The Kapok Tree of Seah Im Road

At 11.55 metres in girth, this is one of the largest-trunked trees on Singapore's entire heritage register, rising 34.6 metres from the edge of an ordinary public car park at the foot of Mount Faber. Kapok is deciduous, unusual for a tropical tree, dropping its leaves entirely before flowering, and its cream-coloured blooms open at night with a milky scent that draws bats to pollinate them, an entirely different visiting crowd than the tree gets by day. The seed pods that follow split to release a fine, water-resistant white fiber once used to stuff life jackets and mattresses worldwide, the reason the tree ended up as Puerto Rico's national tree despite originating, like this one's ancestors, in tropical America. What makes this particular specimen worth the detour is what stands twenty metres behind it in the undergrowth: a brick-entranced wartime bunker, its tunnel about 2.5 metres tall inside with small ventilation holes along the walls, largely forgotten until vegetation was cleared enough to rediscover it. Local historians believe it was built shortly before the Second World War, though its exact use, whether to hold prisoners of war or simply to store equipment and ammunition, has never been confirmed. The kapok tree is the only obvious marker for anyone trying to find it.