Other valuable trees are the palms, three species of which are of particular importance. The coconut palm grows mainly in the coastal regions; but there are few villages anywhere in Thailand where the areca palm (producing the betel nuts which the peasants love to chew) and the sugar-palm (Borassus flabellifer) are not found.

The ipoh supplies the people of the forest with a powerful poison for their arrows. The rattan (Calamus) is a very common type of palm which yields the famous rattan cane; its long flexible lianas are put to many uses in the villages.

Apart from the trees the humid tropical forest has a proliferation of mosses, lianas and bushes in astonishing variety. There are many species of orchids, among which Dendrobium and Cymbidium are particularly notable. Orchids are used to decorate houses, hanging in little boxes from the roof, and many species are offered for sale in the Sunday market in Bangkok.

In the open forests the vegetation is less abundant, and the trees are of more modest size - between 7 and 15 m on hard dry soil. The king of these forests is teak (Tectona grandis), which grows singly or in small groups in the hills of northern Thailand, but only above 600 m. Its sturdy trunk can grow to a considerable height. Its wide oblong leaves fall during the dry season and begin to grow again in May and June; before they are fully out white flowers appear at the tips of the branches. The fruits, of the size of hazelnuts, fall to the ground when they are ripe (February-March).

Large areas round Nakhon Ratchasima and in western Thailand are covered with a monotonous dried-up forest carpeted with dusty soil in summer. The trees are stunted, with gnarled and bizarrely contorted branches. The commonest species is the bamboo, of various types, which form a typical "bamboo jungle". Their woody stems can reach a height of some 40 m; they grow very rapidly, new shoots growing from the roots as the old canes die. The natives use the bamboo in many different ways: the thickest canes are used as timber or as water pipes, the thinner ones as stakes or fences or in the manufacture of furniture, musical instruments or domestic utensils, while the young shoots make excellent eating. Some of the bamboos flower only every 20 or 30 years, after which the plant dies. The bamboo tends to replace other species in forests, particularly rain forests, which have been cleared by man or by fire.