botanic

SINGAPORE BOTANIC GARDENS

The Botanic Gardens, situated a few blocks away from the bustling Orchard Road shopping district, has been acclaimed as one of the most outstanding tropical gardens in the world. Originally a tiger-haunted jungle partly used for the cultivation of spices, the site was transformed with skill and sensitivity into a park landscape, beginning in the 1860s. Today, wide sweeps of lawn break into terraces, marshes, lakes, rockeries and many other scenic diversions that dramatise the fall of the land.

Covering an area of 54 hectares, the garden serves the scientific community and is also a verdant haven for family outings, band concerts, school field trips and a host of other activities. Found within the compounds of the garden are two lakes, the Orchid Enclosure-Cum-Nursery, the School of Ornamental Horticulture, a small portion of near original rainforest and an office complex. An additional 20 hectares house an arboretum and other exhibits.

A living museum of tropical plant species culled from the equatorial regions, visitors can find a splendid display of about 550,000 species all in all. Each being carefully labelled with scientific information, the Garden's flora shows a fair distribution of plants that are useful and scientifically important as well as those that are aesthetically pleasing. Without question, the Botanic Gardens is both a national monument and an institution of international repute. With further developments in the pipeline, we can quite confidently witness the Garden securing the position as one of the world's leading equatorial gardens in the coming century.

| Pasir Ris Park | Telok Blangah Hill Park |

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