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My fingers are purple and sore. They are purple from a species of Lindera I have just cleaned that smells like a rip-off of Joy dishwashing detergent, yet born from a lovely, rounded, evergreen shrub with glossy linear leaves that reeks of elegance, growing in the hardiness zone of 7,000′.  My thumbs are sore, and will be for several days, from two hours of inducing the birth of seed of Illicium (star anise) from its premature fruit.  

With said sore and stained fingers, I am carrying about town and from my room to the hovel where I clean my collections, rather stylishly I am told, a three dollar, pirated Louis Vuitton case. In this, I am carrying my computer, Ziploc bags, strainers, sieves and a novel (Knowing Frank) that I have not opened for over two weeks.  

I am in northern Vietnam, in a once-small hill station transformed now to Kathmandu with a profoundly proud minority and refined French cuisine.  It’s my sixth time here. Tomorrow I leave for a trek into new territory called Five Fingers and I feel much like Frodo might have felt before his departure from Middle Earth to Lothlórien.  

Minority tribe women on the Chinese border carrying daily fuel back to their homes. The forests here are substantially denuded because of the reliance on wood for cooking. 

It has now been five weeks of travel and hard hikes and of collections, cleaned and recorded at night. My companions are now or soon will be home again, insulated by the loft of love and home fires. I miss having them here with me. Yet without them, and the delightful distractions that such company brings, I can again write. Too bad for you, dear reader. 

 

Scott McMahon and Ozzie Johnson during one of our ’sunny’ hikes. 

Vietnam has again been exceptional with territories and plants that had thus far remained unseen. Our first trek was filled with lucid days and idyllic breezes and, at night, skies of galactic infernos; we traveled through hummocks of Hydrangea chinensis as well as what I refer to as Hydrangea indochinensis. The latter has become a holy grail, of sorts, to have firmly established in cultivation.  In this matter, it has been stubborn.  It is an evergreen species with linear leaves to five inches, undersurfaced with a heart-rending pigment of over-ripened plum. Bleddyn Wynn-Jones and I first saw it here in 1999 and I have yet to have plants firmly planted in cultivation.  This time, things will change. 

 

A sensational evergreen Hydrangea species here with deep purple backing to the foliage (aff. Hydrangea indochinensis).  

Scott, Ozzie, Shayne and I took our first voyage to Y Ty. I am obliged to Bleddyn for sorting out this location during our second visit in 2002 and who has, subsequently, done important collection work here.  He braved an enormously long day-trip for only minutes of collections while Sue and I cleaned seed prior to our departure.  He and our late friend, Peter Wharton, returned last year with rave reviews, having recollected a long forgotten epiphytic lily that seemingly sang from every moss covered tree we came upon. Far from untroubled by human culture, the plants are rich, albeit slightly lower in altitude than I would hope.  Loropetalum subcordatum, Magnolia, Lindera, Stauntonia, Hydrangea,  Schefflera bodineiri, Schizophragma, Viburnum, Acer, Asarum, Paris, Arisaema and Impatiens made themselves known, along with a host of subtropicals that speak in accents with which I am both unaccustomed and intimidated by. 

  

A lovely Magnolia species we collected near the Chinese border, with fruit that suggested it was once classified as Michellia. 

 

It was exciting to see what I believe to be Schefflera bodinieri, with long and elegantly narrow leaflets, near the Chinese border. 

Here, in a steady rain, we hiked to higher lands while negotiating a filmy-coated water pipe that was at times our only foot hold.  A misstep by Ozzie pierced his right bicep that was, as unpleasant as it appeared, made more palatable than a direct hit to more cosmetically conspicuous features.  We were grateful it was not a more serious injury, which it could have been. The rain fell hard upon our descent, however, we were grateful to have experienced this area on the restricted frontier with China. 

  

Our porters, all H’mong, along our trek on the back side of Fan Xi Phan. Their clothes are woven from hemp and dyed with indigo; one set of clothes per year. 

On Scott’s last day, we negotiated a trail leading from Trom Tan Pass, a now popular trail that leads to the summit of Fan Xi Phan, a peak rising nearly to 11,000′ and the highest in Indochina. The trail revealed yet another surprise from the trees that tower above in an indecipherable blur of leafage.  Co-mingled with the obscenely large ‘acorns’ of Lithocarpus were the more obscenely obtuse nuts of Aesculus wangii, each approaching the size of respectable grapefruits. It is a rare species of horsechestnut in Asia with imposing erect candles of white flowers in spring.  I gratefully received seed of this from Bleddyn last year, however, a glitch at the USDA in Seattle preempted its welcome.  My seed collections of this fine species, will now, hopefully, be enjoyed by visitors to the University of Washington Botanical Garden in years to come. 

  

Three seeds of the rare Aesculus wangii growing near Sa Pa. We witnessed some of the few remaining trees of this species in the area being cut for timber.

During my fourth time on Emei Shan (will it be my last?), I saw it for the first time. There are several reasons but most obvious is that we arose on our first morning in Emei Village to crystalline blue skies.  With a direct hit of sun, there it appeared at last: the enormous golden Buddha on the summit far, far above.

Next up was one of the purposes I had been assigned to on this trip to China: to assimilate in my mind’s eye the essence of plant compositions on this very mountain. The opulently rich flora of this awkwardly shaped peak will be showcased in one of five bio-geographical recreations, known collectively as Pacific Connections, at the University of Washington Botanical Gardens, Washington Park Arboretum.

And thirdly, in the eight years since my last visit, I have seasoned as an observer. I am no longer dazzled by the obvious – a succulent orange-red head of Arisaema consanguineum or the firey autumn tones of Acer davidii – but, instead, I am attempting to decipher the more subtle differences of green upon green.

Ten years ago, several cohorts and I hiked the Pilgrim’s Path; from the summit to the first intersection with a road, we traveled some 18 km by descending a very steep stone staircase (some knees were never the same).  It is precisely this same trail that Ozzie, Scott and I walked up. In the hours that unfolded, I realized precisely how much of this mountain’s inventory, and its essence, had been lost on my youth.

During this trip, I was struck again and again by the richness of the Laurel Family and with one species of Lindera in particular appearing a cross between Cinnamomum and Hamamelis mollis, with plump, rufous-colored buds and broad, parallel-veined leaves of matte green, undersurfaced with brilliant white. Present here were two evergreen Stachyurus in large quantity (obviously, someone had, ahem, planted there here since my last visit).  Stachyurus salicifolius is a favorite, with linear bamboo-like leaves to 7″ while the ovate-foliaged Stachyurus yuananensis took on a pleasing platinum-like sheen to its leaves.

Though I was smitten by seeing a few specimens of Hepatica yamatutai in 1998, I was not at all prepared to see the sheer quantity of them now, brandishing sensationally variegated leaves in tones of silvers and purples.  It is a lovely, early-blossoming species with charming white flowers emerging as early as January in the Pacific Northwest.  Ditto with Epimedium acumintum, whose populations had assuredly exploded during the past ten years; some specimens reached 2.5′ in foliage with spent panicles of seed rising further above.

At our end point at 7,300′, when fading light called for a hurried retracing on slippery steps, we marveled at specimens of a climbing Hydrangea relative known as Schizophagma megalocarpum.  Each tear-shaped, papery-bract surrounding the flower heads (themselves to 15″ across) was up to 4.5″ in length.

Emei Shan will remain at the top of my list as a hallmark of a rich flora, as well as where I have been in my pursuit of good plants and where I might go.

-Dan Hinkley, Tao Yuan, Northeast Sichuan Province

Like meeting an old friend, I came upon the very same specimen of Clematis repens from which I collected fruit in 1996; it is well and still productive. This is a rare species of Clematis that was lost to cultivation for several decades. A clone of my origianl collection, known as ‘Bells of Emei Shan’ is now available in the trade, primarily in Europe. Notice the very long flowering stems, to 7 inches in length. 

The Macaque of Emei Shan are indigenous but decidedly adapted to human presence; they are the dominate primate on this mountain and warnings to not hike alone are well heeded.

The Elephant Wading Pool temple on the upper reaches of Emei is, from a distance, elegant and well proprotioned. Centureis old, iti s undergoing extensive reparis due to the recent eqrthquake.

Schefflera delavayi makes a splendid evergreen tree or large shrub in cultivation in the Pacific Northwest, tolerating temperatures as low as 15 degrees farenheit. As it is an autumn blossoming species, seed was not present during our time spent in Sichuan.  

Firstly, it must be noted that I have at last seen Sargentodoxa conspicua.  A member of the Lardizabalaceae, i.e. Akebia, Stauntonia etc; it is indeed conspicuous, appearing a cross between other members of the Lardizabal family, in particular, Holboellia and Sinofranchetii, with rampant growth cloaked with large trifoliate foliage, possessing a similar gestalt to that of Kudzu.

What is remarkable about this encounter – although I have yet to find any of its seed – is that I most certainly have hiked collectively for months in Asia with this species at every bend, having never visually acknowledged it before. This is often the case.  Plants have the most remarkable ability to not speak until spoken to, despite the number of unspeakable things we do to them.

My plans of a daily log posting have been dashed due to the unavailability of internet services.  We are currently in a remote valley of the Yi minority near a newly created botanical reserve, about 250 miles southwest of Chengdu. It is, this week, the National Day Golden Week, a seven-day-long celebration that has emptied half of Chengdu into the hills and hotels of the western mountains replete with copious quantities of locally brewed rice liquor; my most valued asset during the past four nights has been my overused pair of United Airline business class earplugs and Advil PM.

Remembering my promise to be concise, I will insert here my collection notes of the last four days, beginning at the base of Erlang Shan at 9,000′ and ending last night with a short return foray along the entrance to Black Bamboo Reserve.  It has been, thus far, a sensational botanical foray.

Lesson number 1:  Don’t stand behind the Jeep when it’s stuck in the mud.    

September 28 - Spent the morning walking down valley from our cabin along the road, staying above 6500′.  We did take a side loop trail up and over a small hill along an extremely slippery rock surface, though we found the area mostly degraded by grazing and cutting. Rodgerisa aesculifolia, Paris sp.(aff. thibetica), Blechnum sp., Dipelta sp., Ilex perneyi, was common.  Met with our guide Gary and Liu the driver at 11:30 and decided to drive to the tunnel at the base of ErlangShan on the Tibetan highway and walk the old Tibet highway. 1.5 hour drive.  Started walking at 1:30, cold and drizzly, at 8650′.

This was a fairly level road and did not gain much altitude but saw amazing plants.  Most noteworthy were a Litsea/Lindera(?) with perfectly orbicular leaves, enormous flowering forms of Hydrangea longipes, solid stands of Davidia involucrata, and weeping walls of a beautiful, deep-blue pendulous Aconitum sharing territory with Ypsilandra thibetica.  Disporum bodineri, Polygonatum aff. sibericum, Schizandra propinqua also present.

Good collections and might have stayed here for a day longer (or more).  A long drive to Ya’an at day’s end, not arriving until after 9pm, yet still celebrated Ozzie’s birthday with a cake we had prearranged.

Aconitum sp., vining, with Fargesia. LaBaHe Reserve, Sichuan Province.

     September 30- After full day’s drive on 9/29/08 from Ya’an to our lodging, we left at 8:00 am this morning for a full day in Black Bamboo Forest Reserve.  The valley we are staying in, predominated by Yi Minority, is heavily denuded and quite poor. Our drive to the reserve entrance was exciting - Tetrapanax, Aesculus, Davidia, Idesia and Oreopanax were common, as well as Campthotheca and what we presume to be a Machillus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Davidia involucrata, LaBaHe Reserve, Sichuan Province

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Davidia involucrata, LaBaHe Reserve, Sichuan Province

We began hiking at 7,800’, rising to 8200’ and then dropped back to the beginning elevation at the end of the trail. False expectations were raised as the only trail in the park, crowded with tourists due to the national holiday, took us through heavily shaded woodland.  Davidia and Acer truncataum, Acer aff. elegantulum, as well as evergreen Lithocarpus were common. Hydrangea chinensis or H. scandens subsp. chinensis is here and amazingly variable, some with purple stems and others with a purple stain on the undersurface of the leaf blade. A new species of Stachyurus aff. chinensis was here as well (not seeing Stachyurus retusus as in our previous sites) as well as Sinofranchetia, Stauntonia, numerous species of Actinidia (including one with dense brown hairs on the stems). An herbaceous member of the Saxifragaceae with small angular leaves was exciting to see in the wild.

After lunch, we left the trail (the only opportunity) and walked up a dry river bed overhung with Cotoneaster aff. salicifolius in bright red fruit.  We spotted Carpinus fangiana with fruit and excitedly spent the next hour searching for seed in the river bed beneath it, after throwing my walking stick (Davidia) into the branches to dislodge the seed. This splendid species is extremely common in the area but has been devoid of any seed. The leaves are linear ovate to 8″ and the pendulous spikes of seed extend to a staggering 10″ in length. We were able to gather several seedlings from the river bed where Cercidiphyllum seedlings sprouted like garden cress, knowing these will be history after next spring’s run off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ozzie Johnson and Scott McMahon in front of an ancient specimen of Katsura, Cercidiphyllum japonicum.

It was a long hike made harder by the slippery stones and the method of trail construction; my left knee was disappointingly quite swollen by day’s end. My hotel room was gratifyingly moved away from the celebration area that kept me up very late last night.  The beds here are hard as rocks.

     October 1 - We drove from the hotel to an area further west of Black Bamboo Reserve, to a closed area called Rhododendron Lake.  A heavily, depressingly degraded valley through Yi Minority villages. We continued from checkpoint up to first stop at 8,636’ and then to the lower lake at 9,692’. Drove to upper lake prior to lunch at 10,279’.

The upper lake we visited in a restricted botanical reserve known as Rhododendron Lake. The area has been degraded by overgrazing and overcutting, however it is now protected and making a recovery. 

Davidia, Juglans, Pterocarya prominent at lower elevations with Magnolia, Litsea and Acer spp. were common. In particular, Acer sterculiaceum, although A. truncatum, A. pectinatum, A. caudatum and A. campbellii groups were also seen. Conspicuously absent is Acer davidii.

Pachysandra axillaris, being the second time I have encountered this beautiful species in Sichuan, created a dense carpet around the lower lake shore with Caulophyllum and Rohdea also common.  A tree-like Euonymus was splendid in pink/red fruit; however without access to web, must wait to identify the species.  A vining Lonicera with cup-shaped involucre bracts and red fruit were also striking, growing through the branches of the Euonymus.

Euonymus cornutus

Several species of Rhododendron present, as was a Malus and Sorbus, including S. suetchuanensis and S. sargentiana.  Schisandra sp. aff. sphareanthera was ubiquitous and heavily fruited, as was, at higher elevations, Clematis montana.  An enormous foliaged Arisaema was found where we ate lunch, presumably A. wilsonii.  Also exciting was a new species, to me, of Schizophragma, with coriaceous foliage, seemingly evergreen, with long narrow sterile bracts surrounding its heads of flowers. It was a splendid and gratifying day of botanizing.

Resplendent crops of fruit have been encountered on Schisandra aff. sphaeranthera. These clusters follow beautiful tangerine-colored flowers in spring. 

     October 2 - Drove from hotel back to the entrance to Black Bamboo Reserve and walked the road back, starting at 7,456’ and climbing up to 8,100’.  Mostly heavily degraded agricultural land with bits of refugia on steep slopes and inaccessible rocky outcroppings protected from goats and cows.

Observed beautiful specimens of Schefflera aff. delavayi, with deeply lobed foliage (juvenile?) that, as per prior sites, grew only on ridiculously steep, inaccessible slopes. No flowers or fruit present. I searched the area for seedlings for much of the morning, finally finding one that had been grazed. Two other seedlings were visible, however the slope was too precarious to consider attempting to retrieve them.

Rock outcroppings like these, safe from goats and other livestock, provide a refuge for plants of the area. On this rock grows Schefflera delavayi. Metapanax davidii and an unidentified species of Pittosporum. 8′200′ in West Sichuan Province. 

Goats, cows and overcutting have devastated this area and much of the remaining forest will soon be leveled to the ground.  Carpinus fangiana and Davidia involucrata is common throughout and being cut as firewood!  Machillius, Magnolia, Ilex, present and common.  Found seedlings of Lindera/Litsaea of previous collection and also seedlings of Lindera obtusiloba (of note, as no specimens of this species had previously been observed).

We returned to the hotel at mid-afternoon to get caught up on notes and processing our seeds; I finished at 11:00 pm.  Off in the morning to Emei Shan.

It is as I remembered: really wet.  Our 777 arrived in Hong Kong, a bit wobbly from an approaching typhoon, and I was jostled from a shallow sleep repeatedly during the night by a lashing storm the likes I had never before witnessed. By morning, “Canceled” and “Delayed”, in green and red, sparkled on the departure screens like a morbid holiday greeting card. One must never take bad weather personally.

All things said, I was fortunate to arrive in Chengdu relatively early; Ozzie and Scott were Shanghai’d by the same storm and had a harder slog of it . Over a quiet - make that desolate - dinner at my hotel, my taste buds and digestive tract were reunited with Zanthoxylum piperitum - so called Sichuan Pepper -  while I stared through a window spattered with succulent drops of rain.

Off we were the following morning, after the niggling details of dollar bills exchanged and the tiresome inspection by a bevy of bankers. Our route was, until the end, precisely that of my last trip to Sichuan in 2006 while shooting The Last Flower for Nova.  Across the immense, gray, industrially battered Chengdu Plain to the immense rift of mountains and valleys before the rise of vast Tibetan Plateau.  Our destination was LaBaHe Nature Reserve, recently created and surprisingly intact.

There was enough daylight and energy upon our arrival for a bit of roadside botanizing with sufficient enough interfacing with both familiar and unknown plant species to prime our anticipation for the first hike the following morning.  The rain carried on heavily through the night but the sound of which was masked by a seething river directly outside the windows of our bedrooms.

Gary, our Chinese guide who speaks impeccable English, drove us to the selected trailhead yesterday morning and gave us a rough description of how we were to proceed.  Roughly translated, he said, “be careful as I do not have a clue where this trail goes.”  As it turned out in the end, what we followed for seven hours, from 2007m to 2300m were game tracks made by a healthy population of wild deer and an ungulate that appears to be a cross between a mountain goat and a wildebeest. Ankle deep mud, thickets of bamboo, and a fiercely armed rose thwarted our forward advance.  During our retreat, covered in mud, lacerations on our limbs and noggins and shortly after Scott had found a sizable leech attached to the back of my neck, Ozzie wondered aloud precisely what had possessed us to continue.

Collecting and exploring is a remarkable metaphor to living.  It is what might be beyond the next seemingly impassible copse of vegetation or sludge that keeps us insistent on moving ahead.  Had we turned back, we would have bypassed one of the most remarkable days of botanizing in my life.  As before the day would end, I would stand amidst centuries old Cercidphyllum and groves of the fabled Dove Tree, Davidia involucrata.  Tonight I am nursing a tiredness I have not felt for many years, and too many leech bites on my ankles, hands and back to count, but I am more satiated from a day in the field than I have been in many years.

Mountain scenery in western Sichuan Province (with Acanthopanax
evodiaeifolia on left)

Ozzie Johnson with Davidia involucrata, LaBaHe Reserve, Sichuan Province

Viburnum Betulifolium, LaBaHe Reserve, Sichuan Province

Beesia deltophylla, LaBaHe Reserve, Sichuan Province

Helwingia japonica, LaBaHe Reserve, Sichuan Province

Monrovia is lucky to be collaborating with one of the finest plant explorers alive today. Daniel J. Hinkley, former co-owner of the renowned Heronswood Nursery near Kingston, Washington, is working with Monrovia to bring new and unique plants to a nursery near you. This is easier said than done - it’s a task that requires travel to remote regions using somewhat primitive collecton methods. All with the hope that what is found will flourish as an ornamental plant in the U.S.

Dan, departs today on a new adventure. His first blog entry is listed below. In the coming days and weeks all of his posts will be under his own byline. His posts will also be posted on his own site, danieljhinkley.com

Dan Hinkley will be returning to the mountains of W. Sichuan this
autumn to the same areas he traveled in 2006, when he photographed
this ladyslipper, Cypripedium tibeticum, in perfect form.

San Francisco, CA
Posting 1

Yeah, ok, I realize that.  I said ok, ok?  I know I do not write often enough and I know that when I do write, I write too much. There are always other more important things to do than to sit and write: put suet out for the birds…the birds that somehow disjointedly figure into what I was going to write about; weed the part of the garden that has the plant that I was going to write about; take a picture of the plant I was going to write about; collect its seed; remove a dead branch; clean the refrigerator — because it had absolutely nothing to do with the subject I was about to write about. You know the drill. And then, when the dogs are walked and asleep on the banquette and the most up-to-date election polls are examined, I begin to write about what I was meant to write about, at last confronting that bridge to nowhere, while attempting to create a reality that someone will be sufficiently naïve to believe.  And then I write too much because there generally is too much too say, especially so when I am saying it, and you end up on a long bridge that leads to nowhere. And sadder still, I know precisely what many of you must be shrieking when you attempt to decipher my infinite, yet, I must say, ever so thoughtful and and witty musings: thanks but no thanks.

For the next 10 weeks, I am going to attempt to get my head around blogging, if I understand at all what blogging actually is. I believe it is somewhat like emailing my mother.  I can’t use vulgar language, nor too much Latin nor dwell on disingenuous, transparent choices of running mates from Alaska. I must be concise, the language clean, the pictures pretty. Sounds easy enough.

My disheveled mountain of raingear, polypro underwear, Ziplocs, sieves, Starbucks French Roast and protein bars have been compressed into numerous cases and boxes, each assigned to either China only, China and Vietnam, Vietnam only or Vietnam and Japan. (You might notice an improvement in my writing already; in the past I would have told you that I had packed Atkins Peanut Butter and Chocolate net 2 carb bars, but in my nascent approach to clean writing, I have referred to them refreshingly as simply protein bars). These boxes will be cached across Southeast Asia for subsequent retrieval and restocking, if all goes as planned. One must be never be deprived of Starbucks French Roast nor an occasional Atkins Peanut Butter and Chocolate net 2 carb bar.

So, here I am in San Francisco, awaiting my flight to Hong Kong, wondering what it is I have forgotten, what it is that I will find. In a little over 24 hours from now, I will be reconnecting with good friends Scott McMahon and Ozzie Johnson at the Min Shan Hotel in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.  It was from this same celebrated lodging, nearly four years ago to the day, that we had last parted company in China after one of the most exciting collection trips I had ever participated in. I am hoping for a repeat performance.  So, here we go again.  Stay tuned.

–Daniel J. Hinkley