Thailand’s Botanical Garden Organisation (BGO) has recently given the scientific name to a new species of Krachiao plant, or Siam tulip (Curcuma Suphanensis P), in the Zingiberaceae family, which was found for the first time by a team of botanists back in 2018 in the central province of Suphan Buri.

According to Dr. Piyakaset Suksathan, director of the botanical development office of the BGO, the new Krachiao plant species, which was locally named “Krachiao Suphan”, was discovered at the Khao Tako Pidthong national forest and in the Khao Petch Noi forest in Suphan Buri in 2018 by a team of botanists from the organization.

The plant has different features when compared with other plants of the same family found in the surrounding areas.

He said, however, that the BGO had checked with other Krachiao plants, which have been found and scientifically named worldwide, to make sure that the Krachiao Suphan is the first of its kind to be found and it was finally confirmed as a new plant species.

Krachiao Suphan flowers are white, pink or purple-red in colour. Like other Krachiao plants, they blossom in the rainy season and are, hence, called the “queen of rainy season.”

Dr. Piyakaset said that the BGO has been in the process of increasing the plant species through tissue culture cultivation,to make sure that it will not become extinct.