Dover students continued with the reforestation programme on campus last week with 4 Pentaspadon Motleyi trees planted in the central heart of the campus. Known as the Pelong Tree in Malay, this a swamp forest species and thus likely to do well in the damper soil close to our water catchment area. The trees were donated as seedlings by the Singapore Botanic Gardens and raised in our dedicated tree nursery at Dover.However we will need to nurture carefully in the current dry spell (that ground was very hard to dig!) and may even have to provide some temporary shading as the trees were probably brought out too quickly from the Dover Nursery. We are still learning how much adjustment to full light conditions tree saplings need before planting out. Early signs of leaf burn mean we may have misjudged the transition this time.
Luckily we have a dedicated team of conservation students at both campuses to keep an eye on the new planting over the coming weeks.
Watch out from more planting in this area in coming weeks as we make an avenue of beautiful rainforest trees at the green heart of Dover.
