Native vs Exotic

Recently, last sunday to be exact, I went down to Sentosa Flowers with a friend. It was generally fun, though I expected more. Well at least the event is free.

 

There were many colourful flowers, and being the frog in the well that I am, I've never seen most of the flowers there.

But what struck me was not the beauty of the flowers, but the thought of the origin of the flowers. Are these flowers exotic? Were they imported from foreign countries for this annual event? I don't know the names of these plants and thus I wasn't able to find out...

 

Whether these were native or exotic plants, well it doesn't matter as long as they are beautiful right? That would be what I would feel before I took the module SSS1207 Natural Heritage of Singapore. Economically that would be the ideal thinking, since the purpose of these flowers are to improve Sentosa as a tourist attraction rigt?

What is the fate of native species of plants and animals? It is through my SS module that I learnt that Singapore has been heavily invaded by foreign species. I'm not talking about foreign talent, but that is another hard truth. On tuesday the lecturer made me realise the importance of protecting our own native species, because they belong to Singapore, and some are even endemic. I felt like I can relate to what the lecturer was saying because he kept using the phrase "foreign talent" when he was actually talking plants/animals. Was the pun intended? Honestly I do. Native species tend to get bullied/displaced by invasive species, and I don't like it.

I hope that if the plants that were on display were indeed exotic, measures are done to ensure that they do not infiltrate our vegetation and displace local species. After all, if our ecosystem is affected, one day it will ultimately affect us.