The garden, which is the oldest of its kind in the country, is known for its majestic 122m waterfalls and vistas reminiscent of paintings from the 1880s.

Hundreds visit it on a daily basis, eager to take in the clean, fresh air on their morning jogs or to enjoy the rivers, greenhouses and colourful flower plots.

The garden has been under the spotlight of late, following plans to place it under a state government-linked corporation.

Critics are fed up as many plans to restore it to its former glory have already failed.

The garden’s curator, Saw Leng Guan, however, says past managers lacked the vision for a real botanic garden and were focused on running it like a park.

Maintaining a garden of such a scale goes beyond just upkeep and cleanliness, he told FMT.

“What is a proper botanic garden without research, collection of specimens and active botanists on field?

“The bottom line is: if you don’t know your plants, how do you keep them?”

A research fellow of the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM), Saw has been tasked with bringing the Penang Botanic Gardens in line with international standards.

He was awarded the prestigious Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) medal last year, making him one of only four recipients of the award worldwide.

Saw, who has more than 30 years of botany experience, was given the medal in recognition of his outstanding contribution in the field of botany and taxonomy.

‘Almost all records wiped out’

The Penang Botanic Gardens was founded by English botanist and plant collector Charles Curtis. The 243ha garden was created on an old granite quarry site.

Some 300 indigenous and imported species have since been planted there.

According to Saw, however, none of the plant records from the colonial era have survived.

“The Brits are good record-keepers, they jot down everything. They kept all the records in a store. Penang had a large repository of records, painstakingly written down from the day of its (the garden’s) inception.

“I was told that over the years, rain water seeped into the store where these records were kept.

“Later, these documents were all thrown away. This was many years ago. These were precious documents which could have been useful today,” he added.

‘Lack of interest stifling research in Penang and Malaysia’

Saw said the garden’s herbarium had 4,403 plant samples in store. A herbarium is a systematically arranged collection of dried plants specimens.

The oldest sample on record is a fern from 1872, collected by Charles Baron Clarke, the late superintendent of the Calcutta Botanical Garden.

Only 335 samples pre-dating the 1900s are in the herbarium.

Saw said this paled in comparison with the FRIM herbarium in Kepong, where some 400,000 samples are stored.

“In FRIM, they keep records the British style, a practice that was continued after their departure.

“But as for the Penang gardens, it appears the Malayanisation exercise post-1960s has seen a decline in research.”

Saw also attributed the decline in botanic research to the general lack of interest in botany, as not many people were keen on making a career in it.

“Through the corporatisation of the garden, we will be able to retain talent and train them for the long run.

“We are also hoping the Penang government will give us the right funds to reach international levels through research and good upkeep.

“The collaboration with our counterparts in Singapore is also exciting, as we will get to learn from what is tipped as the regional centre for botany,” he said.

WW2-era torpedoes still buried in gardens

During FMT’s visit to the garden, Saw also confirmed an old rumour that ammunition bunkers were built there during the Japanese occupation.

He pointed out five of them which were located next to the jogging trail.

The bunkers, with connecting tunnels, were dug on the hill slope, he said.

The tunnels also served as a storage unit for loot by the Japanese soldiers.

“There was once a rush for gold,” he added.

“After the Japanese left, many came searching for treasure or loot left by them in these bunkers.”

However, Saw warned that this was a risky move as most of the structures were no longer sound.

“These tunnels did not stand the test of time and collapsed. Along with a big number of torpedoes,” he said.