SEARCH

Showing 1-10 of 91 results

  • LIFE

    All I need is the air that I breathe

    B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 20/11/2016

    » 'Please introduce air plant farms in the Bangkok area," an email I received recently requested. I am sure there are hobbyists growing air plants in their gardens or balconies, but because of high land prices, I doubt it if there are plant nurseries in Bangkok. Be that as it may, I went to my favourite haunt, the Chatuchak midweek market, last Wednesday to ask around.

  • LIFE

    Sparing some expense

    B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 21/08/2016

    » When my now adult children were in primary school, bananas were so cheap that we fed kluay namwa to our pet birds. My late father, who was visiting from the Philippines, made it his duty to feed the birds while my husband and I were at work and the children were in school.

  • LIFE

    The agony andthe ecstasy

    B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 15/05/2016

    » I was ecstatic when I saw fruits hanging for the first time from the branches of my Pouteria campechiana tree, otherwise known as canistel or eggfruit. It is called lamut khamen in Thai but actually few Thais know it, and even fewer have tasted it. I suspect that the first tree grown in Thailand came from the seed of a fruit taken from across the border in Cambodia, and the grower named it "lamut khamen" after the country or its people (khamen is the Thai word for Cambodian), as he did not know its proper name.

  • LIFE

    Let the sunshine in

    B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 02/10/2016

    » A Filipino friend of mine who lives in the US was enamoured with a plant he saw on Facebook. It was rather expensive but he bought it anyway. The seller was in the Philippines so he had it delivered to his sister, with whom he stays during his visits home.

  • LIFE

    Embracing bee season

    B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 31/07/2016

    » I was standing on the veranda of our country home when I noticed a swarm of little white butterflies milling around the canopy of a rainbow eucalyptus. The tree was in bloom, and as I watched the butterflies fluttering from flower to flower, I could not help but marvel at the wonders of nature. Where did the butterflies come from? Other plants were in bloom as well, but why were they only attracted to this particularly tree? I had no doubt in my mind that the flowers were also pollinated by bees and other insects, but why were they visited by only one kind of butterfly?

  • LIFE

    Sleep has never been this appealing

    B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 12/06/2016

    » When a friend learned that I have trouble sleeping, she told be about an article she had just read recommending banana tea for those suffering from insomnia. "All you have to do is boil an unpeeled banana, with both ends cut off, in a small pot of water for 10 minutes. Pour the water through a colander into a mug, and drink it one hour before bed," she instructed.

  • LIFE

    Flowers of flame

    B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 10/04/2016

    » The Tabebuia rosea, or chompoo panthip, on Kasetsart University's Kamphaeng Saen campus in Nakhon Pathom province caused a traffic jam as it attracted people from far and near last February. The trees were planted on both sides of the road and when they dropped all their leaves, only to be blanketed by flowers all at the same time, they were a sight to behold.

  • LIFE

    If you can stand the heat

    B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 01/05/2016

    » It's especially hot, of course, in Thailand during the summer months. But judging from the way Cassia fistula is blooming heavily this year, this summer has been even hotter than previous years.

  • LIFE

    No slacking off in hunt for salak

    B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 14/08/2016

    » Roy Cruise sent me an email asking where to find chempedak (Artocarpus integer), salak (Salacca zalacca) and gandaria (Bouea macrophylla) in Thailand. A friend of his in Cavite, Philippines, had asked him to look for the said fruit trees but he has not been able to find them in Mae Hong Son, where he lives. "I was wondering if you had any idea where I may find them?" he asked.

  • LIFE

    On the hunt for the plant thieves

    B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 07/12/2014

    » Why would someone steal the world's rarest water lily? That was the question asked by Sam Knight in an article published in the British newspaper The Guardian recently. He wrote the lengthy article after the smallest water lily in the world, the Nymphaea thermarum, whose white flowers measure less than 1cm across, was stolen from — of all places — the Princess of Wales Conservatory in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London.

Your recent history

  • Recently searched

    • Recently viewed links

      Did you find what you were looking for? Have you got some comments for us?