GREEN FINGERS
A plant expert explains why identifying and naming new plant genetic species is important for preservation
A plant expert warns that Thailand’s diverse species must be identified and preserved for future generations.
Piya Chalermglin, PhD, intrepid plant explorer and extraordinary researcher at the Thailand Institute of Scientific and Technological Research, recently retired. He spent 20 years of his career surveying the country’s plant genetic resources, particularly Magnoliales, which includes the custard apple family Annonaceae and the magnolia family Magnoliaceae. In the process, he earned the distinction of having discovered 17 species new to science, joining the likes of famous botanist Carl Linnaeus and other plant explorers who immortalised their names by inspiring the names of some plants.
Mr Piya’s endeavours received nothing less than royal recognition. Their Majesties the King and Queen and Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn graciously granted him permission to name three of the new species after them.
Before a new species can be recognised in the scientific field, it must first be fully described in English, submitted for peer review and published in a reputable international scientific journal. Mr Piya’s discoveries were published in Blumea, the journal of plant taxonomy and plant geography of the National Herbarium of the Netherlands; The Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society in England; Systematic Botany, the scientific journal of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists; and Nordic Journal of Botany of the Nordic Society Oikos in Sweden. So far, 11 have been published; the other six are awaiting publication.
The first of Mr Piya’s new species was a magnolia which he found in a degraded forest in Lop Buri province. A tree up to 25 metres high, it bears white fragrant flowers from April to May. “When I realised that it was like no other, I reported my findings to [a well-known taxonomist who specialises in Annonaceae and who was then a department head] at the Forest Department. He was sceptical that it was indeed a new species,” he said.
Mr Piya holds a master’s degree in horticulture and a PhD in soil science, but has no background in forestry or taxonomy, so his report was not taken seriously. “When he did not act upon my report, I decided to seek royal permission to name the tree after HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn and submit it for publication myself.”
Shortly after Magnolia sirindhorniae Noot & Chalermglin appeared in Blumea in 2000, forestry officers nationwide received a memo ordering them not to let Mr Piya collect plants in their areas of responsibility. The powers that be in the Forest Department apparently saw it as a loss of face that an outsider should find a new species under their very noses.
Mr Piya later discovered that the tree was also endemic to Loei and Chaiyaphum provinces. “In all three places, it was found growing in alkaline soil near a swamp where rainwater collects from nearby limestone mountains,” he said.
Because of its limited distribution, Magnolia sirindhorniae is on the IUCN’s red list of endangered species. The destruction of habitats or removal of the species for planting elsewhere could put it on the brink of extinction. The Forest Department replanted three trees at Phu Khae Botanical Garden in Saraburi, which it runs, but two were standing lifeless when we visited the garden two weeks ago. “What they need in order to thrive is to be planted in alkaline soil near a freshwater swamp,” Mr Piya said.
Mr Piya and the forest department head mended fences when the National Research Council named both of them as experts on Magnoliaceae. The former then went on to discover other new species that now carry his name. Magnolia sirindhorniae was followed by Magnolia thailandica, a tree up to 30 metres high with white, fragrant flowers, in 2002 and Craibella phuyensis, a small tree with pendent, unisexual flowers and solitary pollen grains, in 2004.
Next came Mitrephora sirikitiae, named in honour of Her Majesty the Queen and known in Thai as mahaphrom rachini. Found at an elevation of 1,100m in Mae Hong Son province, it is regarded as the finest of all the species in the genus Mitrephora, of the family Annonaceae, because of its large, fragrant flowers which are white with a purple centre. It was officially declared a new species just two days before the Queen’s birthday in 2006 and as a result it received lots of publicity from the local media.
“Reporters from several publications came to interview me that day,” Mr Piya related. “At night I received a phone call from the head of the national park where I found the specimen. ‘Please tell the director-general [his boss at the Forest Department] that I collaborated with you in finding the species, and that I was the one who provided you with the information when it flowered.’
“Then he asked me,” Mr Piya added, “‘By the way, where in the park did you find it?’ I told him, and the next thing he did was to have his men dig up all the trees they could find and replant them around the park’s headquarters. Most of the trees died.”
His Majesty the King was already sick two years ago when he granted Mr Piya’s request to name a jasmine after him. Jasminum bhumibolianum Chalermglin was found growing on a limestone mountain in Loei province. A climber about one to two metres long, it bears white fragrant flowers from July to September. His Majesty named it mali chalermnarin in Thai.
Because they are endemic to only a few provinces, all species are endangered. Forestry officials, therefore, should know better than to remove them from their natural habitat. What they should have done is preserve the trees in situ, then collect and germinate the seeds for planting elsewhere.
Thanks to its location at the crossroads of three main biogeographical regions — IndoHimalaya, Indochina and Malesia (which straddles the boundary of the Indomalaya and Australasia ecological zones) — Thailand’s plant diversity is one of the richest in the world. The country is estimated to have nearly 2,000 genera and more than 10,000 species of vascular or higher forms of plants.
I am fully aware of the enormity of the Forest Department’s task in safeguarding our forests from poachers, encroachers, illegal loggers and settlers.
However, full cooperation should be given to well-meaning researchers and plant explorers so that species new to science could be identified and preserved. Otherwise, Thailand’s plant genetic resources could be wiped out before they are studied, and the country will be rich in name only.