History

Rimba Ilmu (Forest of Knowledge) started as a 80-hectare botanical garden located within Universiti Malaya. To accommodate the growing Department of Botany in 1974, it was transformed from an abandoned rubber plantation to one of the main ex-situ conservation sites in Malaysia with an estimated living collections of around 1,700 species of plants.

Over the years, pieces of land were converted into new campuses and colleges as the university also grew. Now with 57.3 hectares of green in the middle of KL, the garden and more has been made accessible to the public since the opening of a new building in 1997. However, even with 50 years on our belt, our garden is still considered young and many of the planted trees have not fully grown to its full potential.

Our garden has a few core collections namely medicinal plants, palms, bamboos. To add, our conservatory of rare plants and orchids that was designed to mimic the look and feel of a rainforest houses more than 40 species of wild orchids. 

Besides that, our exhibition hall has a permanent exhibition called Rain Forests and Our Environment where visitors can learn about timbers, insects, wildlife trafficking and products of the forest. For our 50th anniversary in August 2024, we had displays from outside artists that commemorated our celebration with their Belukar Jadi Rimba exhibits. Here you can walk ‘through’ the pieces of belukar, learn more about our history and finally look into the portal to see the past and future of Rimba Ilmu. 

Lastly, our herbarium that is older than Rimba Ilmu itself (it was started in the 1960s) is mostly frequented by visiting researchers that wants to go through our collection of more than 70,000 specimens of plants ranging from ferns, dicots and monocots, to seaweeds. 

In September 2024, Rimba Ilmu was combined with Glami Lemi Biotechnology Research Centre and Agroscience Centre Gemas to be under the same umbrella: Agroforestry.