Founded in 1859 and inscribed in 2015, the Botanic Gardens are the only tropical botanic garden on the World Heritage List, and they open at five in the morning.
The Gardens began as a British colonial garden in the English landscape style and grew into an economic garden and research centre. Their great success was Pará rubber: under director Henry Ridley the Gardens tested and promoted the tree, and the crop transformed Southeast Asia. Today the 82 hectares hold 59 Heritage Trees and the Rain Forest, 6.2 hectares of original lowland forest.
Enter at the Tanglin end, near Napier MRT, for the oldest part, with Swan Lake and the Bandstand, or at Bukit Timah, by Botanic Gardens MRT, for the Learning Forest and the Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden. The National Orchid Garden, the only part that charges entry, holds more than 1,500 orchid species and 3,000 hybrids, among them Vanda Miss Joaquim, the national flower.
