Palms of Nong Nooch Gardens

[tim_brissy_13]

I recently arrived back home from a trip to Thailand and had the pleasure of fulfilling a lifetime dream of visiting the Nong Nooch gardens. For anyone who has visited the gardens, I'm sure you already know that photos just don't capture the shear size of not only some of the huge palms, but also the entire gardens. The place is just so massive that it really can be an overwhelming experience. I had the chance to visit the gardens on two separate days and still didn't get to see any of the nursery section or the hortus botanicus section which cover at least half of the overall area of the gardens. What I did see, however, was unlike anything I've seen before in my life.

As soon as I turned off the main highway south of Pattaya into the long driveway that eventually leads you to the gardens, it is obvious that I was about to witness something special. Without exaggerating, the road, which must have stretched at least a few kilometres or a couple of miles, were lined with thousands of containers filled will Coperncias, Bizmarckias, Hyphaenes, Borassus and even Corphas. Before even reaching the gardens it was one of the more amazing palm spectacles I've witnessed.

After arriving, just standing in any spot in the gardens and looking around, there are hundreds of huge, rare palms, some of which I've only seen in photos before. This famous avenue through the gardens lined by Copernicia hospita with the huge Corphas to the side was a sight I've been looking forward to seeing for a long time.

[Sabal Steve]

Pictures!?!?!?

[Palmdude]

Tease!!!!! Lol

[tim_brissy_13]

The variety of fan palms in the gardens is truly amazing. From understory to gigantic, in all shapes, colours and sizes. Here's a few of my favourites:

Corpha utan and Corpha (I believe they are lecomtei?)

[tim_brissy_13]

Sorry for the delay guys, trouble resizing and uploading. More to come soon.

[tim_brissy_13]

Copernicia baileyana and Borassus (sambiranensis I think). The Borassus are so huge I initially thought they were Corpha until I saw some with fruit.

[tim_brissy_13]

The biggest Kerriodoxa I've seen and a very nice Pholidocarpus macrocarpa.

[avanza]

Thanks for sharing sir :-D

[Palmdude]

Nice Bailey! Drooooool! Thanks for the great pics! Keep em coming! Nice to see such mature specimens!

[Sabal Steve]

Utan!

[Walter John]

It seems like yesterday Daryl, Bob and I were riding elephants under that Corypha in post #4, pic #2. Magic place, a must visit by any palm tree lover. Thanks.

[Peter Pacific]

Nong Nooch is amazing! Please post more pics.

Peter

[tim_brissy_13]

ok guys, here's some more:

Borassodendron machadonis and a very cool palm which I had never seen up close before: Coccothrinax spissa with its distinctive belly.

[tim_brissy_13]

Latania (I would guess lontariodes without a label from the colour of the leaf bases) and a favourite of many: Licuala peltata var. sumawongii

[tim_brissy_13]

Next up, an ID question for the experts: This picture was taken towards the end of the amazing 'Palms of the World' section. Fan palms with bluish leaves and armed petioles. Without having ever seen one, I thought they may have been Medemia argun?

And also one of my favourite views of the gardens. An amazing contrast of colour and size provided by the avenue of Copernicia hospital, Bizmarckias, , Livistonas (some are Saribus now), , Borassus, Raphias (which don't look as huge as they usually do compared to all of the other palms in the shot, and a glorious Orania (palindan?) right in the centre of the shot.

[tim_brissy_13]

Now for the really exciting stuff. Lodoicea maldivica, the double coconut, is a palm I've only ever seen in person over a decade ago at the Darwin Botanical Gardens when they were relatively small palms. You can see my excitement when I saw my first Nong Nooch Lodoicea in my silly grin. For scale, I'm pretty much right on 6' (1.83m) tall, so this one is still a seedling by Lodoicea standards.

The palm in the second photo I initially walked right past twice from a distance, assuming it to be a Corypha just from its size. It was only when I noticed a cage that I looked closer and it hit me. I knew Lodoicea grew into large palms, but this specimen was literally on par in size with a close by Corypha umbraculifera. On my first trip to the gardens I didn't manage to take a photo with scale, so on our second trip, here I am posing in front of the huge palm which must be 10-12m tall without having formed any trunk yet.

[Toby]

Latania (I would guess lontariodes without a label from the colour of the leaf bases) and a favourite of many: Licuala peltata var. sumawongii

Latania loddigesii, the only species in the genus that has bluish leaves as an adult and petioles with orange tomentum.

Best, TOBY

[tim_brissy_13]

Believe it or not, that Lodoicea was not the largest in the gardens. Of the 20 or so that I witnessed, this next one was the biggest, so massive that it isn't really possible to capture it in one photo, being in the middle of a palm jungle. The first photo (sorry about the quality) shows a large protective cage around the base of the palm. Inside the cage you can see custom built pedestals for each fruit branch, completely understandable when you consider the value of each double coconut seed. The second photo looks up into the canopy of the same palm, but doesn't really give a true indication of its enormous size.

[tim_brissy_13]

Thanks Toby, I should have known it was loddigesii from the frond colour.

[Toby]

Next up, an ID question for the experts: This picture was taken towards the end of the amazing 'Palms of the World' section. Fan palms with bluish leaves and armed petioles. Without having ever seen one, I thought they may have been Medemia argun?

Livistona carinensis! I guess interesting here would be an answer to the question if these plants originated from seeds collected in Jemen or Djiboutii as we may actually be dealing with two separate species here, the one on Djiboutii with very small seeds, in Jemen with larger seeds.

Best, TOBY

[tim_brissy_13]

On my first trip to Nong Nooch I discovered a few small palms within the 'Palms of the World' section that were unlike anything I've seen before. Even though these fan leaved palms were only about 1m tall, they were exhibiting distichous behaviour and the leaf bases were bright white, quite distinctive compared to other fan leaved palms of a similar size. I had an idea of what they were, and upon closer inspection I noticed tags thought confirmed my thoughts; Tahina spectabilis. This was a very exciting moment to see my first palms of this species up close. If I ever get the chance I'd love to give these a go in Melbourne. Anyone think I have a chance?

[tim_brissy_13]

Thanks again Toby! Those palms were quite striking up close, they show a great range of colours from the leaf bases to the fronds.

[tim_brissy_13]

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I must have walked past this palm at least a few times without realising what it was. Infact it wasn't until our second trip to the gardens that I stopped to see that this wasn't any ordinary fan palm, so I must thank my amazing partner for agreeing to go back to the gardens and listen to my endless palm ramblings again. The story of Tahina is known to most Palmtalkers; discovered in habitat in Madagascar within the last decade and distributed into cultivation for the first time around 2007 I believe. This palm must be at least 3m (10') tall judging from my scale which I guess would make it the largest or at least one of the largest in cultivation. It is already obvious from the size of the frond that this will one day grow into an enormous palm. Again, my goofy smile gives away my excitement.

The second photo shows the white leaf bases and lower petioles and also shows this specimen to be growing out of its distichous seedling behaviour and into its adult form. A large heel can also be seen.

Edited January 28, 2014 by tim_brissy_13

[Sabal Steve]

Next up, an ID question for the experts: This picture was taken towards the end of the amazing 'Palms of the World' section. Fan palms with bluish leaves and armed petioles. Without having ever seen one, I thought they may have been Medemia argun?

And also one of my favourite views of the gardens. An amazing contrast of colour and size provided by the avenue of Copernicia hospital, Bizmarckias, , Livistonas (some are Saribus now), , Borassus, Raphias (which don't look as huge as they usually do compared to all of the other palms in the shot, and a glorious Orania (palindan?) right in the centre of the shot.

Do you know if they fertilize or water there? I know they get a lot of rainfall.

[tim_brissy_13]

Hi Steve,

Workers in the gardens are everywhere and there were at least a few sections of the gardens being watered as I went through. The 'Palms of the World' section has an automated sprinkler system. I cant comment on fertiliser but I would imagine that they would have to given the amount of nutrients some of the palms, especially the larger ones, would require.