QSBG Back-Country April 2014

Journeys around QSBG beyond the common visitors tracks lead to many wonderful discoveries. Way up in the evergreen forest of Northern Thailand many treasures await. A careful eye is all that is needed to witness some of earths rare treasures. My mission was to try to find native orchids in the tree canopy as high as I could climb. I did successfully see many orchids, although not in bloom, and was very delighted to see them in their native element, stuck on trees. Now to people around here it's not so uncommon to see this, but for this foreigner it is just incredible. Especially for the first time seeing plants and trees so happy together. Besides seeing Coelogyne and Flickingeria orchids, I saw many epiphytic ferns and a climbing piper plant in this part of the canopy. On the ground there were also many fun new surprises like loads of Curcuma aeruginosa. They poked up out of the ground like magic, with no leaves while the flower is blooming. Also to be found were Globba nuda, a beautiful yellow globba which brightened up the forest brush. I look forward to more exploration and blooms up in these mountains and will be sure to share them with you here.

Curcuma aeruginosa