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Jakarta Post

Green space in the middle of the busy city

A rare, large green area filled with big trees provides a sharp contrast to the alley across the way where houses are built too close to each other in the heart of the bustling city

(The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Sat, April 3, 2010

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Green space in the middle of the busy city

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rare, large green area filled with big trees provides a sharp contrast to the alley across the way where houses are built too close to each other in the heart of the bustling city.

The garden is hidden by the side of an alley on Jl. Bendungan Hilir 17 in Central Jakarta, close to Jakarta's "golden triangle" business district.

The botanical garden, as some visitors have dubbed it, is open to the public and has survived the city's rapid development since the 1950s and has also become a park preserving rare plants.

The owner of the garden is Sabsono. He is a child of Toegijo Kartosandjojo, who bought the land in the 1950s

"My father, an Air Force pilot, was someone who appreciated the environment," he told The Jakarta Post.

"He was educated by the Dutch and liked to read books on botany as well as making friends with botanists from the University of Diponegoro in Semarang."

Shade trees, fruit trees and herbs cover most of the land, while several houses are dotted around the garden. "My father liked big trees," Sabsono said while showing the Post around.

The soccer-field sized garden houses varieties of rare plants, such as African palm trees, jambul trees with their distinctive purple olive-sized fruit, yellow coconut trees, Papuan hibiscus and casuarina, a species common in Madura.

"The palm trees can only be found at the Bogor Botanical Garden and in Binjai in Medan," Sabsono said.

"My father got the African palm seeds from the Bogor Botanical Garden. We had six trees. There are four now, each around 10 meters high."

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