This blog’s regular readers, all four of them, may remember that three years ago we set aside around half an acre to plant with a mixture of indigenous forest trees and shrubs selected by our friends Sakchai and Gatai from Wanakaset Chachoengsao.
In total we planted around 1200 seedlings and/or roots of approximately 100 different species, on the day they arrived they all fit in the back of a standard pick up truck, it took us two days to plant them all out, the planting holes having been prepared a few days before.
The forest’s third birthday was some time during May this year, some of the fastest growing trees, like teak, are now about 5m tall, most of the other hardwoods are at least 3m, some of the forest mangoes are even fruiting and the wild grasses that grew when the ground was cleared are slowing down as the shade begins to cover the “forest floor”.
These pictures were taken this morning roughly from the same spot as the old ones. As the forest gets established it requires less and less work, this year Thailand suffered the worst drought in 65 years and the weather was very hot during April and May, but the forest survived very well without any help from us after the first year.
Next year we should be ready to add a layer of ground cover species and a layer of climbing vines and some more roots. Another interesting aspect is that birds are beginning to nest on the larger trees and therefore they will be in a good position to take over the “planting”, or at least that’s the idea.
In no particular order here is an incomplete tree list, most of the larger trees are listed first.
Dipterocarpus alatus, Hopea odorata, Dalbergia cochinchinensis, Heritiera javanica, Afzelia xylocarpa, Fagraea fragrans, Irvingia malayana, Dracontomelon dao, Lagerstroemia floribunda, Tectona grandis, Shorea roxburghii, Swietenia macrophylla, Pterocarpus macrocarpus, Dipterocarpus obtusifolius, Dipterocarpus tuberculatus, Acacia mangium, Scaphium macropodium, Knema globularia, Wrightia pubescens, Terminalia chebula, Terminalia bellirica, Diospyros decandra, Acacia catechu, Litsea petiolata,Diospyros mollis, Careya sphaerica, Sapindus emarginatus, Cinnamomum camphora, Persea kurzii, Diospyros malabarica, Phyllanthus emblica, Aegle marmelos, Ardisia elliptica, Cinnamomum ilicioides, Flacourtia indica, Tarena hoaensis, Caesalpinia sappan, Glochidion, Melaleuca alternifolia, Cratoxylum formosum, Oroxylum indicum, Eurycoma longifolia, Maniltoa grandiflora, Cinnamomum loureirii Nees, Cinnamomum verum, Garcinia cowa, Melientha suavis, Averhoa bilimbi, Mansonia gagei, Mammea siamensis, Mesua ferrea, Dolichandrone serrulata, Dolichandrone spathacea, Curcuma longa, Phyllanthus pulcher, Zingiber cassumunar, Piper sarmentosum, Tacca chantrieri, Strobilanthes nivea, Schefflera leucantha, Alpinia conchigera, Boesenbergia rotunda, Kaempferia parviflora, Thunbergia laurifolia, Elephantopus scaber, Clausena wallichii, Calamus caesius.
maemutgarden.wordpress.com 