Cycads
The assembling of different Cycads at the garden is one of the largest and diverse documented collections in the world. The garden is focusing on the Southeast Asian, Tropical American and Central Africa species. But a collection of almost every species can also been seen here. Cycads represent an ancient group of plants that flourished during the dinosaur ages, but is now only holding on in the tropical zones of the world. Fossil records show that this group of plants of widespread throughout the world, even in the Arctic during the Cretaceous era. Many species are now threatened by extinction, and some species are so rare that only a few individuals survive.
The garden is working to establish genetically diverse collections of the more threatened species. The major threats are in many cases the greed of collectors, who dig every plant they can get. Large breeding groups of all Thai native cycads have been planted and is now producing seeds to be distributed to other interested parties and as a safe guard to future threats. Two Thai species are at the moment seriously threatened; one was recently just discovered and named by the Curator of Cycads at the garden. The garden conducts research with both Thai Universities and international researchers. |
