ALL THINGS BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL

On a Chiang Mai nature trail (and not an alien planet) with ant plants and monk’s spittoons

E yes scanning the forest floor, our tour guide Chan Moakwang suddenly points to red growths like cricket balls erupting through the dry leaf litter. “They’re buds of the parasitic plant Sapria himalayana,” he explains. Further down the slope are its foul-smelling flowers, sporting fleshy red petals with egg-yolk yellow spots. The petals surround a hairy inner rim that drops into a crater centre. The Thai’s call this plant a “hermit monk’s spittoon”.

Moakwang is among a group of tour guides from Khiri Travel who recently attended a special day-long forest-knowledge training course with Dr Stephen Elliott, senior lecturer in biology at Chiang Mai University and co-founder of the renowned Forest Restoration Research Unit (FORRU). The aim was to standardise the training

of guides and improve the quality of environmental information they provide to visitors traversing Khiri Travel’s new nature trails on Doi Suthep and elsewhere.

The rare blooms, which resemble props for a sci-fifilm, are among more than 2,000 species of plants in the Doi Suthep-Pui National Park, which covers 261 sq km of mountain outside Chiang Mai. A veteran guide, Moakwang explains: “I already knew a lot about the plants that grow here because I come from the country and could tell guests about the herbs we use, the edible fruits, and so on. But I did not know the official names of the plants or anything about the ecology.”

Frans Betgem, co-founder of Khiri Travel, beams as he photographs the parasitic flowers.

“Doi Suthep is the most under-utilised attraction in Chiang Mai. Most people only visit the temple and the Hmong village, but we wanted to introduce forest trails for our clients who are keen on natural history,” he says.

Visitors can explore three diff erent types of forest and view a wealth of orchids and other plants.

Betgem says the “most endangered” forest is the mixed dry deciduous forest, grassy open woodland where we stop for a walk on the way up the mountain. Here Moakweng explains how villagers use the huge leaves of Dipterocarpus tuberculatus for thatching, and points out diff erent species like pandanus. What looks like a bunch of withered bananas dangling from a vine turns out to be the leaves of the ant plant, Dischidia major, an epiphytic vine. The ants that nest in some of its hollow leaves protect the plant from other insects.

Higher up the mountain we visit the FORRU nursery, where manager Dr Greuk Pakkad and his team tend to seedlings of around 100 tree species. When the plants are 50cm high, they are trucked to communities which then plant them in logged or cleared areas. FORRU researchers provide a special mix of around 30 species of fast growing trees for each area. The species chosen are those proven to create a framework for rapid rainforest growth. Birds and animals attracted to edible fruits and flowers in the burgeoning forest bring in seeds of other plants and within a few years some of the rehabilitated forests can reveal around 100 tree species. The methods used by FORRU are being adopted for forest restoration in other parts of South-East Asia and further afield.

From the nursery, we wander through a cool evergreen forest where bird’s-nest ferns and orchids festoon tree trunks and we finally arrive at a giant fig tree with buttress roots encircling a hollow space where the host tree once grew. Moakwang explains how this spectacular tree relies on a specific species of tiny fig wasp for its survival. The female fig wasp lays its eggs inside the figs – which are actually inverted flowers. When the eggs hatch they produce flightless male wasps, which spend their entire lives inside the fig, and winged females. The females fly away to find mates in other figs and cross-pollinate the flowers.

“The fig could not survive without the wasp or the wasp without the fig,” explains Moakweng.

The Doi Suthep trails are among a series of new nature tours that are being introduced by Khiri Travel. “We want to make clear to everyone how important forest conservation is. We strongly support FORRU and see a lot of potential for conservation coming from the synergy between it and us, as a tourism operator,” says Betgem.

Khiri Travel’s nature trails to Doi Suthep are priced from US$100 for a private trip for two people; www.khiri.com

TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY: LINDA VERGNANI

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