The Singapore Botanic Gardens, just west of downtown, is a popular spot for locals.  Visitors were many on the weekday morning I stopped by, and included quite a few moms from Western countries pushing strollers.  The symbol of the Gardens is the lipstick palm, a number of which are shown here.

This site for the Gardens has been around for nearly 150 years.  Singapore’s first botanical garden was established nearly forty years earlier by none other than Stamford Raffles just after he founded Singapore.

Detail of a lipstick palm at the Gardens.

Besides being nice for a stroll, this place has historic significance.  Over a century ago, the first director of the Singapore Botanic Gardens experimented with rubber plants to find ways to turn them into a cash crop.  People thought he was nuts - until the automobile industry took off in America and rubber was needed for tires.  The results of his research proved quite useful for the production and export of rubber.

Seeds from the many rubber plants at the Botanic Gardens grown during that research formed the basis for the lucrative Southeast Asian rubber industry.  Within twenty years, rubber plantations, which had not existed in the region, grew to cover an area approaching the size of Connecticut.  Much of that rubber production went to America - to Akron, Ohio, home of Goodyear, Goodrich, Firestone, and US Rubber (later Uniroyal).

Feathery palm leaves in the Botanic Gardens.

A colorful variety of palm crownshafts.

Opening time for the Gardens is 5am, which is good, because Singapore’s heat and humidity make strolling here not so comfortable a few hours after sunrise.

Entrance to the National Orchid Garden, the largest display of tropical orchids in the world, on the grounds of the Singapore Botanic Gardens.  With its thousands of varieties of beautiful orchids, this place is the highlight of a visit to the Botanic Gardens.

The National Orchid Garden at the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

The National Orchid Garden at the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

This orchid appears in the VIP Orchid Garden section.  Here, new breeds of orchids created at the Gardens are named for heads of state and other dignitaries visiting Singapore.

The National Orchid Garden at the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

The National Orchid Garden.  About eighty years ago, another director of the Singapore Botanic Gardens began experiments with the breeding and hybridization of orchids - and that research laid the foundation for the cut-flower industry.

This and the above photograph were taken within an enclosed greenhouse at the Garden, which proved a useful shelter when a rainstorm suddenly broke.

The National Orchid Garden at the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

The National Orchid Garden at the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

The single huge leaf behind this branch had a radius of at least half a meter.

This unusual little plant deserves special mention.  The bulb holds rainwater and has a slick lining inside, so when an insect enters, it cannot escape and eventually drowns.  The plant’s enzymes then digest the insect.  The tiny leaf over the entrance acts as an umbrella preventing the bulb from flooding and a meal from washing away.

The National Orchid Garden at the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

The National Orchid Garden at the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

After the storm.  Hour-long rainstorms were a daily occurence in Singapore, but shelter could easily and quickly be found, even here in the orchid garden, where greenhouses and gazebos were always nearby.