In our 15th 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)

The graviola fruit is said to contain significant amounts of vitamins C. B1 and B2. 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

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

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.

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: www.discovery-garden.org.