I was born and raised in rural Thailand. As a child, my dad took me to his work everyday. At the time, he worked as an agricultural engineer in the driest part of Thailand. He helped design irrigation systems for local fruits and vegetables.
Each day, as I visited the agricultural fields at my dad’s work, I learned more and more about plants. I also experienced how plants and agriculture are indispensable to the livelihood of Thai people, especially to the poorest communities.
Growing up, I wanted to take my passion for plants to places. I became increasingly interested in plants of the ‘pea’ and ‘bean’ family. Why? I learned of their incredible ability to harvest atmospheric nitrogen and convert it into ‘natural fertilisers’. This is a system with immense potential to improve our agricultural and environmental systems, yet most people have never heard of it.
During my last university year studying plant science, I decided I wanted to know more about these ‘pea plants’. I designed my dissertation project to look at the nitrogen-fixing ability of various species of peas and beans. During these laborious but fascinating months of my dissertation work, I found out things about this plant family that amazed me even more.
I wanted to share the importance of this plant family to the public, in a non-technical and relate-able way, so I spent the next several months filming pea flowers in the wild and producing a short-documentary to explain what these plants actually are and why they are so important to humans and to the environment, especially in the serious face of global climate change.
More info: indiegogo.com
Looking at my experimental dried pea flower laminate. Made over a year ago, colours still remaining!
Studying a temperate pea by a canal in my hometown, Belgium
My dad helping with research
Day out with my old man
Hill tribe community in Thailand, taken by my dad in 1983
White & Golden Melilots, they have a distinguished sweet honey scent
Red Clover in bloom this summer
Common Vetch
Fodder Vetch in lilac & blue
Touch-Me-Not leaves re-opening (sped up 2000 x on my video)
A rare albino Tufted Vetch
The non-native pink pom-pom flowers
A flush of pink from the Broad-Leaved Everlasting Pea
The more and more uncommon Crown Vetch
White Clovers, familiar members of our meadows
A bee feeding from a Meadow Vetchling flower
Alfalfa, shot at an abandoned field in Belgium this summer
Another Alfalfa in striking purple
Birdfoot trefoil. ‘Birdfoot’ as dried seed pods resemble a chicken’s foot
214views
Share on Facebook
3
0