On October 11th 2009, I attended a field trip to The Putrajaya Botanical Garden. The Putrajaya Botanical Garden is located at the heart of Putrajaya which is less than an hour drive from city of KL. The Putrajaya Botanical Garden was the brainchild of Malaysia’s former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir Bin Muhammad. It was from his idea that Putrajaya City should established a botanical garden to suit "the city in the garden” theme which its synonym with nowadays. This approach will provide a strong foundation in developing city environment in the future based on maintaining “ecoculture”, sensitive and care with the health of the environment (Mahathir, 1995). The botanical garden was opened to public on February 4th 2003.
Putrajaya Botanical Garden is established on a 230 acres (93ha) land what was a former agricultural land planted with oil palm. The botanical garden contains over 700 species of plants from over 90 countries of the world (2009). The botanical garden is divided into 5 different themes of vegetations, namely; The Explorer’s Trail, Palm Hill, Floral Garden, Sun Garden, and The Lakeside.
Explorer Trail is located nearest to the entrance of the botanical garden. A canopy bridge is built to enable visitor to observe the tree from top and bottom that once unreachable. The bridge platform is made from Cengal wood (Neobalanocarpus heimii), a native Malaysian tree. Some of the trees planted along the canopy bridge are Saga (Adenanthera bicolor), Terap (Artocarpus sp.), and Melembu (Pterocymbium javanicum). At the end of the bridge are Heliconias plants such as Blood Banana (Musa sumatra), Calatheas (Marantaceae), and The Traveller's Palm (Ravenala madagascariensis).
Proceed on and you will reach Vine Garden, where a variety of vines such as Tecomarias, Bread Flower (Vallaris glabra), and Blue Trumpet Vine (Thunbergia laurifolia) can be found here. The scaffoldings are also made of Cengal wood, fortified with steel bars for supporting the sheer weight of the climber plants.
Palm Hill is the next theme on The Explorer Trail. It is located at the highest point of the garden, where visitors can view some of the landmarks in Putrajaya. There are more than 50 species of palm trees planted here, and by walking along the walkway, visitors could see palm species such as Feathery Cabbage Palm (Roystonea oleracea), Royal Palm (Roystonea regia), Clustered Fish Tail Palm (Caryota mitis), and Buri Palm (Corypha utan).
Sun Garden as its name implies is a collection of plants that grow well in bright sun. The uniqueness of this section of the park is showcased by its plant collections, in which plants in this area react differently with time of the day. There is a obelisk-like-statue built at this section of the park, equipped with sun clock to symbolize relationship between time and the plant realm.
Floral Garden has a collection of plants introduced from region such as Africa, America and Asia Pacific region. Plants such as The Flame of the Forest (Saraca indica), Tamarind (Tamarindus indica), and Plumbago are some of the species that originated from the African region and was introduced in Malaysia during the pre-colonial era. The Peacock Flower and Frangipani come from the Tropical American region which is brought into The Malay Archipelago by the Portuguese and Spanish pioneers during the 16th century. The Ficus tree from the region of Asia Pacific is a major source of food for the wildlife in Asia. The garden also features few attractive resting spots for visitors such as the Ficus Shades, and Bouganvilla Tunnel.
Lakeside has a collection of Ixora and Hibiscus of various colours planted just beside the seafood restaurant. The Pandanus (Pandanus sanderi & Pandanus dubius) can be seen here as well as Cannas with its colourful and big flowers along the shaded path. As the trail comes near the end, you will be able to see the some ferns, which have been said to be in existence more than 200 million year.
The Putrajaya Botanical Garden is designed as a state-of-the-art research and conservation centre for floral aspect in Malaysia. It also become as the best centerpoint/representative in floral research and conservation study in the country. This centre aims to collect and establish a high class collection-exhibition for plants. Putrajaya Botanical Garden hope to find and introduce more local rare plant species in the future, to be conserved and protected by trained specialists for inventory and for other related studies. The Putrajaya Botanical Garden also have planned for further expansions in years time and anticipate to grow as icon for horticulture and botanical research, as well as the pioneer of lanscaping techniques in Malaysia.
Once the centre have establish all the steps envisioned, it is now time to promote the centre to the world. The botanical garden also listed as a unique tourist-attraction destination in Malaysia aside of national parks and conservation centre. The Putrajaya City management have dream that The Putrajaya Botanical Garden will become a must-go place in Malaysia for the next few years. They hope the place will turn out to be an attraction for tourism because of its plant collections, beautiful scenery, systematic park managemant, and quality services all the time for the tourists’ need. This approach will someday put Putrajaya Botanical Garden and Malaysia especially in the highlight of holiday destination around the world.
bob..nape tak aktif blog dah?
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