24 Jun, 2008

A dragon's tongue orchid flowers on the steep limestone cliff.

Today I tried to locate a group of monkeys that sometimes come down to feed among trees near where I am staying here in Thailand’s Kanchanaburi province. The trees are on a steep slope at the base of some limestone cliffs. The monkeys, being excellent climbers, descend the cliffs to the trees below.

I gradually edged my way up this slope towards the foot of the cliff. The going was quite tough with all my camera gear and I’m sure that if it were not for the trees and bamboo I would not have dared ascend a slope as steep as this. A couple of times I had to stop and settle myself with a little motivational speech.

Once I reached the rockier areas I started to find some interesting plant life and stopped to film the leaves and flowers I was coming across.

As the afternoon went on, a very attractive light started to slant in through the canopy and I gave up on the monkeys altogether to concentrate on the plants.

I cannot put names to most of the plants I filmed, with the exception of one little orchid with orange flowers that I found growing out of a block of rock.

This orchid goes by the Latin name of Habenaria rhodocheila but lacks an English name. One of its Thai names translates to ‘Dragon’s tongue’ and I will call it that from now on. I found two plants on the same rock, one with two buds, still closed, and one with two flowers open and two more to come.

Many other plants drew my attention because of the way the light revealed the colours or textures in the leaves. These patterns changed with the light, so that, as the sun dipped towards the west, the details changed and there was always something new to see.

Perhaps I’ll catch up with those monkeys another day, but in any case this afternoon was well spent.

– by Darryl Sweetland, Earth-Touch crew © Earth-Touch

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