Tropical Spice Garden, Penang

Wednesday, February 08 2012

Wednesday, 04 November 2009 14:34

BUILT on an abandoned rubber plantation as an eco-tourism venture and to preserve the spice heritage of the state, the Tropical Spice Garden is Southeast Asia's one and only award-winning Spice Garden. Located in Teluk Bahang, the garden was the inspiration of David Wilkinson and Rebecca Wilkinson, with their teammates, Kenneth Koo, Katharine Chua, Frederick Walker and Lim In Chong and funded by the Bertam Consolidate Rubber Co Ltd.

The garden, spread over an eight acre land, boasts many different layers of flora and fauna, mostly unique to this region (and a few from different parts of the world, including the mulberry bush). Harmoniously planted to accommodate over 500 species of flora (click here to view the many of plants), the area is divided to three different trails -- the Jungle Trail, the Ornamental Trail and Spice Trail. Read here for description of each trail and here for a list of the eleven different garden rooms that is housed in the area.

There is also a spice museum at Lone Crag Villa, an old bungalow which was renovated to house the museum, alongside a nice little souvenir shop and a sea facing Spice Cafe that has a spacious wooden deck.

Interestingly, this is not Penang’s first spice garden. George Town was established as settlement that provided the East India Company a strategic base to challenge the Dutch spice trade and maritime supremacy in the Straits of Malacca. Read here for more on the spice route that directly lead to the founding of Penang.

“In 1794, the Company appointed Christopher Smith as Botanist to Penang to establish the spice gardens on Penang Island. Smith, who had originally trained at Kew Gardens, planted a small garden of '20 orlongs' [10.5 ha] in 1794 in the middle Ayer Itam valley and a larger garden, of '300 orlongs' [158 ha], at Sungai Keluang.[3] The exact location of both gardens is unclear” (Penang Botanic Gardens)

View slideshow below for photographs of the Tropical Spice Garden.

Reference