Honeybear's Ear Leaf: Singapore plant collected for the first time in a century

The National Parks Board and Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research unveil previously unknown plant and animal species they have uncovered here

RESEARCHERS from the National Parks Board (NParks) were thrilled to encounter a species of plant which has not been collected from the wild here for more than a century. It happened during one of their recent surveys in a swampy area in the western part of Singapore.

Before this, the only record of the plant, Thottea dependens, was from a collection by Mr J. S. Goodenough in 1893, from the same area where the researchers found it early last year.

The plant, also known as the Honeybear's Ear Leaf, is a shrub which can grow up to a metre high.

It has deep purple petals at its base, covered with small dense hairs that act like a 'skirt', protecting the reproductive parts within.

The plant was previously thought to be extinct here.

The finding adds another name to the growing list of exciting new records and rediscoveries of Singapore's rich natural heritage amid rapid development and changes going on around us.

TEXT BY YANG SHUFEN, SENIOR PROGRAMME OFFICER, NPARKS AND RAFFLES MUSEUM OF BIODIVERSITY RESEARCH