YOU could walk right under the world's largest tree-growing orchid and never know it.
Singapore's tiger orchid, with its distinctive cream-and-maroon flowers and growth height of 4m, is among five species thought to have disappeared forever. But it was re-introduced across the island in a Singapore Botanic Gardens programme which came to fruition in 1999.
Once, 226 native species of wild orchids grew here but 178 of these are now extinct locally. The only specimens are at the Botanic Gardens. A further 40 species remain critically endangered.
Read the full report in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.
