Photo: Ahmad Fuad Morad
When I first started writing this column , a botanist friend gave me some sage advice. Always, he said, take note of the plants that are doing well in your locality. That observation will give you a good idea of which ones will flourish in your own patch. Such an observation is particularly apt now we are experiencing a drought. Look around you to see which plants have the best survival kit in these bone-dry conditions .
Of course ornamental trees and large woody shrubs are coping well because they have deep roots and are shedding leaves to limit water loss through transpiration. My magnolia (michelia champaca or champak) has lost perhaps 80% of its foliage, but it will grow new leaves once the monsoon arrives and saturates the ground ; my solitary acacia has deposited many of its leaflets in the pool, but it is as tough as old boots.
Other plants, however, are showing little sign of distress, even revelling in the conditions., Neriums (oleanders or yii tho) for example are in full bloom all over the island, especially thevetia peruviana. Its beautiful glossy foliage never seems to lose its shine in the noonday heat, and its golden or apricot , trumpet-shaped flowers make it an attractive addition to most gardens . Poisonous though, so not a sensible choice if you have young children who might be attracted to its glossy green fruits.
Bougainvilleas, as I recently noted are perhaps better than I have ever seen them in Phuket – a mass of color everywhere. And they have not had a drenching for perhaps two months. What is particularly impressive is the ever-growing number of colorful hybrids. Where we used to get only pink or pallid purple flowers, we now see vibrant displays of luminous vermilion, deep salmon-pink, and chrome yellow bracts. In some cases , the blooms are a mass of color, completely enveloping the outline of the shrub.
Another lover of xeric habitats is the Indian milkweed ( calatropis gigantea or dok rak ). While bougainvilleas have usually been deliberately planted as a specimen yard shrub or to form a thorny barrier, the milkweed often crops up unannounced on waste lots where its seeds have dispersed. Impervious to today’s baked earth, its clusters of white flowers, some with purplish centers, are everywhere. A bonus for the larvae of monarch butterflies.
Even the concrete jungle has its share of surprises. Passing today through Phuket Town , I was struck by the floral displays in a number of small walled gardens, only feet from the sulphurous fumes of passing traffic. One wall was adorned with a gentian blue ipomoea ( I. indica), the first morning glory of this particularly glorious hue I have encountered here.
Another, even smaller front yard, had an amazing flame vine (pyrostegia venusta). The whole wall was clad in a profusion of vivid orange tubular flowers. I have not featured this vine in dispatches – and it climbs conveniently by means of tendrils – because the prevailing wisdom is that it prefers the mountainous regions of Northern Thailand. Here, however, it was in sumptuous bloom. It actually belongs to the bignonia family and like the much commoner magnifica, with its mauve trumpet-shaped flowers, it thrives in full sun. No shortage of that commodity at the moment .
I spoke recently of the durable qualities of the coral vine( antigonon leptus). One climbing a roadside wall behind “Home Pro” in Chalong is still in flower despite the fact that nobody, it seems, takes the trouble to attend to its needs. It will surely outlast the dry spell. So too the roadside golden rain trees (cassia fistula), and the yellow bignonias, tecoma stans. Plumerias , too, both the white obtusa and the multi-colored rubra seem unaffected by the conditions, as do the many varieties of ixora.
Among foliage plants – aside from the desert denizens such as yuccas, agaves and cacti, top survivors include polyscias, duranta and – my personal favorite – schefflera.
Sun lovers all…
green galoshes 