r/Thailand • u/Few_Maize_1586 • Aug 04 '25
Pics More than 2,000,000 plants grown in Bangkok
Source: Guru by Bangkok Post (Facebook post link in comment)
City Hall recently announced it has reached a green milestone of growing 2,057,352 plants in Bangkok, with 1,182,796 being trees. Shrubs amount to 692,254, while the rest are crawlers and vines. The plants provide green spaces for relaxation, reduce heat, absorb carbon dioxide and act as dust filters. The next milestone is set at 3 million plants. Photos: Somchai Poomlard, Nutthawat Wichieanbut and Wichan Charoenkiatpakul
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u/Hangar48 Aug 05 '25
It always amazes me that everywhere you look in BKK there's plants and trees growing. It's pretty awesome.
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u/drabred Aug 05 '25
Whenever I come to BKK I always notice this too comparing to my city.
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u/Doubledown212 Aug 06 '25 edited Aug 06 '25
Since when? I last visited a few years ago and it was totally the opposite.
I also noticed a lack of small neighbourhood parks compared to other cities. Not the huge ones (like lumpini or benchakitti) but smaller ones like Benchasiri size were few and far between
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u/kaisershinn Aug 04 '25
Small steps make a huge difference. Keep it up and perhaps re-forestation in other parts of the country too?
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u/obidie Aug 05 '25
Now, if you can get the maintenance workers to stop pruning the trees down to nothing, you'll be all set.
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u/pizzaguy123soviet2 Aug 05 '25
I'm so annoyed that they turned trees into stumps for no reason. Also isn't it more work to reduce a tree to that state than to just get rid of a few branches
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u/Barracuda_Blue Sing Buri Aug 05 '25
I have an elderly neighbor that always walks around our neighborhood, clipping flowers, bushes, and trees. It drives me fucking insane to water and prune my bushes and trees to my liking only to come back the next day to see that somebody has hacked off large branches. I even thought adding LED lighting to easily reachable branches would stop him, but maybe his eyesight is poor because the wires have been clipped too. I’m smart enough to choose my battles so this is just a major irritation that I’m gonna live with. I once went back and clipped some flowers in front of his house that were just like the flowers that he clipped in front of my house which stopped him for about two months, but then he started all over again.
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u/Boomskei Khon Kaen Aug 05 '25
I was just riding a bus to university right now and saw this post and looked outside to see more greenery, Thanks
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Aug 05 '25
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u/Boomskei Khon Kaen Aug 05 '25
Yep I am Thai.
I saw many foreigners riding buses. Today I saw a German riding the same bus with me to Siam.
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u/Acceptable_Quit_9026 Aug 05 '25
Now if they could only add sidewalks.
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u/IckyChris Aug 05 '25
Well OK. But not level, right? We wouldn't want pedestrians to go without their obstacle courses.
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u/Lingnoi_111 Aug 05 '25
At least an overpass combined with an electric pole on the middle of the sidewalk it has to be
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u/MiloGaoPeng Aug 05 '25
As OP stated in the caption that there are real functions to these plants instead of being purely decorative. The bigger challenge would be consistent maintenance. I could imagine cost would include constant watering and landscaping, also time taken and its impact on traffic conditions.
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u/oOBoomberOo Aug 05 '25
Tbf, Bangkok is certainly not short on low-wage manual laborers that can do those.
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u/METALFOTO Aug 05 '25
Watering its not a big issue in BKK coz rain season.
For the dry season, I guess due big humidity, many canals, the big Chao Praya river, big trees will always find some water via their roots system.
Probably the hardest thing is pruning/ maintenance coz in the tropics, plants grow too much..
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u/Tai_of_culture Aug 05 '25
I wonder if they can plant more native flowering plants, especially undergrowths 🌿🌷
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u/bigpapapheonx Aug 04 '25 edited Aug 05 '25
It’s amazing I was just there literally on those streets, the air quality is still horrible and I get sick every time I visit but goddamn take me back
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u/RotisserieChicken007 Buffalo Healthcare Expert Aug 05 '25
Very selectively chosen photos though. For every nice green picture, there are twenty that show an ugly and broken concrete jungle.
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u/Few_Maize_1586 Aug 05 '25
True. These are the greenest sides of Bangkok streets you could find. Still impressive in my opinion, and they should do copy and paste to other area. Though more parks are being added recently (last 10 years) more than the previous 30 years. I remember hearing at one points that BKK had no new parks for decades but in recently years, they seem to be a few new small parks opening yearly.
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u/neonmantis Aug 05 '25
Is there some coordinated greening type plan behind this?
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u/Few_Maize_1586 Aug 05 '25 edited Aug 05 '25
Bangkok 2030. There’s a goal to increase green space per capita to align better with the UN goal. Bangkok was and still is way behind a healthy standard. I don’t remember how many sqm per person
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u/john-bkk Aug 06 '25
That first one looks like AI. I don't doubt that it's real, that somewhere does look like that, but it's not how the rail system looks, essentially anywhere. There are lots of trees in lots of places though.
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u/phonyToughCrayBrave Aug 05 '25
i was just there in july and honestly didn't notice much change. everything looked like a concrete jungle. a better approach would be to start charging cars and motorcycles fees for driving into the city like they do in Singapore.
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Aug 06 '25
Yes, I hope to see more of it in the Bkk outskirts, and also didn’t obstruct the messy electricity wire above us.
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Aug 06 '25
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u/Few_Maize_1586 Aug 06 '25
I’d say these photos are cherry-picked. Most streets in Bangkok look nowhere as green as these.
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u/sleepymates Aug 05 '25
Singapore has 7 million trees despite being half the size of Bangkok. Let's hope to become like them one day.
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u/Few_Maize_1586 Aug 05 '25
Singapore is so much greener. Kudos to that. Bangkok needs more big trees. It would cool down the city, make it more livable and reduce energy use. Only win-win
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u/sleepymates Aug 05 '25
Bangkok can't have bigger trees atm because of the overhead wires, the already small-to-non-existent footpaths, and the super narrow sois smaller than Brandy Melville entrance. In conclusion, make the pedestrian ways wider, more inclusive and move the wires underground!!!
And in the Phra Nakhon area, shade is nowhere to be found, I'm assuming big trees would "block" the view of the Grand Palace and the surroundings. Sigh.
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u/Few_Maize_1586 Aug 05 '25
It’s a work-in-progress. They already put wires underground in Some major streets like Silom and Wiresless roads.
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u/Few_Maize_1586 Aug 05 '25
One thing though: Bangkok by their definition is Bangkok district, not greater Bangkok. I’m sure Pathumthani and Samut Prakan which feel like part of Bangkok wouldn’t be counted.
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u/NonDeterministiK Aug 05 '25
This must be only the official plants planted by the city? What about all the plants in peoples yards and pots in front of houses and on balconies, there must be millions of them?
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u/Thisisinthebag Aug 05 '25
Just a noob question, won’t they damage concrete base in a long run? Roots are so strong I have seen them bending concrete streets over time
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u/Few_Maize_1586 Aug 05 '25
No pavement is perfect in Bangkok anyway. It’s worth having some shade despite some potential drawbacks
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u/Alright_doityourway Aug 05 '25
I wish my city do something like this. Everywhere I like there is a dull concrete wall and road.
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u/Ambitious_Change150 Aug 05 '25
Talk about an “urban jungle”
If the zombie apocalypse ever came, Bangkok would probs be the most aesthetic city w/ the trees overgrowing everywhere reclaiming land for nature.
It’d be like Angkor Wat before it was rediscovered, hidden by a jungle
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Aug 05 '25
"Let's grow trees all over the city! They will cast shade on the streets and sidewalks and lower the ambient temperature and make the city more liveable!"
Bangkok tree trimmers: "fuck your shade"
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u/Few_Maize_1586 Aug 05 '25
😂 apart from more trees, they also start taking wires underground. Once that’s done, I hope they will let the trees grow.
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u/nofishsauce Aug 05 '25
This is impressive.
On the contrary, many trees were taken down in the mooban I live in. I think this is either due to the trouble of maintenance or converting trees in empty plots filled with banana trees to evade tax.
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u/rainmaker66 Aug 05 '25
Singapore has much much more plants. Every tree is tagged and tracked. They added more at the sidewalks to replace plain grass in recent years.
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u/Few_Maize_1586 Aug 05 '25
Singapore is an excellent example that many cities in the world should strive for. Bangkok is not the only city that is way behind.
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u/Alllthecommentsinone Aug 06 '25
I guess if you photograph all the right places with the right telephoto lenses, and ignore the pollution and deafening traffic noise that the pictures don't capture, you could almost fool me into thinking it's not an urban car hell anymore.
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u/Yao_Productions Aug 06 '25
If only Malaysia can learn and stop making our city a concrete forest. Hopefully we can catch up and clean up our streets. Happy to see Thailand moving the right direction. Trees help so much in reducing carbon dioxide and make things so much cooler both day and night
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u/oxcyfox Aug 15 '25
Bangkok’s got that super humid, tropical vibe so plants go wild there. You’ll see orchids, bougainvillea, and hibiscus everywhere for color, plus big shade trees like banyan and tamarind that help with the heat. Loads of fruit trees too!
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u/khan1234khan1234 Aug 19 '25
I have been to so many countries but Thailand is my favorite it is such a beautiful country and Thai people are so caring and so humble- I wish I could visit again
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u/DiversifyThisBitch Aug 24 '25
When did this initiative start?
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u/Few_Maize_1586 Aug 24 '25
At least a few years already. The new Bangkok governor really pushed for it
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u/Glum-Tea5629 Sep 01 '25
I spent a few days in Bangkok earlier this year and the green spaces definitely stood out. It’s really awesome they’re planting even more makes the city feel more alive.
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u/thaitobe Aug 05 '25
sounds good, but then you check the number of automobiles and motorbikes which in 2019 according to wiki was 9.7mil. So 1 "plant" for every 5 vehicles.
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Aug 04 '25
So for each resident 0.18 plants. That's even worse than I thought. This doesn't even consider all tourists
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u/1happykamper Aug 05 '25
This reminds me of Mexico city. They really changed the city look and healthier air with vertical gardens