Showing 11-20 of 26 results
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Toxic plants and rumours taking root
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 19/07/2015
» When will people ever learn? The warning on dieffenbachia, known in Thai as sao noi pra paeng, being a dangerous plant is going viral again. Apparently someone in India just read it and shared it with her friends, then people in the Philippines and Japan picked it up and now it is making the rounds on Facebook all over again.
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Not by any other name
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 29/03/2015
» What's in a name? Following the column about Quisqualis indica two weeks ago, Alain Missorten asked: “Any idea why it is called the Rangoon creeper?”
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Fruit in a barren land
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 25/01/2015
» When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Citrus fruit aside, that was exactly what happened when His Majesty the King was given a piece of land in Thung Sai Yai, in the village of Khao Tao in Hua Hin, Prachuap Khiri Khan province, in the late 1960s.
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A soulfully festive affair
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 02/11/2014
» Today is All Souls' Day, which in the Philippines is the second day of an annual two-day holiday devoted to remembering and praying for the souls of departed family members and loved ones. In the preceding days, tombs are weeded, repainted and spruced up for the big event, when cemeteries come to life as the living visit their dead in droves and bring flowers, light candles and offer prayers on All Saints' Day, which fell yesterday.
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Raising dragons from the vine
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 24/08/2014
» Taking advantage of a four-day holiday recently, my family went upcountry to indulge in our favourite pastime: gardening. Leaving Bangkok at 1pm on Saturday, we arrived at our country home at 10pm and even before we reached the doorstep I had found the answer to a reader's question.
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Nature’s melodious alarm clock
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 25/05/2014
» Every day around 5am, I am awakened by a riot of sounds from an assortment of birds. As if by cue they start all at the same time, with sounds ranging from the loud “kawow kawow-kawow-kawow” of the common koel or Asian koel, known in Thai as nok kawow (Eudynamys scolopacea), to the explosive “chee-yup, chee-yup” of the common tailorbird, or nok krajib (Orthotomus sutorius) and the plaintive coo-crooo-crooo of the spotted dove, or nok kao yai (Streptopelia chinensis).
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Leisurely look at nature
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 27/04/2014
» My family has made it a tradition to travel together, either to our country home near Loei or to my daughter Nalinee’s workplace in Phuket, at least once a year. It is our way of spending quality time together. Even when we are driving to her place, Nalinee flies into Bangkok to join us for the trip. Driving 900km to Cape Panwa in Phuket is not everybody’s idea of fun, but it was not as bad as it sounds as we made stops along the way when we went there during the long Songkran holiday recently.
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Casuarina and effects
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 23/02/2014
» For some people, the mention of “sun, sea and sand” calls to mind a clear blue sea and a beach fringed by coconut fronds. For others, it evokes having a picnic or lazing the day away by the sea under the shade of a casuarina tree. The truth is that the former is a sight common only in travel brochures; from Rayong in the East down to Phuket in the South, it is Casuarina equisetifolia, commonly known as ironwood or horsetail casuarina (son talay in Thai) that is an integral part of Thai coastal areas. There are more casuarinas on Thai beaches than coconuts.
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Euphorbia leads to euphoria
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 02/02/2014
» Richard Dawson sent me an email saying that he had gone over a few dendrology books but kept getting stumped as to the name of a tree growing in his garden.
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Pharmacy on the forest floor
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 10/11/2013
» After making a name for herself as one of Thailand's top marine biologists, Hansa Chansang took advantage of an early retirement scheme to pursue her other passion: growing trees. She cleared most of her family's rubber plantation in Cherngtalay, near the popular Laguna tourist area in Phuket's Thalang district, and planted it with many different species of forest trees. Visiting her plantation recently, I marvelled not only at how tall her trees have grown since I last saw them five years ago, but also at the diversity of wild plants growing on the floor of the man-made forest.
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