Lord Palmerston famously remarked in the 1840s that Hong Kong was a ‘barren island with hardly a house upon it’. In terms of houses the then foreign secretary probably had a point. But in terms of flora and fauna, particularly tree-life, he was misinformed.

Before the British arrived, Hong Kong was rich in flora and fauna, like much of southern China and of the other Pacific shorelines. Both the economy and the name of a village that eventually gave its name to the territory – present day Aberdeen is roughly ‘Hong Kong Tsai’ in Cantonese – was based around the Incense Tree (Aquilaria sinensis). These had been grown for centuries and emerged from the cool foothills of northern Vietnam. The Cochin-China Helicia (Helicia cochinensis), a small evergreen with flowers in late summer, was another common tree in Hong Kong with, as it were, roots in Indo-china. 

Fast-forwarding to modern times, over 150 years after Palmerston’s taunt, Hong Kong is now home to not only 7 million people but over 300 species of trees, not bad for a place that packs an average of 6,000 people into each square kilometre. And of those trees, more than half are introduced – ‘non-native’ – species that owe their existence here not to the geography of Hong Kong, but to its history. 

Which prompts the question: where exactly did these trees come from? What are their names? And what has been their story?

Pre 1841 
Agrarian village communities

Chinese banyan (Ficus microcarpa): Readily identified by aerial roots the Chinese banyan is amongst the most stately of Hong Kong's indigenous trees. A common site in the 1840s when the British arrived - and still today.

Hong Kong’s tabula rasa was ideal. Sometimes tropical and sometimes temperate it was exposed to good rainfall in summer and on-shore breezes from the South China Sea in winter. It was full of slopes running in a north-south direction which captured an abundant fresh water supply. Some weeping-willow trees (Salix Babylonica) congregated along Hong Kong’s fresh water fringes and along rivers. 

Many early settlers from Britain compared the look and feel of Hong Kong to northern Scotland, an image which can still be captured today. 

The area also benefited from pre-industrial era agriculture in China. This tended towards what is known as ‘mixed cropping’ – making for a variety of trees and crops. Records from the 16th century report that mulberry trees (part of the present day Moracea family) were used as protection for vegetable crops and soybeans and the Chinese tallow tree (Sapium Seligerum) was known for its shading ability. Gordonia (Gordonia Axillaris) produced an attractive white flower in the early autumn and was often seen on hillsides. The Ivy Tree (Schefflera Octophylla) was widely distributed along the length of the Chinese shoreline, literally from Indo-China to Taiwan, and offered the twin benefits of a root used in Chinese medicine and attractive flowers in late autumn. 

Chinese Banyans (Ficus microcarpa), beautiful and widespread trees with aerial roots could be seen throughout the villages; likewise Chinese laurels (Antidesma bunuis). Chinese Junipers (Juniperus chinensis) were relatively common and aromatic, and were found not just in Hong Kong but throughout southern China.

All these and more bear testament to a lively and varied Hong Kong tree life in the 1840s. It was far from a ‘barren rock’. But then again, given Palmerston’s famous philandering with the ladies, among them one of Queen Victoria’s Ladies-in-Waiting, perhaps we can conclude that he hoped for quite a lot of things to be barren which were anything but.

1841-1941
The British take root

African Tulip Tree (Spathodea campanulata): Brought by the British from Uganda

The century that saw the arrival of the British, and the founding of the City of Victoria, was inevitably a revolution for Hong Kong’s tree life. 

By the 1840s the British had nearly a century of industrial revolution under their belts, leaving many of them with a taste for scale. Huge forests had been planted, then harvested, for the Royal Navy. Commercial forestry in the dominions of Canada and Australia were a real focus of interest. 

Britain’s gentry class had also evolved a new relationship with nature, treating it for the first time, certainly in British history and probably in man’s history, as something to be enjoyed and appreciated rather than just tamed and tolerated as a necessary evil in the struggle for survival. 

From this new attitude came radical ideas like greenhouses and the study of botany that, amongst other things, gave rise to Darwin. 

Perhaps most indicative of the British curiosity and fascination with the diversity of nature was the Hong Kong Botanical Gardens. Founded in the early 1870s, a mere thirty years after the British acquisition of Hong Kong, they arrived at a time when many other issues pressed the administration, not least public health. Such a focus signified as nothing else could Britain’s true feelings towards nature. Hong Kong's botanical gardens, by the way, are still standing and are said to contain over a thousand – 'planted in such a way as to achieve natural beauty.' 

During the following decades great varieties of tree-life arrived from around the Empire, taking their place not only in the planned Botanical Garden but in other gardens and parks. 

The African Tulip Tree (Spathodea campanulata) from Uganda is now seen in many parks around Hong Kong. From eastern Australia came the King Palm (Archontophoenix alexandrae, sometimes known as Alexandra palm), surely one of our most ‘typical’ tropical trees. Jackfruit (Actocarpus heterophyllus) arrived from southern India – perhaps, given its smell, a regrettable consequence of Empire though the fruit itself is easy to eat.

The British could hardly be called purist in these decades. They assimilated into Hong Kong great amounts of tree life from wherever it could be found, either in the Empire or not. Frequently introduced species from China included the Hainan oil-fruit tree (Elaeocarpus hainanensis) from Hainan Island in southern China – which at that time was closely connected with France. 

Later came the Bougainvillea, not admittedly a tree but first discovered by a French explorer, Louise Antoine de Bougainville in Brazil Its bright red foliage had an enormous impact on the British concept of colour in tropical gardens. 

The ‘Ti’ plant (Cordyline), which had originated in Polynesia and arrived to Asia via Hawaii, was also introduced, and is now amongst the more decorative plants found often along Hong Kong roadsides and in decorative coverings. 

The Jacaranda tree (Jacaranda mimosifolia), also from Brazil, made its first appearances during these years, followed soon afterwards by the Royal Palm (Roystonea Regia), which some might say was the other classic palm of Hong Kong. This arrived from Cuba.

‘The greatest port in the world’
Inter-war years

Chinese Red Pine (Pinus massoniana): First drawn from Taiwan in the inter war years this spindly pine is now one of Hong Kong's most common trees

By the early 1920s, indeed, Hong Kong had become a magnet for all sorts of trees from all places.

Lord Balfour claimed at the Washington Naval Conference in 1925 that Hong Kong, which by then had 17 miles of charted waterfront and docks able to handle the largest battleships, was ‘the greatest port in the world.’ And it probably was as well. 

A year after the Washington Conference, though this was probably unrelated to the developments at Washington, the British recorded the first systematic planting and afforestation in the New Territories. 

Thereafter, whenever public works were completed, things like the Tai Tam Tuk Reservoirs for example, they were habitually surrounded by a variety of the new trees – a reflection, perhaps, of British guilt at some of the environmentally damaging effects of their efforts. 

The tree-of-choice in those inter-war years was the Chinese Red Pine (Pinus massoniana), an upright evergreen conifer familiar to inland parts of southern China and which adapted readily to Hong Kong’s climate. It is now considered Hong Kong's ‘native pine’ and has given its name to several areas; ‘Tsung Tsai Yuen’, for example, literally means Pine Garden. 

The British also took a fancy during these years to China Fir (Cunninghamia Lanceolata), more pyramidal than the Chinese red pine and sometimes described as ‘the most valuable tree in China’, a comment on its strong wood. 

Camphor trees (Cinnamomum camphora) were introduced from East Asia for the first time, selected partly for their shade-giving properties (this afforestation was unfolding in the age before air conditioning) and also, curiously, its inspect repellant properties. Someone had discovered they were not particularly bothered by mosquitoes when they were around the tree.  

Acacia trees (especially Acacia Confusa) had been around long before the British arrived, but new cultivars were introduced from Taiwan and the Philippines, particularly as a stabilising tree for hillsides. To this day you will tend to see acacia on or around slopes, where its roots spread and bind the soil: natures own glue. 

The Japanese Occupation, 1941-45

This rare photograph shows the Japanese arriving in a relatively denuded New Territories location (unknown). In fact much of the area was forested at that stage, a resource which the Japanese were quick to over-exploit

Perhaps the most devastating event for Hong Kong’s tree life was the Second World War and the Japanese occupation from 1941-1945. 

Hills and hills and stretches and stretches of the trees that the British had spent the best part of a century afforesting were stripped for Japan's war effort. It will be recalled that much of the reasons for Japan's militarism in the 1930s was a search for raw materials and this was a point that Hong Kong was to discover first-hand.  

As trees were harvested and the timber sent to Japan for construction or to outlying Japanese garrisons in the Pacific for trenches, occupying Japanese forces tried to increase rice production in Hong Kong. The effort largely failed and led to the expulsion of large parts of the Chinese population to Guangdong. 

As the local population fought their own war – survival – they were often forced them into seeking the remaining supplies of wood for cooking. Few trees were planted to replace the devastation.

A double tragedy for Hong Kong was that few, if any, Japanese trees were introduced into the landscape during those years. To this day, relatively few cherry blossoms or other Japanese pine trees are in evidence. Perhaps there is a political message there, too, because after the war anything Japanese was instinctively avoided by both the British and the Chinese. That's a great shame because if trees cannot foster a feeling of forgiveness and harmony between peoples then probably nothing can. 

Post-war rebuilding, 1945-76

Norfolk Island Pine (Araucaria heterophylla): Brought by the British to Hong Kong after WW2 this is the only significant southern hemisphere pine

When the war ended, the British returned to a devastated city where fast-growing species were most welcome. Old habits from the 19th century returned and an attitude prevailed that trees were welcome from wherever their came. 

The British turned, briefly, to the old favourites of the Chinese Red Pine and the Acacia, which admittedly did have the ability to bind soil. 

But the war had changed more than mindsets. As a result of the war, the whole nature of transportation in Asia was changed, or about to be changed, forever. Some British administrators of the territory had been evacuated before the fall in 1941 and had spent much of the war years in Australia, where they had grown to admire their tree life and the ways in which the tall, airy Eucalyptus trees dominated life. 

On returning to Hong Kong in the late 1940s they brought with them an Australian flavour to tree planting. 

Out went the prevailing British affection for southern Chinese or Empire-based tree species and instead new species of trees arrived from Australasia and the southern Pacific region. These included, in particular, the Brisbane Box, sometimes also called a Brush Box (Lophostemon confertus), known for its quick-growth and tolerance of dry climates or drought. The Paperbark tree (Melaleuca leucadendron), a particularly large tree, was used widely in the New Territories – and is easily recognisable by its peeling and spongy bark, a feature that earns it another, perhaps imprudent, jibe of being The Leper’s Tree. 

From elsewhere in the Pacific came the Norfolk Island Pine (Araucaria heterophylla), a distinctive tall-growing tree that looks like some sort of monkey puzzle. Prior to this time it had been the only pine tree to grow in the southern hemisphere. 

Some British administrators had also spent either the war years or in the years after the war in Canada. Their experiences came through in the British enlargement of the variety of pine trees. From North America came a new pine tree, the Slash Pine (Pinus elliottii). This was widely planted, often around new houses and was markedly bigger and fuller than the native red pine. 

Post 1976
Towards a greener Hong Kong

Sweet Gum (Liquidambar formosana): This native tree has made a come back in recent years. Widely distributed in southern China and recognisable by its bright red foliage. Examples are also found in Tibet

Efforts in greening Hong Kong culminated in the Country Parks Ordinance. 

Enacted in 1976 this provided for several dozen parks and ‘special areas’, eventually covering 42,000 hectares – not a token sliver of land by any means. 

The government had finally recognized that, as more and more people came from China and the population was growing exponentially, there was a need, as Governor MacLehose memorably put it, for urban Hong Kong and Kowloon to find its lungs in the New Territories. 

As the political climate in the city changed, and the joint declaration was signed in 1984, and knowledge of the impact of non-native trees grew, indigenous trees came back into favour. Coupled with a recognition that the post-war rebuild had somewhat diminished species diversity, more and more native species were used in forestation and amenity efforts. A notably favoured ‘new’ species was the Sweet Gum (Liquidambar formosana), a distinctive tree long known inside China and extending, or so it is said, as far west as Tibet. 

The proportion of native species in Hong Kong still remains low. Some estimates suggest there are as few as 40% of the million trees planted annually in Hong Kong are truly native species, but it is growing and it is clear that trees from southern China are going to once more have a greater presence in Hong Kong. 

Yet such is the history seen in Hong Kong that there will always be a variety. That much is guaranteed. Hong Kong may not be a world city by some peoples reckoning. But as a ‘world city of trees’, species drawn from all over the world, it certainly has a legitimate claim to be the most varied in the world.