Rod Rice

Photo Intro to Rod Rice

Western Thailand along its border with Burma, is one of the least botanically and zoologically explored frontiers of South East Asia - yet it is very rich in the diversity of its fauna and flora. A lack of funding and political instability along the border has contributed towards an unfinished thorough invesitgation of this area. Although there have been numerous minor research projects covering various fauna and flora, these have usually been studies on selected genera or groups and a complete picture of all or at least most species of fauna and flora to occur here is not yet complete. This small book, dealing specifically with the wild orchids, birds and dragonflies of this area, could be considered as an introduction to a coming (in preperation) more enlarged presentation of the fauna and flora of this area.

Within these pages more than 80 species of wild orchid are covered including some very rare species such as Sarcoglyphis flava (rediscovered by this author) and Rhyncogyna luisifolia among others; these are accompanied by more than 40 species of bird and some 36 species of damselfly and dragonfly.

All species (both orchids and fauna) have a text description including habitat and distribution, colour range, size and measurements along with at least one colour photo. There are also many other photos on the culture and history of western Thailand including photos of the home/castle of the first king of Thailand, many miscellaneous flora and fauna species not included in the main text and photos relevant to the old World War II Thai-Burma Death Railway.

Soft Cover; English text, 126 pages with hundreds of colour photos.