The British also established a few public parks, set aside forest reserves, and initiated the planting of trees, especially fast-growing varieties like Angsanas and Rain trees, along city streets. An 1873 visitor described Orchard Road, then residential, as "very pretty, being lined by tall bamboo hedges and trees which, uniting above, form a complete shade". But it was only after independence, at the very beginning of Singapore's spectactular rise as a city state, that "greening" became a matter of public policy. Concerned about the dehumanizing influence of a concrete jungle, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew presciently launched the Garden City concept in 1967, followed by an annual Tree Planting Day in 1971. The concept required vision, determination, education, hard work and money.
But it was done, and is being accomplished still by dedicated city planners, botanists, landscapers, and private residents. Old parks have been restored and new ones planted. The great Botanic Gardens was expanded and took on the task of introducing and testing plants from abroad that would add variety and interest to public landscapes. New attractions like the Zoological Gardens, the Jurong Bird Park, and Sentosa Island incorporated stunning garden plantings as well as their primary exhibits. Most of all, perhaps, non-official Singaporeans have responded to the effort, sometimes creating imaginative gardens of their own in whatever spaces are available to them and also making use of the parks, large and small, that are rarely far from where they live. The results can been seen on the following pages, a tribute to all those who have indeed made Singapore a unique City of Gardens.
Raffles Place, formerly known as Commercial Square, was built on some of the city's first reclaimed land and was given its name in 1858. Today, as before, it is surrounded by the city's financial institutions and banks. Modern sculptures are by Ng EngTeng.
Nassim Road, one of Singapore's downtown avenues, is lined with venerable Broad-Leaved Mahogany trees (Swietenia macrophylla). A native of Honduras, it was introduced into Singapore around 1876 and is a popular shade tree.
Five of the early crops that were tried out in 19th-century Singapore. Clockwise from top left: cloves, pineapples, pepper, coffee and gambier. The cultivation of pineapples endured the longest. Gambier, native to Singaproe, was the earliest agricultural enterprise.
Some Historical Notes
The evolution of Singapore into a city of gardens has been a long process going back over centuries, with the immigration of its plants paralleling the arrival of its varied population. It was influenced by outside forces, notably the search for rare spices by explorers from distant Europe, which in time led to colonization, and also by the changing tastes and interests of those who elected to settle here, most remarkably in the past 40 years.
Though Singapore's history can be traced back to the 14th century, very little is known about its vegetation. What records exist state that the island was covered with thick jungle and had fine timber trees suitable for ship-building. This is unsurprising in view of the fact that Singapore and the Malay Peninsula share the same tropical rainforest and mangrove swamp forest with fringes of coconut trees. Before the first Europeans arrived, there was active trade with China and India and points farther west, as well as links with the vast Indo-Malay Archipelago. By the time Sir Stamford Raffles founded the Settlement in 1819, Malay inhabitants were living in villages near the coast and some Chinese in the interior were cultivating gambier (Uncaria gambier) and pepper. Among the trees and plants in the dense jungle that covered the island were some that later gave their Malay names to parts of modern Singapore: Tampines (Streblus elongatus) for instance, as well as Kranji (Dialium), Tanjong Rhu (Casuarina), Katong (Cynometra malaccensis) and Tengah (Ceriops).
The earliest plant immigrants of which there are extant records and anecdotes were economic crops. Raffles, perhaps fuelled by his own keen interest in natural history, promoted agricultural development as well as trade. In the grounds of the first Government Residence on Fort Canning, then known to the Malays as Bukit Larangan or Forbidden Hill, he planted nutmeg (Myristicafragrans), a much-coveted spice that was thought to be native to only five small islands in the Moluccas and some cloves (Syzgium aromaticum). When the jungle was cleared to build the Residence on Forbidden Hill, some fruit trees were discovered. The Malay Annals, a 17th-century account of Malay history, state: "In performing this work, they found numbers of fruit trees of all descriptions such as durian trees that two men could barely girth with their arms so extremely old were they. There were also duku trees, orange trees, langsat trees and trees with bad smelling fruit as the petal (Parkia speciosa) and the jering (Pithecellobium jiringa)". These are all found today in any domesticated setting in the Malay Peninsula. None, however, is included in the present vegetation on Fort Canning hill, where the only plants that may remain from early times are small like the little creeper Geophila. Its presence was recorded by Charles de Alwis, a botanical artist at the Botanical Gardens who worked at the beginning of the 20th century; it can still be seen growing near the Registry of Muslim marriages on the hill.
Piper nigrum, the source of both 'black' and 'white' pepper was one of the first spices that began the search for the Spice Islands.
Nutmeg and its companion Mace. Myristica fragrans and clove trees were planted by Raffles on Government Hill.
Syzygium malaccensis, the Malay Apple or Jumbu bol. The tree is of medium height, conical in shape with glossy large leaves, large pink showy flowers and bright crimson fruit.
Lansium domesticum, the Duku or Langsat, an indigenous fruit that was recorded by the Malay Annals as existing in Singapore in 1819.
Three young fruits of the Jackfruittree (Artocarpus Heterophyllus).
Durio zebitlninus or the Durian, arguably the most famous fruit in the Malay Archipelago, was recorded as growing on Frobidden Hill at the time of Raffles.
The two archival photos show immigrant Chinese farmers in Singapore in 1890 (the group) and 1920 (the single farmer). The former depicts tobacco and pepper crops; in the latter, the farmer is tilling a raised bed which is the traditional way in which fast-growing Chinese leafy vegetables are grown.
Garcinla mangostana. A popular fruit, the Mangosteen was once the subject of a clipper race to see who could get the fruit to Queen Victoria first.
Nephelium lappaceum. The Rambutan is one of the most attractive of indigenous fruits.
From 1836 onwards, when sugar and cotton were introduced for commercial cultivation, many other crops were grown in Singapore. Among these were indigenous plants like gambier and pepper and such introduced ones as nutmeg, coffee, cloves, sugar cane, tobacco