I got to wondering about Thai waterlily names, after getting a short list of translations for some of the colors, and turned to the one person who's been most helpful when I've had questions about those plants. Her name is Primlarp Wasuwat Chukiatman, daughter of Dr. Slearmlarp Wasuwat. She was the first who noticed an interesting waterlily in one of their ponds, so he named the Primlarp night bloomer after her. Until recently I thought Dr. Wasuwat had originated the Mungkala Ubon, but I've since been corrected.
I was curious about what "Mungkala" might mean, here is a quote from Primlarp:
"In thai word mungkala meaning close to the decent good thing. on the other hand ubon means waterlily so the meaning of the name is The decent good waterlily.But this name may came from the place that grow this one too cause it was hybrid at the Technology Rachamongkol Bangpra,Chonburi THAILAND at lease 10 years."
I also asked about the other part of the name, as I'd seen it spelled both "Ubol" and as "Ubon." Here is her comments on that:
"No the right name is 'Mungkala Ubon ' and yes the word Ubon mean waterlily(nymphaea) but patum or Bua luang means lotus(nelumbo).
So, I got smart and told her I had bought one sold as Red Ubol, and asked I should label it as being a Ubol Dang, or should it be Dang Ubon. Turns out, she says, if it is the "Red Ubol," then "you can not used the name Dang Ubon because it is the synonym of 'Laydekeri Fulgens' in Thailand for at lease 30 years. She suggested if it is actually something else, which I'm pretty sure it is, we'd have to find a different name for it.
Asking about the various spellings of Nangkwaug, I wrote:
I have seen Nangkwag spelled as two words, Nang Kwag, also as Nangkwaug and Nang Kwak. Is there one spelling you would consider to be correct? Her reply was:
"After I confuse about how to spell it for a while so I agree with Mr.Pairat and my father that the right spelling should be Nangkwaug ....please forgive me for this very confusing."
It does get complicated when a name gets translated from one language to another, as many do not have direct translations. It looks like spelling variations also exist in the original languages. So often, there will be more than one "correct" names in English, and more than one "correct" spellings, as well. But I do love to learn the stories behind the names, as well as at least trying to get the spellings right, as best I can.
Mike S.
Spring Hill, FL
