Plants and Flowers of Singapore
Ivan Polunin
Singapore: Marshall Cavendish, 2009
ISBN: 9789814276481

This tiny, humid island at the tip of the Malay Peninsula was once a forest-covered Garden of Eden. The majority of 2,500 different species of native plants were forest trees and shrubs, woody climbers and other perennials. Even today over 1,000 native species can still be found, many restricted to the few surviving forest areas. Although their range may be limited, their variety is not - just the Nature Reserve alone contain over 500 species of forest trees - almost as many tree species as found in the whole of Europe! Ironically, most people do not see these trees, as the species often grown in gardens and on roadsides are the more colourful ones from abroad.

The "Species" section of this book categorise the plants by type - herb, shrub, tree, fruit, vegetable - and by habitat - seashore, mangrove, forest, etc. Each species is illustrated in colour and the extended caption contains a wealth of information about the plants, its origin and its use. In addition, there is a double-page feature on the Botanic Gardens, with a map showing where some of the species may be found.