China 2017

After a speaking engagement in Atlanta, I flew out to Shanghai with plans to collect on Wuyishan in southeastern China on the border between Fujian and Jiangxi and then head north to central China to explore the Qinling mountain range in Sha'anxi province. I was met as usual at Pudong Airport by good friend, nurseryman, and veteran seed collector, Liu Gang. I was in China well before my traveling companions, Scott McMahan of the Atlanta Botanical Garden; Dan Hinkley, Heronswood Botanical Garden; and Ozzie Johnson, arrived so we headed straight to the hotel outside Chenshan Botanical Garden. I awoke after a good night's sleep to find the rest of the entourage had arrived late and were ready to go—although there was some reproach for not having cold beer waiting for them.

A morning tour through the growing facilities at Chenshan Botanic Garden to see some newly collected plants—especially hydrangeas and a few aucuba—and some amazing variegated Tetrapanax followed by a quick hello to colleague Min Deng, an oak expert with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and we headed to the train station for the three-hour trip to Wuyishanbei. Scott, Dan, Ozzie, and I accompanied by Binjie, the curator of the CAS herbarium and a Chenshan gardener and seed collector picked up a couple of rental cars and headed to Wuyishan, arriving quite late in the evening. We stopped on the way for dinner and to pick up some fruit from a small roadside vendor. Interestingly, the vendor did not accept cash. Instead, he took money through a mobile app called WeChat which seems to combine most of the aspects of Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, instant messenger services, PayPal, and Apple Pay.

Variegated Tetrapanax at Chenshan Botanical Garden

We woke up bright and early at our hotel in a beautiful setting surrounded by a landscape of heavenly scented flowering osmanthus. We set out after breakfast to head up the mountain, a very tightly controlled area for which Binjie and CAS had procured all the necessary permissions and documents. Within minutes of walking along the roadside, we saw some very interesting things including gentians, toadlilies, and a new genus for me, Hanceola exerta with deep violet flowers. Just down from the hotel was a small arboretum planted with trees we were told could be found on the mountain. Specimens like Torreya jackii with long, elegant needles; Illicium minwannense; and a curious boxwood, possibly Buxus linearifolius, with long narrow leaves had us all eagerly anticipating the hike to come.

Hanceola exerta

The local gendarmes stopped Binjie and after some rapid back and forth, we could see a problem looming. After multiple phone calls, much discussion, and very obviously irritated looks, we were informed we would need to leave the entire area. A policeman watched over us as we packed up the cars and headed out very disappointed. The one bright spot for me was a redbud we passed on our way out of the Wuyishan National Nature Reserve. We stopped long enough to check it out and found it was Cercis chuniana easily recognizable due to its diamond shaped leaf as opposed to the usual heart-shaped ones.

Cercis chuniana - a very exciting find!

Dan and Scott take a tea break after getting booted from the Wuyishan National Nature Reserve.

We spent the next day on a beautiful boat tour of Nine-Bent Stream which afforded us some of the most incredible views of amazing cliffs and picturesque mountains. Unfortunately, there was little to see of interesting plant material. The plan had been to stay in the Wuyishan area for a few more days but we decided that if we couldn't get into the nature reserve, the low surrounding elevation would not serve our needs and we would head to Xi'an in Sha'anxj province a few days early.

One of many spectacular views along the Nine-Bent Stream.

We were met at the Xi'an airport b ytwo Chinese "nurserymen" who told us they were the chiefi information officer and chief sales officer respectively for a hydrangea nursery—more on that later. After settling in to our hotel in the center of the old city in Xi'an, we spent the next day traveling a couple of hours to the Qinling Botanical Garden which we were told multiple times was the largest botanical garden in the world. We were looking forward to getting a glimpse of what we would see up in the mountains in the following days. As we pulled into the parking lot, we were informed that the garden had just opened two weeks earlier. Despite a grand entrance, the plantings were uninspired consisting mainly of Koelreuteria, Cercis, acres of roses (one cultivar—likely a double Knockout) and Jasminum nudum. A four-mile walk took us by no interesting plants although Ozzie collected spore from a couple of ferns out of sheer desperation. The high point of the day was a delicious lunch with fat noodles and vegetables, bamboo shoots, tofu, and peanuts. Everything was outstanding—one of the best meals I've had in China.

Although it wasn't in our plans, the early arrival in Xi'an meant we had to wait for Donglin Zhang of the University of Georgia to arrive so we took the opportunity to visit the famed terra cotta warriors. The warriors were quite amazing and it was nice to actually visit one of the many cultural attractions in China which I so rarely am able to do. I would still rather have been on a mountainside, though.…

Terra Cotta warriors

Dan had to head home early so Ozzie, Scott, and I headed to Yangling, close to the Qinling mountains which run east to west from the southern edge of Gansu along the south border of Sha'anxi. In the morning we met up with some graduate students from Northwestern Agriculture and Forestry University (NWAF) who showed us around the campus. NWAF was by far the nicest Chinese university I have visited with streets named after the allees of trees planted along them. Of particular note to me was a planting of smooth redbud, Cercis glabra. These trees were quite large compared to what I knew of the species, growing to probably 30' with large leaves. In the adjacent botanical garden we also came across Catalpa fargesii a plant which appears to always be mis-identified in U.S. collections but is easily recognizable in flower with its lovely pink blossoms and in fruit with 30" long capsules.

Ozzie Johnson showing off the size of the Cercis glabra foliage.

Donglin arrived in time for lunch and with his former post doc Zhao Bing, Ph.D., and Din, the CEO of the hydrangea nursery, we went for a short hike in the rain to a close spur of the Qinlings. The slopes were cut back quite hard along the path which made for poor botanizing. After crossing the stream multiple times, we headed back down without having seen a great deal—although it was by far our best day in China so far after nearly a week. Notable plants besides those seen on campus was a nice Ophiopogon, Hydrangea robusta, a lily, and a few ferns.

Donglin, Scott, Ozzie, and I with Ding (CEO) and Liang (CIO) headed to the hydrangea nursery where we were met with a very nice greenhouse structure. The impressive building housed about 500 very small hydrangeas in pots clinging to life as they slowly drowned in very heavy soil dug from the field out back. We did our best to give them some pointers on better soils but with little access to soilless mixes, their options are limited.

We continued on to Taibaishan in the Red River Valley Forest Park in cool, foggy weather. We parked at about 4,265' and hiked up along the road with a few short detours into the woods. The road followed the Red River with a steep, mostly rock faced bank on the other side of the road. Dominant plants were Euptelea, Juglans, Celastrus, and a weedy corydalis. The area had quite a few interesting plants including several woodland lilies—Maianthemum and Polygonatum in particular. Other plants of note include Sinofranchetia, Decasinea, Epimedium, Staphylea, Tricyrtis, Rohdea, Cercis, and Actaea.

A beautiful striped and whorled Polygonatum.

Decaisnea fargesii fruit at Red River Forest Park.

The next day we tried to head to another spot in the Taibai Mountains but due to poor road conditions because of the past two weeks of rain, the area was closed. We then drove a couple of hours to Taiping Mountain Forest Reserve. The bottom part of this hike was through a very touristy area along a racing stream but became more natural the higher we went. The entire trail was up through a narrow valley with a rapid stream with numerous waterfalls along the way. The overstory along most of the path was massive 50'–75' Cercis glabra in full fruit—a true revelation to me. Leaves were as much as 10" wide. About 2/3 of the way up we took a cable car to close to the peak and hiked up through an unexpected Acer griseum or paperbark maple forest to the top of the mountain. The weather alternated between sun and clouds and was comfortably cool but the clouds lifted as we reached the top of the mountain. Dinner this evening was good but oddly after eating a full meal, we were told we would all get six bowls of noodles. Donglin got the order halved to three bowls each. Scott, OJ, and I each had one bowl while Ding had seven and earned our everlasting respect. Notables for the day—Polygonatum (several including some kingianum types), Disporum, Fortunearia sinensis (a witchhazel relative), Syringa, and Tilia. Unfortunately, the paperbark maples were barren.

Acer griseum looking stunning in its fall glory.

Our party dwindled a bit more as Ozzie had to make his way home while Donglin, Scott, and I along with Ding and our new guide Sun (and his son, Little Sun) drove across to the western edge of the Qinling mountains in Gansu. We arrived in a rather good-sized city in Huixian or Hui County where we were taken to a very nice hotel. Donglin insisted on seeing the rooms before checking in and we were dutifully shown to some very nice rooms. As we came back to the front counter after visiting the rooms, we were told we could not check in because they did not accept foreigners. We headed down the road to another nice hotel where we were allowed to check in. After a very nice late dinner, we arrived back at our hotel around 9:30 pm and were informed that we needed to pack up and leave—foreigners weren't welcome there either. Finally we checked into a much more rundown hotel and were allowed a good night's sleep. The typical morning breakfast buffet was uninspired as per usual but the tanks of giant, 30" salamanders nearby was unsettling. Apparently they are considered a delicacy. I'm just glad we got in too late to sample that local specialty.

Salamanders were thankfully not on the breakfast menu.

The next morning we were excited to finally really get into a pretty remote area and drove for several hours to the western entrance to Qinling mountains called Moon Valley. Once we began to attain some altitude, although we were still only about 2,500' high, we began to see hilltops covered with Pinus bungeana another first for me. Unfortunately we never got near enough to collect cones. We did stop several times to botanize along the roadside cliffs. The flora was quite interesting with many plants I had never encountered in the wild but knew quite well from cultivation such as Sophora davidii and Vitex negundo. The vitex was small growing which may be attributed to the rocky cliff sides where we saw it but the habit was certainly different than what I've seen in gardens. We arrived at a new hotel run by a young couple. It was in one of the most pleasant spots I have seen overlooking the valley and with a view of a magnificent waterfall in the distance. We were the first westerners to stay with them and over the next couple of days we had our pictures taken with some of the surrounding locals.

The view into Moon Valley.

After a nice lunch, we drove up the road a ways and hiked back down through some interesting but not awe-inspiring flora. A few Daphne and such caught our eye. As we were nearing the bottom of the hike and approaching cultivated fields once more we noticed a very narrow leaf Helwingia with red fruit—a plant Scott and co. had found previously in another locale but wound up with only male seedlings. Dr. Jenny Xiang, a Cornaceae/Helwingaceae expert tells me the plant is H. chinensis. Looking at the Flora of China, this must be var. chinensis as opposed to var. crenata which is the form I realize now that I have cultivated in the past. This one find made the days hike more than worthwhile.

Helwingia chinensis var. chinensis

Other plants of note seen include Iris with falcate leaves and fat seed pods, Acer oblongum, Epimedium, several Lauraceae including an evergreen Machilus with blue-black marble-sized fruit held on brilliant red pedicels, Cornus quinquenervis, Clematis, a bushy Jasminum, Hemiboea, and lilies.

A huge leaflet from an Epimedium in Moon Valley.

We took a long day to hike up into Moon Valley starting through cultivated areas, past a hotel under construction with some aquaculture tanks out back, one of which held massive, 5'–6' prehistoric looking sturgeon. As we moved up the hills we walked variously along a muddy slippery track and along the 6" wide concrete wall of an aqueduct carrying very fast moving, very cold mountain river water. My younger self would have probably loved the balance beam stroll, but all I could think about was how far down the mountain would I be before I could get myself out of the water if I fell. We finally reached the track into the woods and were quickly amazed by the richness of the flora we found. Orchids, woodland liles, and toadlilies were just some of the herbaceous layer while our friend Helwingia chinensis var. chinensis was found in abundance. A beautiful small Callicarpa with some of the brightest lavender-purple fruit I've ever seen looked to potentially be a much better garden plant than so many of the other massive species I've come across in Asia. We walked through groves of Aesculus chinensis coming into all its autumn glory and under rambling vines of Kadsura coccinea with nearly baseball-sized clusters of red fruit. We searched in vain for fruit on a couple of Torreya fargesii we found but undeterred pushed on.

A really lovely beautyberry which could be the perfect size for landscapes.

Unfortunately, all the rain before we arrived led to the river being higher than normal. We were forced to cross the river 6 times to continue up the valley taking off our shoes and braving the icy water and sharp rocks each time. The first crossing was knee deep through a rather wide shallow spot, each subsequent crossing was trickier than the last culminating in a very precariously balanced bamboo ladder perched horizontally across a deep spot in the river and a series of slippery rocks that had to be traversed like a mountain goat. The bamboo "bridge" rocked like a hammock with each step and on the way back down the river, I came within a hairsbreadth of tumbling over backward into the water. If we had any doubts about whether the river crossings were worth the cold and wet, they were dispersed completely when we came across a single large Cercis racemosa with dangling racemes of seed pods. Hopefully this one will turn out to be more cold hardy and vigorous than most of the forms currently in cultivation.

Crossing a very rickety bridge over very icy water.

Collecting Cercis racemosa seed.

We all wished we had more time in this area but will certainly plan to return soon for an extended hike through the valley and out to the other side. I made my way back to Shanghai for a short visit with Liu Gang and a trip to Shanghai Botanical Garden while Scott and Donglin headed to India. All in all, a very successful excursion.

Kadsura coccinea a vigorous evergreen vine.

Oaks were not on our list this trip but we saw some quite interesting species.

Unfortunately, while staying on the Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, I wasn’t able to play my bugle.