Heritage Tree

This 18-metre-tall raintree (Samanea saman) on Jalan Hang Jebat — the street on which we live — is one of Singapore's 161 heritage trees. It has a girth of 5.5 metres and will make a really impressive dent in Blk 109 should it decide to fall down.

UPDATE 7 July 06: Just heard from Nick that he found the local contractors trying to "trim" the heritage tree (read: chop down all the branches) because residents had complained it was hanging precariously over their block. Luckily Nick called the National Parks Board and they sent some guys down to stop the trimming. These trees do actually fall quite frequently. Since living here, we've seen two trees fall onto different blocks. One crashed through the roof exposing the kitchen in an empty unit (which is now Nick and Sophia's flat), the other kissed the back of our block taking out the windows, a chunk of roof and one of our red palms. But that's the fun of living here! Don't like it? Move to a high-rise flat in the concrete jungle!

UPDATE 1 December 06: The idiots finally called in a private contractor to trim the branches of the tree! By the time the other neighbours saw what was happening and called the police and National Parks Board, half the branches had been lopped off. There is a now a police investigation underway and the incident made the news on TV (shows what a boring place Singapore must be!). This being strict Singapore I reckon our neighbours will hang. From one of the stunted branches they created.