Picture of the Tembusu tree on the Singapore $5 dollar note
Coming back to the Tembusu trees, you are probably carrying a picture of a famous Tembusu in your pocket. This tree in the Botanic Gardens is featured on the back of the $5 note. The front of this $5 note has a picture of President Yusof bin Ishak.
Update: In Year 2002, there was a special stamp issue on “Heritage Trees”. The Tembusu was in one of the 4 Heritage-tree stamps.
Re-trievia recalled: Excerpts from Year 2000
Tan Wee Kiat
[Update 23 Oct ’07: Chun See shares this photo of a Tembusu tree]
ReTRIeVIA 
My friend Chuck used the tembusu to make his catapults.
Lam Chun See
15 October, 2007 at 5:05 pm
Maybe your friend Chuck also used the wood from the Guava (pak-kia) tree to make the Y-shaped catapults.
Personally I did not make, or use catapults that my friends had made, simply because I did not like the idea of shooting at birds, cats, dogs and unsuspecting humans (not necessarily in that order). Similarly, I have never liked the “sport” of fishing — must be terrible to have a fish hook stuck in the throat.
tan wee kiat
16 October, 2007 at 10:09 am
[…] yes, there is a grand old Gelam tree in the Botanic Gardens (near the famous Tembusu Tree which is shown on our $5 note and on a postage […]
Mr Rajaratnam and Kampong Glam « ReTRIeVIA
14 January, 2008 at 1:55 am
My dad also used the Tembusu wood to make a catapult… sadly, he gave it to his friend’s son and not to me (I’m a girl). But I do remember seeing it when I was young — the wood was very strong and it was beautiful 🙂
Felicia
7 August, 2012 at 10:42 am
Thank you for that and enabled me to complete my project in time
nic
26 January, 2013 at 2:33 pm