Singapore: Botanic Garden, 1

We like botanical gardens and rarely miss them wherever we go. Search botanical gardens worldwide and Singapore's invariably appears at or near the top of the list. It is definitely a cut below Kew IMHO--given the climate, it is pretty strictly tropical--but the Singapore Botanical Garden is nonetheless impressive. Hundreds of acres in the middle of the great city. We spent nearly the whole day there, doing the lowlands gardens, the rain forest, the fragrance garden, the medicinal plants, the ginger garden, and the orchid garden, among others, knowing that we'd also visit Singapore's Gardens by the Bay, whose two enormous glass houses cover much of the rest of the botanical world.

But of course

Interestingly, right here in the middle of a city of 5-6 million, there are water
monitors in the Botanic Garden; we saw several

Much else going on

Signage excellent; and in English too (one of Singapore's four official languages)

Eve's Apple

Ming Aralias, a former favorite, of which I've owned several

Signage in the medicinal plants area (click to enlarge)

No seeds or cuttings from the toxic garden

Not a handkerchief tree (as in the UK)

Happy New Year at the visitor center

Interesting bucket list map in the main gift shoppe

Gorgeous water features everywhere

Aerial roots everywhere; a tropical thing

Now on the rain forest walk

Big trees here and there

And big leaves; I'd estimate these to be 2' x 4'; Rhapis Palms
on the left, another plant I collected back in the pre-Montana
days; a common indoor and outdoor landscaping plant in
Singapore