CHON BURI, Oct 15 (TNA) — Horticulturalists from 12 countries attended the 2nd Cycad Horticulture Workshop at Nong Nooch Tropical Garden in Pattaya.
Kampol Tansacha, chairman of Nong Nooch Tropical Garden, opened the workshop set on Oct 13-19. Participants were from Thailand, Australia, France, the Netherlands, the United States, South Africa, Singapore, England, India, Spain, Portugal and Sweden.
They were exchanging knowledge about the conservation and development of rare cycads and were scheduled to see Thai cycads at Nong Nooch Tropical Garden as well as at Srisawat, Sa Setthee and Nong Nam Khun farms in Kanchanaburi province.
Mr Kampol said cycads were ancient plants and grew very slowly, naturally mostly in deserts. Their leaves resembled feathers and their flowers looked like ears of corn. There were three families, 10 genera and 348 species of cycads and Nong Nooch Tropical Garden had 337 species.
Cycads lived as long as 1,000 years and were believed to exist during the eras of dinosaurs. They were expensive plants for landscape gardening and in Thailand they grew generally in Kanchanaburi, Saraburi, Prachuap Khiri Khan and Rayong provinces, Mr Kampol said. (TNA)
