year of Expats helping Expats SUMMARY OF MAY 24, 2015 MEETING

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1 In our 15 th year of Expats helping Expats SUMMARY OF MAY 24, 2015 MEETING Have you ever heard of soursop fruit? The lipstick tree or the pencil tree? Screw pines? Luffa sponge plants? Inca peanuts? Baobab trees? Probably not. While they may sound exotic to you, they are quite common in different parts of the world. The other things these plants and trees have in common are that they are being grown in Hans Fritschi s private botanical garden about 15 kilometres from Pattaya in Huai Yai. Hans calls it his Discovery Garden and he plans to open it to the public in about a year. Hans spoke about his Garden to the Pattaya City Expats Club last Sunday. Hans said that when he bought a huge plot of land nine years ago in Huai Yai, it was incredibly cheap, but very underdeveloped. It was mostly wilderness. After I built my house, he said, I started planting all kind of plants, first near the house, then expanding to the edges of my total seven rai plot. I concentrated on interesting plants I had seen in other tropical countries on my many trips like Brazil; and on things that everybody knows like chocolate (cocoa), coffee, cashew nuts, nutmeg or vanilla, but few people have seen growing, especially in Pattaya. The Discovery Garden also includes other, more familiar plants, such as guava, passion fruit, pineapple, avocado and banana. Some of these species come in multiple varieties. Soursop, which Hans prefers to call by its Brazilian name graviola, is the fruit of the Annona muricata, a broadleaf, flowering, evergreen tree native to Latin America and parts of Africa. Soursop and its derivative products are consumed around the world, sometimes as a beverage, sometimes as a dessert (including in the form of ice cream and fruit bars). Soursop (or Graviola)

2 The graviola fruit is said to contain significant amounts of vitamins C. B 1 and B 2. Many sites on the Internet promote graviola capsules as a cancer cure, but according to Wikipedia, Cancer Research UK and other organizations they have said that there is no scientific evidence of this. There are many varieties of guava. Apple guava Strawberry guava Yellow-fruited cherry guava (aka lemon guava) Thai maroon guava

3 Achiote is a shrub or small tree originating from the tropical region of the Americas. Hans explained that Central and South American natives originally used the seeds to make red body paint and lipstick. For this reason the shrub is also known as the lipstick tree. Achiote flower Mature achiote pods, showing the red seeds The Discovery Garden also includes screw pines, more commonly known as pandanus. Pandanus leaves are used in Southeast Asian cooking. They are also used to make handicrafts. Fruit of the Pandanusutilis

4 You might expect the sugar apple to look like an apple, but you d be wrong. Sugar apple Hans explained that the flesh of the sugar apple is fragrant and sweet, creamy white to light yellow, and resembles and tastes like custard. Hans travels the world in search of interesting plants. He spotted a pear-shaped fruit in Brazil that was labeled Lotao (see photo). But Hans could find out nothing about the fruit after searching the Internet. It turns out that lotao means four pieces in the local dialect. During the Q&A, Hans said that he has tried to grow tomatoes in his garden, but that it is exceedingly difficult in this climate.

5 The lufa sponge plant, another of the exotic plants in the Discovery Garden. Hans was born in 1957 in Zurich, Switzerland. He visited Thailand for the first time in1984 and then moved here 1991 working as a journalist. He moved to Pattaya in 1995 but has another residence in NongKhai. He was co-owner of the German language Magazine Der Farang until he retired early about eight years ago. Hans says that although the Discovery Garden is not officially open yet, people can visit if they contact him ahead of time. For more information, see Han s website: