The new Tropical Montane Orchidetum at the National Orchid Garden opened on 3 April 2021, following an extensive $35 million enhancement works beginning from 2017.
Experience going on a trail up a tropical mountain and see the the different vegetation types, all the way from the lowland and mid-elevation forests, to the high-elevation Montane forest.
Throughout the trail, you'll see a wide range or orchids and other plants, with many species that are rare or becoming increasingly endangered.
The Orchidetum simulates the experience of ascending through a tropical montane forest and showcases a variety of orchids and other plants.
Each of the display houses within the Orchidetum, the Yuan Peng McNeice Bromeliad Collection, Tan Hoon Siang Mist House, and Sembcorp Cool House, has been expanded beyond their original size with their combined area increasing almost three times following the revamp.
You'll start off in the winding Lowland Habitat Trail, where rare orchids can be found hanging off Neram trees.
The Yuan Peng McNeice Bromeliad Collection has been enhanced to emulate a mid-elevation Neotropical forest environment at 650m to 1,000m elevation.
Orchids and plants from Central and South America are found here.
The Tan Hoon Siang Mist House mimics a paleotropical garden at 650m to 1,000m in altitude and features a selection of unique, uncommon, or award-winning hybrids and species from the specialty breeding stock of orchids from the National Orchid Garden’s collection.
Don't miss the Papilionanda Tan Chay Yan, which put Singapore on the forefront of orchid growing and is one of the Orchid Garden's heritage orchids.
The Secret Ravine emulates habitats that can be found in deep narrow valleys of tropical mountains.
It also connects all of the three display houses in the Orchidetum.
At end of the trail is the Sembcorp Cool House, which recreates a high elevation Montane Forest at altitudes of between 1,000m to 2,000m, and with a surrounding temperature of 16-23 degrees celsius.
With more than 1,000 orchid species and over 150 foliage plant species, it houses the largest collection of high elevation Montane Orchids in Asia.
Built with sustainability in mind, the Sembcorp Cool House incorporates sustainable features such as Spectrally-selective glass that reflects heat but allows light through for the plants to grow, a cooling system designed for efficiency, and solar panels to power the Cool House.
Get the best kids activities, events, deals, and more delivered straight to your inbox weekly 😊
National Orchid Garden
Singapore Botanic Gardens
1 Cluny Road
Singapore 259569 (Tyersall Gallop Entrance)
8:30am-7pm daily
Disclosure: This article contains some affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something, we may earn a commission at no extra costs to you. This helps keep us going and allows us to continue creating free content for you. As always, we only recommend things we would use ourselves.