SINGAPORE BOTANIC GARDENS
In 2015, the Singapore Botanic Gardens, under the management of National Parks Board, became the first place in Singapore to be inscribed as a Unesco World Heritage site. It was established in 1859 by the Agri-horticultural Society with a layout in the English Landscape Movement’s style, which was popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1874, it was handed over to the British colonial government and a series of Kew-trained botanists saw that it blossomed into an important botanical institute over the next few decades.
In the early years, the gardens played an important role in fostering agricultural development in Singapore and the region through collecting, growing, experimenting and distributing potentially useful plants. One of its most important successes was the introduction in the late 1800s of the Pará Rubber tree, which originated in Brazil and became the source of the trees that kick-started this region’s plantations.
From 1928, the gardens spearheaded orchid breeding and started its orchid hybridisation programme, facilitated by new in-vitro techniques pioneered in its laboratories. The naming of new hybrids after VIPS, termed orchid diplomacy, began in 1957 and has become a closely watched event – with international media even speculating whether former US president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would receive the honour during their 2018 summit here (they didn’t).
While important foreign dignitaries such as current US vice-president Kamala Harris who visited our shores this August tend to receive one, there are also flamboyant celebrity orchids named after stars like Elton John, Ricky Martin and Shah Rukh Khan. Our favourite, however, is the elegant Spathoglottis Jane Goodall.