A very small forest, our central catchment is...

Last week I presented some of my students' work at the 8th Flora Malesiana conference. I discussed the gene flow of some species of native plants in Singapore (including Rhopaloblaste singaporensis) and provided a highlight of palm distribution projects that I have initiated with my current JC students. The gene flow work was from former student Yang Shufen's excellent work for her Honours thesis.

While preparing a slide to show the location where individuals of Rhopaloblaste singaporensis was collected (with permits from NParks) for the DNA sampling, I realised how small our Central Catchment Nature Reserve is.

This reserve encompasses the forests of Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, Macritchie Reservoir, Lower and Upper Pierce Reservoirs, Upper Seletar Reservoir and Nee Soon Swamp Forest.

Using Google Earth, I measured the width of the Central Catchment Nature Reserve and it was a little over 5km at some points.! It dawned on me then that we have walked around Macritchie in a mere one and a half hours.

That epiphany from the preparation for that talk lingers and rankles. And I want to do something about it.