Despite Singapore's famous status as a garden city, many trees that are commonly seen here are not native.

Yes, they are alien.

In the 19th century, when Singapore was a British trading outpost, foreign trees such as gambier and rubber were introduced to the island as commercial crops.

As the settlement grew, more plant species were brought in and non-native trees were planted on our soil.

Shade trees all around

The British initiated the planting of shade trees in Singapore in the 19th century.

They introduced some alien shade tree species that are still common here today, including the Angsana and Flame of the Forest.

The Angsana is a huge fast-growing tree that came from Malaya.

And the Flame of the Forest, which is an ornamental tree known for its bright red-coloured flowers, came from Madagascar.

Today, these wayside trees have made Singapore their home, and are often planted by roadsides and in parks.

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The iconic Traveller's Palm

Other than providing shade, some trees have also held symbolic meaning.

The Traveller's Palm is one such tree. Many postcards from Singapore's past often featured the Traveller's Palm as it symbolised an exotic tropical paradise.

Despite being an icon for the tropical paradise that Singapore was supposed to represent, the Traveller's Palm is, rather ironically, native to Madagascar.

They were only introduced to Singapore in the early 1900s. As an ornamental tree, it was (and still is) often planted in landscaped gardens and parks.

Additionally, despite what its name suggests, the Traveller's Palm is not a true palm. It belongs to a member of another flowering plant family.

That being said, there are many different types of palm trees in Singapore and not all are native species, such as the coconut palm and royal palm.

This is what a coconut palm looks like:

As of 2017, there are about seven million trees in Singapore, which includes both native and non-native species.

Plenty of the non-native species have also been naturalised (e.g. the coconut palm). A species is "naturalised" when it is able to reproduce itself on its own without human intervention.

If not for the introduction of these "aliens" that have made Singapore their home, our landscape would look very different.

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Top photo composite image from NAS and Wikimedia Commons.

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