The Singapore Botanic Gardens is a 163-year-old tropical garden located at the fringe of the Orchard Road shopping district in Singapore. It is one of three gardens, and the only tropical garden, to be honored as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Botanic Gardens has been ranked Asia’s top park attraction since 2013, by TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice Awards. It was declared the inaugural Garden of the Year, International Garden Tourism Awards in 2012.
The Botanic Gardens was founded at its present site in 1859 by the Agri-horticultural Society. It played a pivotal role in the region’s rubber trade boom in the early twentieth century, when its first scientific director Henry Nicholas Ridley, headed research into the plant’s cultivation. By perfecting the technique of rubber extraction, still in use today, and promoting its economic value to planters in the region, rubber output expanded rapidly. At its height in the 1920s, the Malayan peninsula cornered half of the global latex production.
The Singapore Botanic Gardens (the Gardens) was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site at the 39th session of the World Heritage Committee (WHC) in Bonn, Germany.
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Singapore botanic gardens
national orchid garden
The garden is located at the Tyersall Entrance, one of the many zones of Singapore Botanical Gardens. It provides colourful scenery every step of the way. Visit this UNESCO World Heritage site that boasts thousands of orchid species! Enter the National Orchid Garden, located within the Singapore Botanic Gardens for an undisputed visual treat.
orchids COLLECTION
You can discover over 60,000 orchids in zones inspired by the four seasons at the National Orchid Garden. If you have eyes for a vivid spectacle, are fond of distinctive flora, or enjoy the photo ops of a mesmerizing walkway, you will be in for a treat at the National Orchid Garden.
EJH Corner HOUSE
This colonial house was formerly the residence of the Assistant Director of Singapore Botanic Gardens, E J H Corner (1929-1945). Corner was an expert on fungi and tropical trees and palms. After his tenure with the Gardens, he went on to become Professor of Tropical Botany at the University of Cambridge. Today, the house has been converted into a restaurant.
GINGER GARDEN
The Ginger Garden displays several hundred species of gingers and other plants from related families. With a walk behind a waterfall, romantic night lighting and a pool adorned with giant Amazon water lilies, the Ginger Garden has proven popular among visitors. The one-hectare Ginger Garden contains more than 250 species of members from the family Zingiberaceae and its relatives. Visitors are treated to a wide array of gingers in all shapes and forms, many with surprisingly beautiful leaves and very attractive flowers. The Ginger Garden has been divided into special zones where one can find gingers organised by their regions of origin.
Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage
Set within the natural surroundings of the Singapore Botanic Gardens, the Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage is a popular venue for many free concerts and performances. It is built on an islet in the middle of the Symphony Lake. The stage is most known as the venue for the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s concerts.
Keppel Discovery Wetlands
The Keppel Discovery Wetlands is a 1.8-hectare restoration project of the forest wetland ecosystem that was historically found in the vicinity of the Singapore Botanic Gardens. On display is a carefully curated collection of plant species that are typical of freshwater forest wetland habitats in the region. Today, these habitats are highly endangered.
In recognition of Keppel Corporation’s contribution to the Gardens, the restored freshwater wetland was named the Keppel Discovery Wetlands.
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