The Kapur of Lawn E

This kapur was planted in July 1942, mid-occupation Singapore, from seed the botanist E.J.H. Corner collected on Malaya's east coast. Corner later described the species in his own book, Wayside Trees of Malaya, forming nearly pure stands there and reaching over 200 feet, a scale that decades of logging have since made rare anywhere. Eighty-some years on, this one stands about 26 metres tall with a trunk three metres round. Crush a fallen leaf at its base and the resin smell that gave the wood its old use in flooring and decking is still there, sharp enough to notice without looking for it. It is one of three kapur NParks now tracks in the Gardens, this one standing near Swan Lake and Main Gate Road, close enough to the Mountain Teak heritage tree on the same lawn to see both in one stop rather than two separate trips. None of the three carries a public name beyond its species, which is common enough among the Gardens' heritage trees: the register protects them by measurement and history rather than by story alone.