Singapore Botanic Gardens Desk Calendar 2024

Southeast Asia is a region rich in plant diversity. It encompasses only three percent of the world’s land surface but is home to about 15 percent of its plant diversity. Southeast Asia includes four of the 25 biodiversity hotspots in the world and harbours an estimated 50,000 vascular plant species. Many new plant species are described from the region every year. Native Southeast Asian plant species provide food, medicine and shelter, and their existence is crucial for both humans and the many animals that depend on them for survival.

To highlight the vast diversity and beauty of plants native to Southeast Asia, this calendar showcases contemporary botanical artworks that were shown in the Flora of Southeast Asia exhibition held between 15 November 2022 and 15 February 2023 at the Botanical Art Gallery, Singapore Botanic Gardens. The exhibition was organised by the
Botanical Art Society (Singapore) and the Singapore Botanic Gardens, in collaboration with the Indonesian Society of Botanical Artists, Thai Botanical Artists and the Philippine Botanical Art Society. It was the first international botanical art exhibition to focus on plants native to Southeast Asia and included artworks on plants that are indigenous to Brunei,
Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam.

The plants featured occur in a wide variety of habitats such as limestone ridges in montane forests and lowland tropical rainforests, freshwater swamps and coastal vegetation. A few of them are narrowly endemic species that can only be found within a very limited area.