Principal Mr. Wan Pui To (term of office: 2006 to 2013)

When you are at school, apart from the schoolmates, classrooms, special rooms, ball courts and the different floors who/which you are very familiar with, do you ever notice the trees and flowers that grow with you in our campus? Our less-than-0.5-hectare campus is crowded with not only students but also nearly a hundred different kinds of plants. Robust tall trees, evergreen shrubs, and luxuriant herbaceous plants can all be found in our campus. They follow the seasons, with leaves sprouting and flowers blossoming in spring, surviving the scorching sun in summer and the dryness in autumn and winter, month after month and year after year, growing in silence, regardless of whether we have neglected them or not.
 
When we step into our school, our attention is easily attracted by the not-so-tall fan palm in the flower bed on the right. This fan palm has guarded our school for 30 years, witnessing the growth of every student in PLHKS. To the left of the school gate, there was originally an oil palm tree, but it was moved to the flower bed near the entrance of the car park in 1998 to make way for erecting a flagpole. The oil palm tree is a kind of evergreen tree, about 7 metres tall, with big, fan-shaped fronds leaves growing at the top, where small yellow flowers grow in early summer, which subsequently become light bluish-black berries. There are a few other species of palm trees in the school campus. For example, in the flower bed adjacent to Ngan Shing Street and the volleyball court, we can find bamboo palm (also called ponytail palm) whose leaves look like a ponytail, fishtail palm, queen palm and the tall king palm and oil palm trees, which are of extremely high economical value.

The oil palm tree in the flower bed to the right of the school gate	The Norfolk Island Pine near the car park

To the left of the school gate, near the flagpole, there is a rose apple tree, which blooms and bears fruit in March or April each year. The ripe rose apple fruit is aromatic and tasty. Native to Southeast Asia, the rose apple tree is highly adaptable and therefore can grow well in different kinds of soil, which allows it to serve as a windbreak. In the flowerbed outside the glass doors, several cinnamon trees have been planted in recent years. The bark of this well-known tree can be used as a spice, and its leaves are said to be used for making tea.
 
In our campus, there are also several plants which bear edible fruits such as longans, mulberries, mangoes, papayas, wampees, loquats, bananas and sapodillas. They are scattered all over the flower beds around the campus. Students should not be unfamiliar with the appearance of their fruits, so they should be able to differentiate the plants when seeing their fruits. 
 
If we look in the direction of the car park, we can see a group of evergreen conifers. Native to Australia, they are Norfolk Island Pine trees, which are robust and can grow taller than 30 metres. These trees are upright and conical, with twigs extending horizontally on the verticil, giving an overall decent look. Being fond of sunlight, these trees can tolerate a temperature as high as 40°C as well as 5°C below the freezing point.

The Dragon Chinese Junipers near Tak Yi Street and Ngan Shing Street	The rose apple tree next to the flagpole to the left of the school gate

Near Tak Yi Street and Ngan Shing Street, there are arrays of bright green Dragon Chinese Junipers, Chinese Hibiscus with bright red flowers and Madagascar Dragon Trees with leaves which are narrow and with blood-red edges.

At the volley-ball court, you wouldn’t fail to notice the two-storey tall White Jade Orchid Tree, which gives off a fresh fragrance. (White Jade Orchid, also known as Burmese osmanthus and Magnolia, belongs to the Magnoliaceae genus. Originating from the temperate and tropical regions of Asia and North America, the White Jade Orchid is a rare, precious fragrant flower species. As an evergreen tree with a long, sharp apex, it is fond of light. While Magnolia cannot stand severe cold, it can grow in different kinds of soil. Vividly green and oblong, Magnolia leaves have a smooth and shiny surface. Magnolia flowers are white, and under suitable temperature conditions, they can blossom all year round radiating endless fragrance, which makes a high-quality source of fragrance for the production of beauty cosmetics.) There were originally 10 white jade orchids in the flower bed near Ngan Shing Street. Owing to the impact of salt water six years ago, only the one that grows outside the changing room window can survive.

This tree outside the volleyball court and fellowship room was replanted in 2008 for the 25th anniversary of the school. There are other big flowering trees planted on campus, including the red and bright cotton tree (A specialty of the south, cotton tree flowers are the city flower of Guangzhou, Kaohsiung and Panzhihua. With five huge petals surrounding a bunch of dense yellow stamens, bundled in a green receptacle, each blossom is as big as a rice bowl, facing the spring sun, spreading down from the top of the tree. The cotton tree is also known as the hero tree or red cotton. When its flowers fall from the top of the tree, they proudly remain the same in the air, spin all the way down, and then fall to the ground with a "pop". Lying under the tree in a splendid manner, the fallen flowers do not fade or wilt, bidding a heroic farewell to the world.)

The flowering tree that grows in the flower bed behind the stand of the volleyball court is the Taiwan Acacia, which produces small yellow flowers like fluffy balls in May every year. There are also a Bauhinia blakeana orchid tree, which produces Hong Kong’s city flower, Poinciana and several trees native to the tropical regions growing in the flower bed at the basketball court.

The flowering tree that grows in the flower bed behind the stand of the volleyball court is the Taiwan Acacia, which produces small yellow flowers like fluffy balls in May every year. There are also a Bauhinia blakeana orchid tree, which produces Hong Kong’s city flower, Poinciana and several trees native to the tropical regions growing in the flower bed at the basketball court.

The herb garden near the basketball court	The cotton tree can be seen when one looks in the direction of Yue Tin Court.

In our school, there are common trees native to the tropical rain forests, including the Indian Oak, Parasol Leaf Tree (also called the Elephant's Ear) and Banyan. The ten banyan trees growing on the edge of the basketball court stand were planted at the tenth anniversary of the school, and today they are tall and big enough to shelter students from the sun.

The two trees which are almost four storeys tall and safeguarding the basketball court are Bodhi Trees. The Bodhi Tree is a ficus of Moraceae, with a straight trunk and grey bark. Its crown is wavy and round, with hanging aerial roots, which will secrete milky fluid at the wound. A semi-evergreen tropical large tree, deciduous in the dry season, a bodhi tree can grow up to 30 metres, with trunk diameter up to 3 metres. Distributed in southwest China and Indochina Peninsula, bodhi trees are commonly planted in temples, streets and parks as roadside trees.

The bodhi tree is also the county tree of Hualien, Taiwan. This tree has a special meaning for Buddhists. According to legend, the Buddha Sakyamuni realized the philosophy of Buddhism under a bodhi tree.

I recommend that students go to the basketball court to see the herb garden. The garden was jointly built by Mr. Leung, who provided greening services for the school, and teachers and students from the Horticultural Society. You can find many kinds of well-known herbs in the herb garden---mint, perilla, green onion, ginger, thyme, lemon, rue vanilla (stinky grass), basil (also called ‘nine-storied tower’ in Chinese ), pandan, aloe vera, Tianqi... and the very popular Rosemary (Rosemary is a species native to the Mediterranean region, wild or planted in chalky soil, and aromatic oil can be extracted from its stem, leaves and flowers.) Students should take a walk in the herb garden when they are free.

Perilla from the Herb Garden	Lemons from the Herb Garden
Longan	Mulberry
Mango	Papaya
Wampi	Loquat