Rafflesia in Khao Sok
The World’s Largest Flower
Rafflesia, known locally as Bua Phut (wild lotus), is orange/red in appearance. It has no roots or leaves of its own; instead it lives parasitically inside the roots of the liana. It takes nine months to grow from the size of a small button to a giant football (some reach 80cm in diameter). The Rafflesia only blooms for a few days a year, usually during January and February.
KHAO SOK FLOWERS & PLANTS
Khao Sok is rich with fruit and vegetation. It boasts approximately 200 different
floral species per hectare including a wide variety of orchids and the
World’s largest flower, Rafflesia.
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Banana
There are both male and female banana trees. If the tree has a big flower it’s a female, a smaller bloom denotes a male.
Many uses
Banana shakes, banana pancakes, the list goes on; this fruit is part of any tourist’s staple diet! But it’s not just the fruit that’s used:
Bamboo
Bamboo is the oldest and largest grass on earth – 60 million years old and standing up to 10 metres high. It grows very quickly, some species sprout more than a metre in just 24 hours.
Bamboo is hollow and therefore very flexible and is strengthened by the sections throughout its length.
Thai people use bamboo to make a broad variety of things – from rafts and bungalows to furniture, fish traps and cooking utensils. And of course you can eat it – bamboo shoot salad is delicious!
Wild pepper
There are both male and female banana trees. If the tree has a big flower it’s a female, a smaller bloom denotes a male.
Many uses
Banana shakes, banana pancakes, the list goes on; this fruit is part of any tourist’s staple diet! But it’s not just the fruit that’s used:
Rattan Palm
The Rattan Palm is a liana vine. Lianas cleverly rely on other plants to help them grow, hooking themselves around others so they can quickly climb their way up into the light. Extremely strong and flexible, the vines are used to make beautiful rattan furniture.
Wild ginger
The aromatic roots of this plant are used throughout Thai cuisine. Wild ginger has a horizontal underground stem which is swollen with food reserves. This stem contains oils and resins which give off that wonderful ginger aroma. Not only does it smell gorgeous, but the plant’s flowers are a beautiful red and pink colour.
Palms
More than 1,300 species of palm grow in Thailand, the greatest concentration in the world.
Palm Langkow
This rare palm is listed as the world’s most endangered species. It’s found in Khao Sok and Khao Phra Taew forest park in Phuket, and nowhere else on earth!
Strangler Fig
A liana vine rather than a tree, the Strangler Fig produces copious amounts of fruit which is gorged on by gibbons, hornbills, wild boar, deer, macaques, civet, bats and birds.