Botanical garden in Rayong to be developed as EEC tourist attraction

Last week, officials from the Pid Thong Lang Phra Foundation took government executives to the Rayong Botanical Garden, during their mobile meeting in the province.
The foundation chief, Wanchana Boonchai, informed the executives that the idea for creating botanical gardens in the country came from the Queen Mother.
The first botanical garden emerged in Chiang Mai province, before the Botanical Garden Organisation built more gardens, he added.
The botanical gardens also host educational and conservation centres of endangered species. The Rayong Botanical Garden was built on an area of Bueng Samnak Yai, or Samnak Yai Marsh.
Wanchana added that there were numerous plant species in the province, which needed to be conserved and studied, such as rare orchids.
He added that the botanical garden aimed to be a tourist attraction in the EEC area with a Bt50-million budget.
In addition, the head mentioned that one of the centre’s important activities was to study and propagate bulrushes, a local plant in Rayong’s Klaeng district, which are similar to papyruses in appearance.