In 1877, Kew Gardens sent 22 rubber seedlings in miniature travel greenhouses to the Singapore Botanic Gardens, sowing the seeds of the cash crop that sparked an economic boom across Southeast Asia.
Representatives from the Singapore Botanic Gardens and Kew Gardens on Friday planted rubber and palm trees simultaneously, as a symbol of the gardens' ties.
And a public exhibition, 'The Seed that Changed the World', about the rubber revolution, was opened by guest of honour and Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan.
In the past 150 years, the Singapore Botanic Gardens has grown from a small park to a 63.7-hectare green lung and centre for botanical and horticultural research.
It also features a world-class Orchid garden, a children's garden and other specialty sites.
Each year, it gets more than three million visits, making it the most popular of Singapore's nearly 300 parks.
That number is set to rise when the Botanic Gardens MRT station opens by 2011.
A commemorative book, 'Gardens of Perpetual Summer', sponsored by prominent conservationist and longtime Botanic Gardens patron Lady Yuen-Peng McNeice, was also launched on Friday.
