Forest Giants in Singapore

Photograph: A forest giant planted at Yishun Park.

Forest Giants in Singapore

According to National Parks Board's article, forest giants have been planted in Yishun Park. Forest Giants are better known as Dipterocarp (two-winged fruit). This name is derived from the two- to five-winged fruits that this family of trees produces.

These forest giants are iconic trees that can live up to 1000 years old. They do not look like giants of the forest now, but give them time and they can reach up to 80 metres high.

Photograph: Closer look at forest giant tag on plant.

Nparks has planted Singapore's first Dipterocarp Arboretum at Yishun Park since June last year. Forest Giants are a diminishing tree stock that are unique to the Indo-Malayan rainforests. Yishun Park now contains more than 800 forest giants of over 700 species.

Some of these forest giants species planted include Dipterocarpus grandiflorus (Keruing belimbing), Hopea helferi (Giam Lintah Bukit), Neobalanocarpus heimii (Chengal), and Shorea sumatrana (Senkawang).

They will likely be featured in the future when free guided walks and tree hunts are organised by Nparks as part of their public education programmes.

The Forest Giant project at Yishun Park is made possible by sponsorship from Banyan Tree.