tiles at all pays the limit. Riichi plays with no bonus tiles.