2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Of course, on the Thai island of Phangan, there are many more types of palm trees than three. But, for a short period of my life on the island, these three species especially surprised and delighted me. Spectacular appearance, nondescript paniculate inflorescences, amazing fruits and a lot of useful properties of these tropical plants won my heart. And love has a very good quality - you want to share it
Coconut palm
Coconut palm dominates the island. Wherever you look, you will surely see a slender tree with a spreading crown of magnificent feathery leaves. Coconut palms stretch in a friendly line along excellent highways, winding and "bumpy" (either a sharp rise, or a steep descent). Lonely giants rise palm trees on the slopes, overgrown with other tropical plants. Everywhere sea beaches are decorated with lush crowns, sometimes inclining their slender trunks low towards the water, creating the impression that any sharp gust of wind will finally tear out the exposed palm roots from the sandy-rocky soil, as in the following photo:
The “Tree of Life”, as the locals respectfully call the Coconut Palm, is a generous gift from the Almighty to an earthly person. I have already written about the varied use of all parts of the tropical tree in the article "Multidisciplinary Coconut Palm". Although all the benefits of the Coconut Palm for human life cannot be accommodated in a dozen articles of this format. I will confine myself to just one more photograph that demonstrates human ingenuity in using the hard shell of a coconut fruit. Agree, a very nice hedge was made by the owners of the house:
Oil palm
It is unlikely that someone on the island is engaged in the manufacture of palm oil, which today they like to scare Russian buyers, but I met the oil palm several times on walks around the island. The oil palm is easily distinguished from other types of palms by its powerful, spectacular leaves, the petioles of which are armed with sharp thorns, lined up in friendly rows along the side edges.
Several of these oil palms are located along the wide path of the island's nature reserve, although, in principle, the whole island can be called one reserve, its nature is so pristine. A small reserve was created at the waterfall, the water in which dries up during the long absence of tropical rainfall. During such periods, tourists who come to admire the waterfall are offered extreme skiing on a steel rope stretching from one mountain to another. Such an attraction is called "zipline". Indecisive tourists can only enjoy the tropical beauty of the reserve, and the beauty of the surrounding vegetation is worth it!
Single trees of the Oil Palm can be found in an area with residential buildings built to be rented out to foreign tourists. During fruiting, the oil palm becomes even more picturesque, hiding reddish-orange fruit clusters behind its thorny leaves, a source of palm and palm kernel oils.
Peach palm
The third palm tree, which delighted me with scarlet bunches of fruits, I identified as "Peach Palm", although I am not one hundred percent sure that I am right. But, according to external signs, I could not find anything closer than the Peach Palm. See for yourself these slender palm trees that are located in the photo on the left. This slenderness is characteristic of the Peach Palm. True, these palms have painfully thin trunks. Apparently, the living conditions in this place are not very favorable for them. Not visible on the trunks and thorny thorns, but in the literature on the Peach Palm, it is noted that thorns can only be in the upper part of the trunk, which my eyes could not reach.
As for the leaves and fruit bunches, they are very similar to many other pictures of the Peach Palm that I have reviewed on the Internet and in books. The fruits of the Peach Palm are edible and are actively used by the cuisines of the peoples of several countries in South America. It is not for nothing that the Peach Palm is believed to be home to the tropical jungles of Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Brazil. Peach palm managed to get to the countries of Southeast Asia with the help of a person.
The three types of Palm trees listed in the article growing on the Thai island of Phangan have become as dear to me as the three Poplars on Plyushchikha; like Siberian Cedar Pine, White Birch and Spruce in Kuzbass …
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Areca Palm, Or Bethel Palm
Areca tanning (lat.Areca catechu), or Areca palm, or Betel palm - a type species of plants of the genus Areca from the family of the same name Arecaceae (Latin Arecaceae), or Palm (Latin Palmaceae). The palm tree is famous for its fruits, which are popularly called nuts.
Three-leaf Watch
Three-leaf watch should be classified as a herbaceous plant from the shift family (Menyanthaceae). Also, the plant is known under the following names: Triphol, Trefoil water, Fever, Bobovnik. This plant has a thick rhizome, as well as rather long and loose.
Coptis Three-leafed
Coptis three-leafed is one of the plants of the family called buttercups, in Latin the name of this plant will sound like this: Coptis trifolia (L.) Salisb. As for the name of the three-leafed coptis family itself, in Latin it will be like this:
Three-bladed Azure
Three-bladed azure is one of the plants of the family called Umbelliferae, in Latin the name of this plant will sound as follows: Laser trilobum (L.) Borkh. (Siler trilobum (L.) Grantz.). As for the name of the three-bladed azure family itself, then in Latin it will be like this:
Koh Phangan Fruit Trees
Since the Thai island of Phangan began to lively settle down relatively recently, it has preserved a real tropical jungle, full of wonders and unexpected encounters with the flora. Let's try to look into this green riot of foliage, sometimes disturbed by bright flowering and giving useful and delicious fruits to humans and herbivorous representatives of earthly life
