Penang Botanic Garden, Waterfall Gardens, Piṉāṅku Tāvaraviyal pūṅkā

The #Penang #Botanic #Gardens, (Malay: Taman Kebun Bunga; Tamil :பினாங்கு தாவரவியல் பூங்கா,Piṉāṅku Tāvaraviyal pūṅkā) also known as the "Waterfall Gardens" because of the cascading waterfall nearby, is a public park situated on Jalan Air Terjun (Waterfall Road) in George Town, Penang, Malaysia. The original gardens were established in 1884 from an old quarry site, under the supervision of Charles Curtis, who was the first superintendent.
Prior to the establishment of the present gardens, there were two previous botanic gardens on Penang Island.
The gardens occupy a 29 hectares site in a valley described as "an amphitheatre of hills" covered with lush tropical rain-forests. Its lush greenery and tranquil setting makes it a favorite park and a popular tourist destination. It is Penang's unique natural heritage, being the only garden of its kind in Malaysia. As well as being a repository of flora and fauna, unique to the country and to the region, it serves as a "green lung" for metropolitan Penang. Thus, the garden is a popular recreational spot; some of the recreational activities include jogging, walking, jungle trekking and aerobics.
The garden fauna include long-tailed macaques, dusky leaf monkeys, black giant squirrels as well as many insects and butterflies.

Amongst the flora in the gardens, there are the cannon ball tree (Couroupita guianensis), the large buttress roots of the sengkuang tree (Dracontomelon dao).There is also the pinang palm (Areca catechu) that lent its name to the island of Penang, and the black lily (Tacca integrifolia) with its unique purplish-black coloured flowers. The candle tree (Parmentiera cereifera),the endemic slipper orchid (Paphiopedilum barbatum) and the ginger, Geoctachys penangensis, can also be found in the gardens.
There are also collections of rare plant species housed in the Fern House, Palm Collection, Aroid Walkway, Orchidarium, Perdana Conservatory, Cactus House, Bromeliad and Begonia House, Herb Garden, Fern Rockery, Sun Rockery, and the Formal Garden.
The path around the Lily Pond offers access to tropical rain-forest, a short distance from the Botanic Gardens gate. The walk from the Lower Circular Road passes two prominent groups of palms and bamboo clusters along the Waterfall River. Two orchid houses provide comparison between cultivated hybrids and wild orchid species. The best time to admire the flowering trees is during the dry season, from February to April, when the Thai bungor (Lagerstroemia loudonii), the Javanese cassia (Cassia javanica) and the rosy trumpet (Tabebuia rosea) are in full flower.

The waterfall at Penang Botanic Gardens was an important source of water for ships calling at Penang port in the early part of the 19th century. In 1804, the first water treatment plant in Malaysia was set up here, to supply the needs of 10,000 people in Penang. In 1805, an aqueduct was constructed to channel water from the fall via Pulau Tikus to a reservoir near the port. The quality of the water, filtered through the aged rocks of Penang Hill, was very high, and was described by the early sailors as "sweet".
Early visitors to Penang Island described it as one of the key attractions of the island.

The oval-shaped reservoir of the Penang Waterfall was constructed in the gardens in 1892 by British engineer James MacRitchie, who was also responsible for the MacRitchie Reservoir in Singapore, built in 1894. The Penang reservoir was reconstructed in 1950.

Today, only a small proportion of the Penang water supply comes from the waterfall reservoir — approximately 10–15% of the population obtain their water from here, while most of the island's water supply comes from Sungai Muda, on the border of Penang and Kedah.
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