Name that plant!

To make plants more attractive and saleable, nursery owners at Chatuchak have renamed them

I recently went to the plant market at Chatuchak to survey what plants are available for readers who don't have the time to do so. Though there are many other plant markets in and around Bangkok, at Chatuchak you can buy directly from nursery owners who sell their plants at wholesale prices even if you buy only a plant or two. I found the plant market bewildering, to say the least. Plants I used to know by another name are now called by a different name and I felt like an alien landing on a different planet, with the people speaking a different language. Now I know the predicament faced by some readers who go to the market asking for certain plants but can't find them because the vendors have different names for the said plants.

Plumeria or frangipani used to be called lantom in Thai; now vendors call it leelavadi.

Cordylines, which used to be locally known as makpu-makmia, are now pet puang thong (the variegated variety) and tabtim siam (the red variety).

Aglaonema (Chinese evergreen or keo muen pi in Thai, literally meaning ''green for decades of years''), has been renamed kaew kanchana following the production of a mind-boggling array of crossbreeds and cultivars in a variety of bright colours that all but obliterated the green colour that gave the plant its name keo muen pi.

The names for the cultivars range from the descriptive to the melodramatic: Pramote Hybrid 1, Pramote Hybrid 2, Lai Nam Thong, Morakot Prakai Ngoen, Mangkorn Yok, Treasure of Siam, Mona Lisa, Mongkon Siam, Mongkon Mani, and Mani Maha Mongkon, to name just a few.

Mongkon in Thai means ''auspicious'', and many plants have ''mongkon'' added to their names to make them sell better. Several varieties of citrus, including what used to be known as somjeed (Citrofortunella microcarpa), are now being sold under the name Som Sri Mongkon.

''People are an amazing lot,'' a friend who owns a plant nursery commented. ''For a long time no one was interested in this philodendron and I thought I'd never be able to sell it. After I changed its name to make it sound auspicious, it sold like hot cakes and now I cannot propagate it fast enough to meet demand. It was the same plant, and people knew it, yet they bought it after it was given a new name.''

Another example is lantom, which used to be planted only on hills and in cemeteries and temple grounds, away from people's homes. With new hybrids and a new name, leelavadi, it is now everywhere _ along streets and road islands, parks, and in people's gardens. With its new name and popularity, prices also went up accordingly.

Plants at Chatuchak are priced according to their size, of course. And an old, common variety is much cheaper than a rare plant or a new cultivar. Chuan-chom (Adenium obesum), for example, are selling from 50 baht for a small, common variety, to between 500 and 3,000 baht for big, well-established specimens with lots of flowers and up to 10,000 baht for new cultivars of the same size.

A Prachin Buri nursery owner, meanwhile, was willing to part with his 3m-tall Cuban palm, Coccothrinax crinita, for 95,000 baht. A perfect specimen which he grew from seed, the palm took 20 years to reach that size.

If you are not going for new cultivars and rare specimens, however, plants at Chatuchak are generally cheaper than in other places. If all you want is greenery for your terrace or living room, there are several species of sizeable palms, ficus, ferns and crotons as well as flowering orchids which will set you back only a few hundred baht each or even less.

Meanwhile, Teng Wong wants to know what plants to put on his balcony and living room. The answers will be in next Sunday's Green Fingers.

Green Fingers may be reached at normita.

Bangkok Post
Sunday February 11, 2007