Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou V1.2 Brian Sennitt and David Z V

Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou v1.2 Brian Sennitt and David Z v

九寨沟植物 Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park

Foreword 序言 by Professor Sir Ghillean Prance FRS, VMH Introduction and Poem by Brian Sennitt

Chapter 1 第一章 P43 - Clematis sp. 铁线莲 P1 - Introduction to Chapter 1 P44 - Clematis tangutica 甘青铁线莲第一章前言 P45 - Clematoclethra scandens subsp. actinidioides P2 - Algae 藻类猕猴桃藤山柳 P3 - Mosses 藓类 P46 - Cornus bretschneideri 沙梾 P4/5 - Lichens 地衣 P47 - Cynoglossum amabile 倒提壶 P6 - Usnea longissima长松萝 P48 - Delphinium sp. 翠雀花 P7 - Equisetum spp.木贼属 P49 - Deutzia longifolia var. pingwuensis 平武溲疏 P8 - Lycopodioides nipponica 伏地卷柏 P50 - Dipelta yunnanensis 云南双盾木 P9 - Athyrium filix-femina 希陶蹄盖蕨 P51 - Epipactis mairei 大叶火烧兰 Dryopteris sp. 鳞毛蕨属 P52 - Euonymus semenovii 中亚卫矛 P10 - Fern 蕨类植物 P53 - A Grass 禾本科植物九 P11 - Drynaria fortunei 斛蕨 P54 - Grass Family 禾本科 P12 - Lepisorus sp. 瓦韦 P55 - Hemerocallis plicata 褶叶萱草寨 P13 - Cephalotaxus fortunei 三尖杉 P56 - Hydrangea sp. 绣球花 P14 - Juniperus formosana 刺柏 P57 - Hypericum ascyron 黄海棠 P15 -Sabina squamata 高山柏 P58 - Lianas 木质藤本沟 P16 - Abies fargesii 秦岭巴山冷杉 P59 - Ligularia przewalskii 掌叶橐吾 P17 - Picea purpurea 紫果云杉 P60 - Lilium davidii 川百合植 P18 - Picea wilsonii 青杄 P61 - Member of the Lily Family 百合 P19 - Larix potaninii红杉 P62 - Lonicera tragophylla 盘叶忍冬物 P20 - Tsuga chinensis 铁杉 P63 - Lonicera lanceolata 柳叶忍冬 P21 - Pinus armandii 华山松 P64 - Lonicera sp 金脉忍冬 P22/3 - Pinus tabuliformis 油松 P65 - Lonicera kansuensis 甘肃忍冬 P24 - Acer caudatum 长尾槭 P66 - Lysimachia barystachys 狼尾花 P25 - Acer mono色木槭 P67 - Lythrum salicaria 千屈菜目 P26 - Betula utilis 糙皮桦 P68 - Microula sikkimensis 微孔草 P27 - Circaeaster agrestis 星叶草 P69 - Monotropa hypopitys 松下兰录 P28 - Paeonia veitchii 川赤芍 P70 - Orchis chusua 广布红门兰 P71 - Oreorchis nana 硬叶山兰 P72 - Parasenecio hastatus 山尖子 Chapter 2 第二章 P73 - Parnassia sp 梅花草属 P74 - Paulownia fortunei 白花泡桐 P29 - Introduction to Chapter 2 P75 - Pedicularis sp. 马先蒿第二章前言 P76 - Pedicularis torta 扭旋马先蒿 P30 - Adenophora sp. 沙参 P77 - Philadelphus sp. 山梅花 P31 - Allium sikkimense 高山韭 P78 - Phragmites communis 芦苇 P32 - Anemone rivularis 草玉梅 P79 - Polemonium chinense var. chinense P33 - Aquilegia ecalcarata Maxim 中华花荵无距耧斗菜 P80 - Polygonum viviparum 珠芽蓼 P34 - Aquilegia oxysepala var. kansuensis P81 - Populus simonii 小叶杨甘肃耧斗菜 P82 - Pyrola sp 鹿蹄草 P35 - Aralia sp. 楤木 P83 - Salvia paosingensis C.Y.Wu 宝兴鼠尾草 P36 - Arisaema sp. 天南星属 P84 - Sedum aizoon 费菜 P37 - Aster sp. 紫菀 P85 - Sorbaria arborea 珍珠梅 P38 - Astragalus sp. 黄芪 P86 - Sorbus setschwanensis 四川花楸 P39 - Betula platyphylla 白桦 P87 - Thalictrum sp. 唐松草 P40 - Cardamine tangutorum 紫花碎米荠 P88 - An Umbellifer 伞形科 P41 - Carduus acanthoides 节毛飞廉 j P89 - Veratrum nigrum 藜芦 P42 - Cirsium japonicum 大蓟 P90 - Vicia cracca 广布野豌豆 Content Content Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park

Chapter 3 第三章 P142/3- Sabina saltuaria 方枝柏 P91 - Introduction to Chapter 3 P144/5- Salix sp. 柳树第三章前言 P146 - Sanguisorba officinalis 粉花地榆 P92 - Acer caesium subsp. giraldii 太白深灰槭 P147 - Stellera chamaejasme 狼毒花 P93 - Acer davidii 青榨槭 P148/9- Solanum tuberosum 马铃薯 P94 - Maple Seedling (Acer sp.) 槭播种 P150 - Urtica sp 3254 野苋和荨麻 P95 - Anemone tomentosa 大火草 P151 - Valeriana officinalis缬草 P96 - Arctium lappa L 牛蒡 P152/3- Viscum sp. 槲寄生 P97 - Asparagus filicinus羊齿天门冬 y P154 - Fargesia nitida 箭竹 P98 - Berchemia sp. 勾儿茶属 P99 - Bromus japonicus 雀麦 P156/7- End Word 结论 P100 - Campylotropis polyantha 小雀花 P101 - Carex sp 苔草 P102 - Clematis sp. 铁线莲 Acknowledgement 答谢 P103 - Geranium platyanthum 毛蕊老鹳草九 P104 - Heracleum sp. 独活 Publication 印刷资料 P105 - Lonicera sp. 忍冬属寨 P106 - Malus kansuensis 陇东海棠 P107 - Osmorhiza aristata var. laxa 疏叶香根芹沟 P108 - Quercus aliena 槲栎 P109 - Rubus xanthocarpus 黄果悬钩子 P110 - Ribes stenocarpum 光果刺李植 P111 - Ribes spp. 茶藨子属 P112 - Rosa spp. 蔷薇物 P113 - Rosa sp. 蔷薇 P114 - Sambucus adnata 血满草 P115 - Thlaspi arvense 菥冥 P116 - Taraxacum sp. 蒲公英 P117 - Viburnum dilatatum var. dilatatum 荚蒾目 P118 - Zanthoxylum sp. 野花椒录

Chapter 4 第四章

P119 - Introduction to Chapter 4 第四章前言 P120/1- Betula albosinensis 红桦 P122 - Codonopsis pilosula 党参 P123 - Dactylis glomerata 鸭茅 P124 - Gentianopsis paludosa 湿生扁蕾 P125 - Lilium duchartrei 野百合 P126/7- Hippophae rhamnoides沙棘 P128/9- Hippuris vulgaris 杉叶藻 P130/1- Humulus lupulus 啤酒花 P132/3- Koelreuteria paniculata 栾树 P134 - Leontopodium sp. 火绒草属 P135 - Leontopodium dedekensii 戟叶火绒草 P136/7- Medicago sativa 紫花苜蓿 Content P138/9- Paris polyphylla var. stenophylla 狭叶重楼 P140 - Picea asperata 云杉 P141 - Prunella vulgaris 夏枯草 Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park

FOREWORD 序言

When visiting many national parks in the world I have found a lack of good books about the flora to be an impediment. This will not be the case in Jiu Zhai Gou National Park now that this book has been issued. It is not only a guide to identify the plants of the park, but it also contains a wealth of interesting information about the plants, their uses and their biology. This is much more than a flower guide, we even learn information about the lower plants such as mosses, lichens, ferns and fern allies such as Selaginella. The text is full of details about the origins, the biology, the ecology and the users of these plants in 九 traditional medicine and in many other ways such as for timber, fuel, fodder and fibres. 寨

Many of the plants illustrated will be familiar to the British 沟 gardener for we grow so many plant species that originated 植 from China. It is good to find out here from where they originated and to see them g rowing in their natural 物 surroundings. This book is exceptionally well illustrated with a large number of informative and high quality photographs. These photos also show what a beautiful place the park is and I hope that this will encourage people to visit this important 序 area for the conservation of the wild species of China. It is good that there is an area like the Jiu Zhai Gou park where the plants 言 are properly protected and cannot be collected. China is to be congratulated on setting aside this wonderful area to conserve its biological richness. The over collecting of many species, especially medicinal plants, is driving them towards extinction. There is still much to do for the conservation of the Chinese flora and I hope that this volume will help to encourage those who are seeking to protect the great botanical diversity of China from which we have all benefited whether in our gardens or from the medicines we use to cure our illnesses. Foreword Professor Sir Ghillean Prance FRS, VMH Former Director, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park

九寨沟植物

In the quietness of that upper 前 part of Jiuzhaigou National Park called The Virgin Forest no 言 screeching chainsaw has felled these giant trees.

When one dies, another grows. See how a tree has fallen. Its timber has decayed as fungi fed upon it. In time soft dark humus is all that will remain; it will have turned into the soil that other trees and smaller plants need. There's a green mossy carpet under foot where deer tread silently. The forest provides a home for many plants, and food for insects, birds and mammals.

It is an ecosystem.This forest is virgin; untouched by man. Introduction © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park

九寨沟来植行吧感物走情受我谊安们广歇共海阔的同内的水归存原边路知始己森林天涯若布比莱邻恩 . 英国 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Chapter 1 - Beginnings

How did life begin?

Were there just simple cells?

Something like these strands of algae in the water of Reed Lake and Swan Lake? 九 And what about these mosses? 寨

Ancient fossils of true mosses are 沟 unknown, but fossils in the rocks show that small plants, able to 植 resist drying out by sucking up 物 water from the ground appeared on land about 500 million years ago. 起 “Let the land produce vegetation” Genesis 1:11 源 Then soil began to be formed, and forests of tall herbs succeeded the smaller ones. These had tubes carrying up water in strands of Chapter 1 - Beginnings tissue like those of this modern fern. Among them crawled invertebrate animals and the first amphibia and reptiles. The plants made oxygen for their activity, and took so much carbon from the air that we have today the coal-bearing rocks which are their semi-decayed remains.

Back in the Jurassic period, the first seed plants appeared, and there were dinosaurs; plenty of them in China and other parts of the world. But dinosaurs died out and mammals replaced them. Flowering plants made their first appearance. And beetles and bees. Climate changed, and changed again. Forests came in new places, and went again. With the latest big changes of the Ice Ages many forms of life died out, but more survived in China than in other temperate regions and are richly represented in the Jiu Zhai National Park. In chapter 1 we will meet in particular some plants that are reckoned to be surviving representatives of early forms. P 1 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park zǎo lèi Algae 藻类

九寨沟植物

The picture shows a mass of under water filaments whose structure needs to be seen with a microscope. These filaments are made of cells, consisting of nucleus and cytoplasm with chloroplasts, which are attached end to end in simple chains.

It is thought that the earliest plants to occur on Planet Earth would have been not much different from this. Grass Lake

P 2 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Mosses xiǎn lèi 藓类

九寨沟植物

This carpet of moss was seen beside the boardwalk south of Arrow Bamboo Lake.

Mosses are Lower Plants whose reproduction is by spores, and not by seeds.

The spores are released from capsules. Although they have stems and little leaves, mosses remain small in size as they have no long tubes to conduct sap. When there is dry weather they just wither. But when water and warmth return, they revive, turn green and grow again.

Mosses grow on shaded rock and the lower bark of trees; also they are found in open ground wherever Swan Lake enough moisture is present in the air.

Although mosses have few uses, it is nice to walk, run or sit on mossy ground. Their soft greenness belongs to the peace of woodland and the quiet rippling of mountain streams. © www.otaniproduction.com P 3 Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park

dì yī Lichens 地衣

九寨沟植物

Lichens are strange plants. They are a compound of algae and fungi intertwined in a symbiosis, or 'living-together'. Ancient legend tells of a race of beings called Centaurs who were a combination of man and horse. They could gallop and shoot arrows at the same time,like a sort of super Mongol warrior. But we are safe; they will not invade the Middle Kingdom, as lichens neither gallop nor fire arrows! They just sit!

But there is a quiet secret to their success. The green algal partner, like a farmer, makes their food, and the fungus provides their structure, like a builder. By uniting and combining their simple abilities, lichens have made a real success of living in a world dominated otherwise by the developed giants of the Plant Kingdom. There's a lesson for us humans there!

Lichens, like mosses, reproduce by spores. Like mosses they can survive drought to revive once again when moisture returns. But they are far tougher than mosses; tough as Mongolians. They can be found, as the photographs show, on dry twigs, or on rocky outcrops, or – in the case of the Beard Lichen, Usnea (see next pages) – hanging in the air in long wispy strands, like the beard of some frail sage whose years have been passed in meditation. Such ancient appearance belies a youthful use of Usnea; it is twisted by children into strands to serve as skipping ropes!

Lichens have found use in medicine; also for the dyeing of wool to make Scottish tweed. And they are survival food for reindeer in Siberian winters. Jiu Zhai Gou National Park

P 4 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Lichens dì yī 地衣

Many different kinds of lichen occur 九 throughout the Park. 寨沟植物

They grow on poor Jiu Zhai Gou National Park soil, on the branches of trees, even on rocks.

九寨沟植物

This Usnea is one of 600 species of Beard Lichen (Usnea). They are found around the world, although now extinct in some European countries because of atmospheric pollution. Usnea has had a very long history of medical use, for example in the healing of serious battle wounds among North American original ethnic Arrow Bamboo Lake Arrow groups. Most kinds contain usnic acid which has broad spectrum antibiotic action against bacteria, P 6 including those causing tuberculosis. Extract of Chinese Usnea is available on the market. © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Equisetum spp. mù zéi shǔ 木贼属

九寨沟植物 Arrow Bamboo Lake

Horsetails are fern allies, producing their spores from terminal 'cones'; they are not seed plants. Horsetails had ancestors the size of trees growing on Earth 300 million years ago during the Coal Age. At the south end of Arrow Bamboo Lake spreads a swamp of almost continuous horsetail, where it is possible to imagine a miniature version of that ancient forest of 20-metre tall giant Calamites, whose carbonised fossils form the strata of coal that are being mined in China today. There are two kinds (spp.) of Equisetum shown in the photograph. Horsetails have hard silica in their green stems, and were used in Britain before the invention of steel wool for scouring blackened pots and pans in the kitchen. P 7 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park fú dì juàn bǎi Lycopodioides nipponica 伏地卷柏

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This little 'Selaginella', which grows hardly more than 3cm in height, seems from its structure to be descended from plants with similar features which thrived on Earth during the Coal Age some 300 million years ago.

One of these, growing 1000 times taller, called Lepidodendron, was a giant herb growing to 30 metres in height! Their carbonised remains helped to form the coal we burn today. It is in rocks three to four hundred million or more years before the present time that the first land plants with water- conducting strands are found. Below Swan Lake Swan Below

P 8 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Athyrium filix-femina xī táo tí gài jué 希陶蹄盖蕨

九寨沟植物

lín máo jué shǔ Dryopteris sp. In the Lady Fern, as in ferns generally, the leaf takes the form of a feathery ‘frond’. Lady Fern 鳞 and Male Fern are simply English names for 毛 two quite different kinds of fern. They are not man and wife. 蕨属

lín máo jué shǔ Dryopteris sp. (Male Fern) BelowForest Virgin

P 9 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Fern jué lèi zhí wù 蕨类植物

九寨沟植物 Panda Lake Waterfall Lake Panda Ferns often grow in damp shady places. For other examples of ferns in Chapter 1 see Athyrium, Dryopteris, P 10 Drynaria and Lepisorus. © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Drynaria fortunei hú jué 斛蕨

九寨沟植物 Mirror Lake

Ferns show characteristics of those land plants which flourished before there were any seed plants.They reproduce by releasing microscopic spores into the air. Drynaria is a fern and produces two kinds of leaves, namely vegetative fronds and fertile spore-producing fronds. The inset photograph shows dark spots, which are the sori where the spores are © www.otaniproduction.com produced. P 11 Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Lepisorus spp. wǎ wéi 瓦韦

九寨沟植物

Various species of Lepisorus grow on boulders in the lower parts of the Park. They are ferns and grow, like Drynaria (see previous page) another kind of fern, as epiphytes on the trunks and branches of trees where enough humus has accumulated for their rooting. An epiphyte takes no nourishment from the tree itself. Shuzheng Lake

P 12 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Cephalotaxus fortunei sān jiān shān 三尖杉

九寨沟植物

Plum Yews are a kind of conifer with an East Asian distribution. Like many conifers found in China, they have a long ancestry, fossils of their fore-bears having been found in rocks of Jurassic age.

The different Chinese species of Plum Yew have had a long use

in Traditional Chinese Lake FallsSparkle Medicine (TCM). San Jian Shan has been a specific in TCM for the treatment of tumors, and for leukaemia which is a cancer of the white blood cells. Other herbs are used alongside it for their more general tonic effect.

九寨沟植物

This is a Juniper growing in open scrub and woodland, not so often beside water as does Juniperus

Reed Lake squamata. Junipers of one kind or another are among the various kinds of'sang shing' or aromatic plants which are burned as incense for ritual offerings in Buddhist temples or at meditation sites

P 14 (See Sabina saltuaria in Chapter 4). © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park gāo shān bǎi Sabina squamata 高山柏

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Junipers are conifers that have little fleshy cones, which are more like berries than cones in appearance.

Gao Shan Bai is unusual among junipers in its ability to grow right at the edge of the rushing waters, even in the middle of shoals. In size it varies from stunted bonsai-like specimens at Bonsai Shoals to rugged trees growing on the causeway below Sparkle Lake. Pearl Shoals

九寨沟植物

The Min Jiang Fir is endemic to Sichuan and South Gansu; that is, it is confined to this part of the world. Virgin Forest Virgin It is one of the dominant trees in the Virgin Forest. Its place is taken by other kinds of conifer in other parts of the Park. Its wood is used in construction, for furniture, and as a source of woodpulp. P 16 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Picea purpurea zǐ guǒ yún shān 紫果云杉

九寨沟植物

Young cones in July 2009. It seems that spruces and firs had not produced cones in 2008, nor perhaps in 2007. Spruces provide fine timber. Upper Seasonal Lake Upper Seasonal

P 17 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park qīng qiān Picea wilsonii 青杄

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This is one of the two common species of spruce found at the altitude of the middle parts of the Park. It is one Arrow Bamboo Lake Arrow of the most photographed because of the way its roots have grown around a small boulder here beside Arrow P 18 Bamboo Lake. © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Larix potaninii hóng shān 红杉

九寨沟植物 Below Lake Upper Seasonal

A hardy pioneer tree growing on crags above other trees. Larches are deciduous, losing their leaves in winter, a feature that is unusual in conifers. An extract of larch is present in the Bach Flower essence called Exam (available in Chengdu). © www.otaniproduction.com P 19 Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Tsuga chinensis tiě shān 铁杉

九寨沟植物 This is a Sichuanese giant Hemlock Spruce, growing among Abies and Picea, other giant conifers, which are all up to 50 metres in height . Its wood is used in construction, and for aircraft; and the root, trunk and branches yield tannin, resin and aromatic oils. Sparkle Lake

P 20 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Pinus armandii huà shān sōng 华山松

九寨沟植物 Above Zechawa Village

Armand's Pine is a five-needled pine with long narrow cones. P 21 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Pinus tabuliformis yóu sōng 油松

九寨 Hear 'Soft Wind in Pines' 沟 Pure seven-string lay Cool old air I love 植 Left unplucked today. “Play the Qin” by Liu Chang-qing. 物

This is a very Chinese tree sometimes referred to as the Chinese Pine. As one leaves the Park Entrance on the bus and proceeds towards the Quna Bridge, the trees on the left and the right of the road are chiefly pines of this kind. Then, if you peer upwards to the sheer face of the Mirror Cliff, all 500m of it, you will again see You Song apparently growing out of the very rock itself all the way to the summit. It is a sight such as has inspired great paintings and famous poems.

The Latin name 'tabuliformis' refers to the attractive table-like layers of the branches. This is a tree that also grows in the mountains to the west of Beijing, and has been planted for ornament around Tiananmen Square and elsewhere in the city. Pines have important uses. You Song's timber is used in construction, shipbuilding and furniture making; and for wood fibre. The bark is a source of tannin; the resin too is used, and the needles have medicinal properties. Another pine with edible seeds is the five-needled pine Hua Shan Song (Pinus armandii) which grows at higher altitudes in the Park. Cliff above Pearl Shoals Cliff above

P 22 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park yóu sōng Pinus tabuliformis 油松

九寨沟植物 Cliff above Pearl Shoals

The forests between the Park Entrance and Cliff above Heye Village are dominated by You Song or Chinese

九寨沟植物 Fossils in rocks in Alaska dated at 100 million years before the present show that maple-like plants were among the earliest Flowering Plants.

Modern maples seem to have arisen from a centre comprising Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan because this part of China is a sort of world epicentre for maple species. Below Long Lake Long Below

P 24 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Acer mono sè mù qì The picture shows Se Mu 色 Qi growing beside Sparkle Lake, and attached to it is 木 a bush of the parasite 槭 Sang Ji Sheng (Loranthus sp). Beside Tiger Lake there is a labelled specimen of Se Mu Qi, which identifies it as Acer mono. In the Park there are at least seven other kinds of Acer, or maple. Acer is a genus name for them. The different kinds are called species.

So to summarise, Se Mu Qi belongs to the genus 九 'Acer' , and to the species 'Acer mono'. It is a kind of 寨 maple found in Japan, Korea and China, not 沟 elsewhere in the world. There is no Brazilian or English name for it. 植 Furthermore, in Korea it may be called by a 物 different name from Se Mu Qi. But the Scientific Name Acer mono is a kind of catalogue name, which everyone in the world can use, including those of us who cannot read Chinese. As such it is unique; it is a definition.

Other species of maple in the Park include Acer davidii, A. caesium and A. caudatum. Sparkle Lake Sparkle Se Mu Qi turns to a beautiful yellow in the autumn, a season when Tiger Lake in the Shuzheng Valley reflects all the changing colours of the trees. The Fall, or autumn, in North America is also famous for the red, orange and yellow hues of trees such as the Sugar Maple (Acer saccharatum). Japan too has its graceful and colourful maples, among them Acer palmatum.

九寨沟植物

These birches occur in gaps among the dark conifers. They look stunning when covered with snow. This is a valuable timber tree. Fossils in the rocks tell us that birches were among the first flowering plants, Below Long Lake Long Below appearing in late Cretaceous times. Their flowers, which are very simple and wind-pollinated, are borne in compact, pendulous spikes called catkins.

P 26 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Circaeaster agrestis xīng yè cǎo 星叶草

九寨沟植物

This little plant is of great interest, being so simple that it is thought it may display characteristics that were possessed by some of the very Below Five-coloured Pool earliest Flowering Plants.

P 27 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park chuān chì sháo Paeonia veitchii 川赤芍 Chuan Chi Shao, or Veitch's Peony, is plentiful in the woodlands below the Virgin Forest where it can be seen in flower at midsummer. It is a low growing peony with fine foliage and pink flowers. They are 'single' flowers, unlike the often 'double' flowers with a multiplicity of petals of the gorgeous cultivated peonies that are so popular in China. Cultivated for over 4000 years, the peony was declared national flower during the Qing Dynasty. As for the 'single' wild-type 九 flower in the photograph, it is thought to represent a surviving type of insect-pollinated 寨 flower that existed as long ago as Cretaceous times. 沟植物

The male nuclei in the pollen brought by bees, and the seed which grows as a result, contain the DNA whose instructions have maintained the way the petals are arranged and the number of floral parts produced very little changed over the last 70 million years or more. Veitch's Peony yields the medicine called Chi Shao Yoa, which is used to treat many conditions, one example being high blood pressure. Its action is to remove heat from the blood.

Below Virgin Virgin Forest Below The whole root is the part which is used. But no collecting is allowed in the Park! P 28 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Chapter 2 - Flowering

So, if flowers come and flowers go, then what are flowers for?

Are flowers for beauty?

Are flowers for bees?

Or are they, as it were, for making more 'flowers'?

“The grass withers and the flower falls, but...” 九寨 Isaiah 40:8 沟 In the Park great coniferous trees dominate the scene, but there is a rich flora both beneath them and in the gaps left between them. In this chapter some sixty kinds of Flowering Plant are shown that survive under or 植 alongside the conifers. “Is this how flowering plants began?” it may be asked. “Did they spring up in the shelter of forests, or was it in places where the sun shone and the wind blew?” Were they like those open air 物 market stalls that spring up in the alleys of tall city blocks, selling their wares in a multiplicity of imaginative forms and bright colours to attract the interest of customers?

As fossils in the rock tell us, flowering plants appeared in Cretaceous times more than 100 million years ago. 开 There were some like modern maples as we saw in Chapter 1; and there were others like the willow shown 花 in this picture. But very soon there was a multitude of kinds, a foretaste of the great variety that we see today. There were insects too in the Cretaceous period, and it is colourful insect-pollinated plants that have come to dominate in much of the world. In a flower are found Chapter 2 - Flowering the sexual structures of the plants. Male and female structures stand in most cases side by side, but very shyly so. They do not touch, not even with lips or hands. It is usually by messenger that introduction at a distance is brought about – say an insect does it. As for the fair lady and fine gentleman, they never actually meet!

Their charms are not for each other, but reserved for the humble bee, who is a mere menial servant lured by the advertisement of all that colour and scent to receive its payment of nectar. The bee unconscious of the part it plays, but even more so the wind, carries the pollen dust which contains the male sex nucleus to the female letterbox, the stigma. This is called pollination.

Fertilisation follows on - think of it as conception; it is as coolly brought about as opening and reading a letter! So flowers are for reproduction. They fade when their work is done, but are the means by which the DNA of instruction is passed on by one generation for creating the next. Or as Isaiah the prophet goes on to say, the “word” that ordains fresh new life “endures for ever”.

shā shēn Adenophora sp. 沙参

九寨沟植物 Lower Seasonal Lake Lower This is a member of the Bell Flower Family. This beautiful plant was found north of the lake above the level to P 30 which water rises in the summer. © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Allium sikkimense gāo shān jiǔ 高山韭

九寨沟植物 BelowForest Virgin

We found this little onion growing in wet places. There are a dozen or so of other species of Allium to be found in the Park, some with violet-coloured flowers, others yellowish-green, purple or pink. Some grow in open places, others in shady places. The diversity of habitat must be one of the reasons for the existence in Jiu Zhai Valley of so many different kinds of plant. But habitat loss always means species loss, and the author has noted wild-flower rich places where spruce saplings have been planted that will grow up and

九寨沟植物

Cao Yu Mei is a very comon kind of Anemore.

The structure of Anemore flowers and fruits is thought to be like that of an early primitive kind of flowering plant. Virgin Forest Virgin

P 32 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Aquilegia ecalcarata Maxim. wú jù lóu dǒu cài 无距耧斗菜

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Many aquilegias are grown for ornament.

This one is The Spurless Columbine, which was described and given this name by Maximovicz in 1889.

Most Columbine species have spurs attached to their petals. For an example see next page, where the function of the spur Virgin Forest is also explained.

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Mirror Lake Mirror This kind of Columbine has a hollow spur attached to each petal, inside which the bee can probe with its tongue to suck nectar. Nectar contains sugars which the bees turn into honey, this being their fuel store

P 34 for the cold season. © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Aralia sp. cōng mù 楤木

九寨沟植物 Below Lake Upper Seasonal

So formidable in appearance are the spiny stems of Cong Mu in winter (see inset photo), yet the young shoots are eaten, either boiled as a vegetable, or as a salad. In herbal medicine the stem and roots are used for their

© www.otaniproduction.com warming, painkilling effect in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. The local name for this plant is Ci Long Bao. P 35 Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park tiān nán xīng shǔ Arisaema spp. 天南星属

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This is one of several kinds of Arisaema to be found in the Park. The photo (left) shows the strange flower of another species in woodland below the Virgin Forest.

Cobra Lilies of all kinds are unusual for sex change that they undergo. They are typically male when small, but become either female as they grow larger, or have flowers of both sexes enclosed inside the hood which can be seen in the photo (left). Reed Lake

P 36 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Aster sp. zǐ wǎn 紫菀

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This beautiful Aster is one of some nine different kinds that grow in the Park. The flower of the Aster Family, Asteraceae, is not actually just one flower but a collection of little flowers or florets; the central ones Below Long Lake are orange with sexual parts, and the marginal ones have blue petals to attract insects.

P 37 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park huáng qí Astragalus sp. 黄芪

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A beautiful herb in the Pea Family. In north temperate regions there are about 2000 species of Milk-vetch. We do not know which one this is.

The name Astragalus for the plant is not to be confused with the ankle bones called astragali which were used as dice for gambling in the ancient world. Heye Village Heye

P 38 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Betula platyphylla bái huà 白桦

九寨沟植物 Golden Bell Lake

Here, above Zechawa Village, at Golden Bell Lake and many other places Bai Hua may be seen. Its bark tends to be dead white, rather than tinged with pink as in the case of Hong Hua (see Chapter 4). And, unlike Hong Hua, it lacks the large hanging strips of peeling bark. © www.otaniproduction.com P 39 Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park zǐ huā suì mǐ jì Cardamine tangutorum 紫花碎米荠

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This low herbaceous plant occurs at all levels in the Park from the woodlands below Virgin Forest to the shoals and lake margins at lower levels. Its purple flowers appear above the pinnate leaves from April until July. The flower and young shoots are tasty to eat, but please do not try in the Park! A medicine is also made from the plants which improves the blood supply, conditions the blood and relieves constipation. A villager told us that their name for Zi Hua Sui Mi Ji is Chu Te'.

Virgin Forest Virgin

P 40 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Carduus acanthoides jié máo fēi lián 节毛飞廉

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A kind of Thistle growing on the sandy strand of the lake shore. The level of the lake rises several metres during the late summer months.

Thistles are but one of the quite different plants that survive on the strand. Some, like Zi Hua Sui Mi Ji (see previous page), can tolerate inundation. Others complete their cycle of flowering and seed setting before they are covered by water.

Because vegetation cover on the beach is not complete, many kinds of Long Lake small plants, that are not commonly seen elsewhere in the Park, find a home here; which makes this flora one of particular interest.

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A similar Thistle is the emblem of Scotland.

Plants with spines are often found where there are grazing animals, for example in pasture. As can be seen from the picture, both flowers and leaves of Thistles would be uncomfortable for their lips and tongues. Below Swan Lake Swan Below

P 42 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Clematis sp. tiě xiàn lián 铁线莲

九寨沟植物 BelowForest Virgin

九寨沟植物

Gan Qing Tie Xian Lian is a favourite in horticulture

The various kinds of Clematis climb by wrapping their leaf stalks around any support. Arrow Bamboo Lake Arrow

P 44 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Clematoclethra scandens subsp. actinidioides mí hóu táo téng shān liǔ 猕猴桃藤山柳

九寨沟植物

A common liana. It hangs on to other stems like Clematis with a twist of its leaf stalks. In this way, and by twining, lianas use

other plants Arrow Bamboo Lake to reach up to the light

九寨沟植物 Arrow Bamboo Lake Arrow The leaves of Dogwoods may change to fiery colours in P 46 autumn, and in winter the twigs to a conspicuous pink. © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Cynoglossum amabile dǎo tí hú 倒提壶

九寨沟植物 Five Fower Lake

A weedy plant found in open ground. The seeds stick to clothing annoyingly. In this way they get spread

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The dazzling blue colour of Delphiniums makes them popular in horticulture. The board walk between Swan Above Arrow Bamboo Lake Arrow Above Lake and Arrow Bamboo Lake is not much used by tourists. There is beauty to be found, and peace and

P 48 quiet; it was here in April 2009 that one tourist found herself face to face with a group of surprised goral! © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Deutzia longifolia var. pingwuensis píng wǔ sōu shū 平武溲疏

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Several species of Deutzia are cultivated for the

beauty of Below Arrow Bamboo Lake their flowers. The top picture shows the only example we saw of Ping Wu Sou Shu that had pink flowers.

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Shuang Dun Mu belongs to the same family as Ren Dong. After flowering its developing fruits are surrounded by large bracts that look like shields. Tiger Lake Shoals Tiger

P 50 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Epipactis mairei dà yè huǒ shāo lán 大叶火烧兰

九寨沟植物 Mirror Lake

Da Ye Huo Shao Lan is the commonest orchid © www.otaniproduction.com to be seen in July. It is found in damp places. P 51 Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park zhōng yà wèi máo Euonymus semenovii 中亚卫矛

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Mirror Lake Mirror The small flowers of this species of Spindle catch the eye because their colour is that of raw meat. The European Spindle Tree was so-called because its straight twigs were the chosen hard kind of wood P 52 from which the sticks called spindles were made, and with which wool fibres were spun into threads. © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park A Grass hé běn kē zhí wù 禾本科植物

九寨沟植物 Zechawa Village

A Grass in the meadow next to Zechawa Village.

© www.otaniproduction.com P 53 Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Grass Family hé běn kē A grass widely present in upper parts of the Park growing in woodlands. Grasses 禾 have wind-pollinated green flowers lacking any petals visible to the naked eye. 本科

九寨沟植物 Below Lower Seasonal Lake Lower Below

P 54 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park zhě yè xuān cǎo Hemerocallis plicata 褶叶萱草

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Day Lilies are so called because each flower comes out for a day only, to be replaced by another flower the next day. The flowers are edible. Hemerocallis has become naturalised

in the USA, Shuzheng Valley and may be seen covering motorway embankments in Pennsylvania State.

九寨沟植 This kind of Hydrangea is a shrub found in woodland. In Xiu Qiu the inner and outer flowers differ from 物 each other. The outer sterile ones are flags that attract insects. Arrow Bamboo Lake Arrow

P 56 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Hypericum ascyron huáng hǎi táng 黄海棠

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The pollen of Saint John's Wort, produced by such a large number of stamens, is sought by bees. It is a modern representative of an early type of flower that has been found as fossils in late Cretaceous rocks in New Jersey, USA.

We saw Huang Hai Zechawa Village Tang at various altitudes. The picture (right) shows it up at Long Lake.

九寨沟植物 In the woodlands and thickets around Five Flower Lake and Golden Bell Lake a tangle of wiry stems grows on the shoulders of others. These lianas do not waste their energy in producing sturdy trunks; instead they use it to produce a burst of thin growth that finds support by clinging to their neighbours.

Many twine in an upward spiral; others use their winding leafstalks to make elbow and hand holds; others again have tendrils with which they grope around for any firm stalk of help, wrap around it, and even pull themselves upwards by spiral contraction.

Lianas may grow so fast and far that it is difficult to see where they have got to - difficult, because their leaves and flowers have reached the top and bask in the sun out of our sight. They are the crafty climbers of the plant world, the Berchemias, the Clematoclethras, the vines, and many others. Some, like Clematis, have a sweet face but a powerful hold on those around them. See the world of men in a tangled

Golden Bell Lake thicket!

P 58 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Ligularia przewalskii zhǎng yè tuó wú 掌叶橐吾

九寨沟植物 Grass Lake

Very common in wet places. The inset picture shows its habitat in various parts of the Park. P 59 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park chuān bǎi hé Lilium davidii 川百合

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A beautiful Lily to be found here and there in the lower parts of the Park.

The one style, six stamens and six colourful tepals of a typical lily flower can be seen nicely in this photograph. Near Park Entrance Near Park

P 60 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Member of the Lily Family bǎi hé 百合

九寨沟植物 Below Lower Lake Seasonal

The berry-like capsules are borne on long stalks above a rosette of shiny strap-shaped leaves.

© www.otaniproduction.com Plants of this 'lily' were found growing in the deep shade of woodland next to the board walk. P 61 Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park pán yè rěn dōng Lonicera tragophylla 盘叶忍冬

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A climbing Honey- suckle, stunningly beautiful in its setting. Rhinoceros Lake Rhinoceros

P 62 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Lonicera lanceolata liǔ yè rěn dōng 柳叶忍冬

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A shrubby species of Honey- suckle.

The same , but with the flowers fully open and with immature fruits. Below Long Lake

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A Honey- suckle that attracts bees by the sweet scent of its flowers.

This Lonicera with its yellow hairy stems was found flourishing where the death of a large fir, seemingly from fungal attack, had allowed more light to reach the forest floor. Mirror Lake Mirror

P 64 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Lonicera kansuensis gān sù rěn dōng 甘肃忍冬

九寨

A very common shrubby honey- 沟 suckle. As we descended through the Park from higher to warmer 植 levels we were able to photograph Gan Su Ren Dong first in flower 物 then in fruit; but we never saw the berries fully ripe. We think they may eventually be yellow in colour. Virgin Forest

九寨沟植物 Above Mirror Lake Above A small herb found here and there in the Park. P 66 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Lythrum salicaria qiān qū cài 千屈菜

九寨沟植物 Below Nuorilong Falls

A harmless marsh plant, but when introduced into the Southern Hemisphere it became an aggressive

© www.otaniproduction.com troublesome weed. The introduction of alien species into the Park has been almost completely avoided. P 67 Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park wēi kǒng cǎo Microula sikkimensis 微孔草

九寨沟植物

Wei Kong Cao is a small herb in the Borage Family which is widely present in the Park. Those readers who have enjoyed a gin- and-tonic cocktail decorated with a borage flower will recognise Microula sikkimensis

Below Swan Lake Swan Below in its bluer forms as a miniature version of it.

P 68 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Monotropa hypopitys sōng xià lán 松下兰

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Not possessing any green pigment, Yellow Bird’s Nest is an unusual Flowering Plant in that it feeds on humus in the soil in the way that fungi do. Mirror Lake

九寨沟植物 Below Arrow Bamboo Lake Below means orchid, and is a Nepalese name for this kind of plant. P70 ‘Orchis’ ‘chu sua’ © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Oreorchis nana yìng yè shān lán 硬叶山兰

九寨沟植物 Below Panda Waterfall

Oreorchis is a genus of terrestrial orchids with a small number of species that is confined to China and the Himalaya mountains. Epiphytic tree-dwelling types of orchid were not seen by us in Jiuzhai Valley.

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A common herb flowering in July in the lower parts of the Park. The Latin species name 'hastatus' means spear- shaped, and refers to the appearance of the leaves. Shuzheng Valley

P 72 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Parnassia sp. méi huā cǎo shǔ 梅花草属

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Yes, Grass of Parnassus does grow – one kind of Mei Hua Cao does – on Mount Parnassos in Greece, the home of the nine beautiful Muses, source of inspiration in art and poetry, literature and laughter, song and dancing. So Greek legend has it. BelowForest Virgin

So much grew there that the cattle ate it, just as they eat grass elsewhere.

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This beautiful shrub is not uncommon here in the tangled shrubberies. It is closely related to the widely grown tree called Pao Tong, which has been revered in China for centuries; for the latter an English name Arrow Bamboo Lake Arrow is Foxglove Tree. P 74 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Pedicularis sp. mǎ xiān hāo 马先蒿

九寨沟植物 Below Lake Upper Seasonal

A handsome herb which is a hemi-parasite; that is, it has green leaves for photosynthesis, but also takes water and mineral nutrients by attaching itself to the roots of other plants.

九寨沟植物

A common hemiparasite in wet places, distinguished from other species of Pedicularis in the Park by the Arrow Bamboo Lake Arrow violet-coloured projection of the yellow petals. P 76 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Philadelphus sp. shān méi huā 山梅花

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Shan Mei Hua is grown in horticulture for the sweet scent of its flowers.

Its English name of Mock Orange is given because Arrow Bamboo Lake it is thought to smell like the flower of the Citrus Orange tree.

九寨沟植物

Five Flower Lake Flower Five Common Reed (Phragmites) forms reed beds in several of the lakes. In Reed Lake there are pure patches of both Common Reed and of other reedlike plants, each

P 78 kind tending to grow in its own pure stand unmixed with the others. © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park zhōng huá huā rěn Polemonium chinense var. chinense 中华花荵

九寨沟植物 Grass Lake

Why the English name ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ ? Perhaps because the leaves are ladder-like and the flowers are as blue as the heaven above. In Genesis we read that Jacob saw a ladder with angels going up and down between earth and heaven. Nice name for a nice plant much grown in gardens.

九寨沟植物

Viviparous Bistort is abundant in wet places. Amongst its flowers little 'live' plants are born in place of ordinary flowers. These bulbous plantlets then fall off into the water. Below Virgin Forest Virgin Below

P 80 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Populus simonii xiǎo yè yáng 小叶杨

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This Poplar Tree grows beside or in rivers. It is one of 71 species of poplar found in China, of which 47 are endemic; that is, they are found nowhere else in the world. Tiger Lake

九寨沟植物

Wintergreen is found growing under pine trees where dead pine needles accumulate and rot slowly to produce Below Panda Waterfall Panda Below a soil rich in acid humus. Wintergreen oil, obtained from various Pyrola species, is used for its tonic properties.

P 82 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Salvia paosingensis C.Y.Wu bǎo xīng shǔ wěi cǎo 宝兴鼠尾草

九寨沟植物 Below Swan Lake

A common woodland Sage. Flowers are white, purple or violet in colour. If it were ever felt necessary to check whether this plant in the picture is correctly named, it could be compared with C.Y.Wu's original description and with the preserved plant from which the description was made. In this book we have not thought it necessary to quote the authority for all the names. However, we would be grateful for any errors in our naming to be pointed out to us, and for your supply of names for plants that we could not identify.

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A Stonecrop to be found growing on and among rocks. Stonecrops belong to a family of succulent plants whose fleshy leaves hold a store of water. This enables them to survive dry periods when growing in places Nuorilong Waterfall that have no depth of soil.

P 84 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Sorbaria arborea zhēn zhū méi 珍珠梅

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This shrub is found throughout the Park, even in the midst of swirling, rushing waters at

Pearl Shoals. Below Arrow Bamboo Lake

Sorbaria is one of several genera belonging to the Rose Family in which the small white flowers are grouped attractively in a conspicuous mass display.

九寨沟植物

The small flowers are borne close together in a bunch which makes them more easily seen by insects. They are particularly attractive to flies.

On the other hand, this beetle seems to have enjoyed a leaf meal. Virgin Forest Virgin

P 86 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Thalictrum spp. táng sōng cǎo 唐松草

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Several different kinds of

Thalictrum, or Meadow Rue, Lake Upper Seasonal occur throughout the Park.

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In this family of plants (The Apiaceae or the Umbellifers) the flower stalks spread like the spokes of an umbrella in an arrangement called an umbel. Closer inspection shows that in this plant the end of each 'spoke' bears another little umbel as well, making it a compound umbel. Virgin Forest Virgin

P 88 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Veratrum nigrum lí lú 藜芦

九寨沟植物 Above Lake Upper Seasonal

The handsome deep purple flowers of Li Lu are borne in tall spikes above coarse conspicuous leaves. Being extremely poisonous it is not eaten by animals, but does have some medicinal uses.

九寨沟植物

Tufted Vetch is a herb that climbs by means of its tendrils.

It is found either native or naturalised. It may be grown as a fodder crop, but can also be a weed when it grows up fast in a crop of grain. Five Flower Lake Flower Five

P 90 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Chapter 3 - Fruitfulness

“See, I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.” Genesis 1:29

In Chapter 1 it was asked, “What are flowers for?” And the answer given was that a flower is an organ of reproduction, a means of making seeds. Conifers, like Flowering Plants, are also seed plants. It is however only the Flowering Plants that clothe their 九 seeds in fruits. We need to ask more questions. What are fruits?Are all fruits like oranges, papayas and melons? What are 寨 fruits for? Why do fruits annoy us with all those seeds inside?And, do fruits just exist 沟 for us to eat? 植

Take conifers again. They make naked seeds in their cones; then, at full term, they tip them out naked into 物 the world. So conifer seeds are seeds that have never known the protection of having been in a 'womb'; they are naked before birth and naked after birth.

Now take flowers for contrast. After 结 pollination, when the flower fades, the ovary swells because of conception. It is 果 this 'swelling belly' which contains the womb – rather, which is the womb. And botanists call it a fruit. And the seed or seeds, which are inside it, are not naked

but clothed by the fruit. This botanical Chapter 3 - Fruitfulness 'fruit' may indeed be fleshy, something like a tomato. Or else it may be some hard, dry inedible structure that rattles in the wind thus scattering its seeds, or it may fall off and get buried in the soil. Yes, it is a strange sort of 'womb' that may get separated from the mother plant and go wandering off on its own! How then is the seed given its birth? Here are three ways. The fruit of the orange is tasty, but the seeds are bitter and get thrown away by the eater; that is one way. The hard case of the mountain almond protects the seed inside from hungry mice, that is another way. In the dandelion each little fruit grows an umbrella-like parachute on which it floats away in the wind; this is a third way. And there are other ways. There are fruits which fire the seeds like bullets, fruits which dig into the soil, fruits which float on water, and so on.

九寨沟植物

The picture shows clearly the characteristic fruit of a maple, which has two one- seeded halves. The seeds are protected inside a hard case which is the wall of the fruit. Part of the wall also grows out into a wing, which helps in the dispersal of the seed. Arrow Bamboo Lake Arrow

P 92 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Acer davidii qīng zhà qì 青榨槭

九寨沟植物 The main picture shows how the fruit of maples is made up of two one-seeded halves each with a wing. The two halves separate when ripe, and fall to the ground spinning as they go. Sparkle Lake Sparkle

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Seeds are packed with starch or oil and other food reserves, unlike the tiny spores of Lower Plants.

This food provides the energy and material for the growing seedling that helps it to push through other vegetation.

The photograph shows a maple seedling getting a good start in life by growing successfully through a mat of mosses and lichens.

Below Swan Lake Swan Below

P 94 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Anemone tomentosa dà huǒ cǎo 大火草

九寨沟植物 Arrow Bamboo Lake

The plumed seeds are collected and used for stuffing mattresses.

Burdock is an example of a plant with a range all across Eurasia. The plants in the Park 牛 are indistinguishable from those found in Britain. I wonder if children's antics are also 蒡 as widespread? The dead flower-heads containing seeds bear hooks like velcro. If they are thrown at people in fun, they stick fast to clothing or hair. Woolly animals like sheep or wild mammals must be important agents for the dispersal of their seeds – and perhaps also children!

九寨沟植物

The scientific name Arctium derives from the Greek word for a bear, arctos, whose coarse appearance it is supposed to resemble. Botanical names are two, first the genus, second the species. So Burdock is a kind of Arctium, and Arctium lappa is the species of it that is found in the Park. The Swedish scientist Linnaeus established the two-name system. His description of Burdock was also the first, so the L. after the Heye Village Heye name means that his description is the accepted definition of this plant.

P 96 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park yáng chǐ tiān mén dōng Asparagus filicinus 羊齿天门冬

九寨沟植物 Upper Seasonal Lake Upper Seasonal

This member of the Lily Family is widely present in the Park.

九寨沟植物

An abundant liana, whose berries are eaten by villagers. Golden Bell Lake

P 98 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Bromus japonicus què mài 雀麦

九寨沟植物

This grass may have no important use, but

the seeds Meadow south of Reed Lake of other grasses such as rice, maize (corn) and wheat form the staple of the majority of the world's population.

© www.otaniproduction.com P 99 Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park xiǎo què huā Campylotropis polyantha 小 Xiao Que Hua belongs to the Pea Family, whose fruits are pods. Very many members of this family are grown as crops, such as 雀 soy and other beans, and pulses. They are important for human 花 diet because of their large nutritious seeds.

九寨沟植物 Golden Bell Lake

P100 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Carex sp. tái cǎo 苔草

九寨沟植物

This handsome Sedge grows beside the stream running north from the carpark.

Sedges are different from grasses; for example, sedges usually have triangular stems. Other species of sedge are found among the 'grasses' of Grass Lake, and among the 'reeds' of Reed Lake. On the Tibetan Plateau some of the best grazing for yak Mirror Lake herds is provided by sedges growing in damp valleys.

九寨沟植物 The picture shows developing seeds which will become plumed as they ripen, thus enabling them to be blown away by the wind. There is in England a species of Clematis whose tangled growth is so covered with the white feathery seeds that it is given the name of Old Man's Beard. Mirror Lake Mirror

P102 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Geranium platyanthum máo ruǐ lǎo guàn cǎo 毛蕊老鹳草

九寨沟植物 Arrow Bamboo Lake

Crane's-bills are so-called because of the shape of the fruit, which is like a long beak.

九寨沟植物

A type of Hogweed.

Plants of this family (Apiaceae) are distinguished from each other by their fruits.

Heracleum has flattened fruits. A curious feature is that the petals are of different sizes, and the larger ones are almost Y-shaped. Below Virgin Virgin Forest Below

P104 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park rěn dōng shǔ Lonicera sp. 忍冬属

九寨沟植物 Shuzheng Valley

A very small-leaved shrubby honeysuckle or Ren Dong. The typical fruit of a honeysuckle is a berry.

九寨沟植物 Below Arrow Bamboo Lake Arrow Below A kind of wild apple species. P106 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Osmorhiza aristata var. laxa shū yè xiāng gēn qín 疏叶香根芹

九寨沟植物 Below Swan Lake

Another plant of the Umbellifer Family. The umbels of this little plant bear narrowly club-shaped fruits.

P107 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park hú lì Quercus aliena 槲栎

九寨沟植物

The only kind of deciduous Oak Tree that will be seen by tourists.

The big seeds of Hu Li have starch and are edible. It is said that bears eat them in Tangjiahe Reserve, N. Sichuan. Below Five Flower Lake Flower Five Below © www.otaniproduction.com P108 Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Rubus xanthocarpus huáng guǒ xuán gōu zi 黄果悬钩子

九寨沟植物

This Rubus grows only about half a metre tall.

It has pale orange edible fruits ripening

from Mirror Lake mid-July onwards.

九寨沟植物

This Currant has a fruit like the cultivated Gooseberry in appearance.

It is perhaps the only Ribes in the Park to have sharp thorns. Maybe the fruit needs to be ripe before any animal would venture to eat it, and by then the seeds would be fully formed and ready to be dispersed in the animal's droppings. Long Lake Long

P110 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Ribes spp. chá biāo zǐ shǔ 茶藨子属

九寨沟植物

Several kinds of Currant occur at different levels in the Park Mirror Lake Shoals Mirror

九寨沟植物

Below Virgin Virgin Forest Below There are several species of Rose in the Park.They all have thorns, and they all have hips for fruits.

P112 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Rosa sp. qiáng wēi 蔷薇

九寨沟植物 The top picture is of a rose flower whose petals have fallen off. The lower picture shows the same rose with its petals. In the centre of the flower is the ovary, which will next develop into a fruit containing seeds. Many roses are grown in horticulture for the beauty of their flowers, or of their fruits, and even for their thorns! Below Arrow Bamboo Lake

九寨沟植物

A herbaceous species of Elder whose bruised shoots have a very rank odour.

This feature and its rather coarse herbaceous foliage make it unattractive as a plant until the bright orange fruits appear at the end of July. Meadow south of Reed Lake Meadow

P114 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Thlaspi arvense xī míng 菥冥

九寨沟植物 Mirro Lake

Penny Cress is a weed of cultivated land; but its seeds are also a source of oil. P115 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park

pú gōng yīng Taraxacum sp. 蒲公英

九寨沟植物

The English name Dandelion is a corruption of the French one meaning 'tooth of the lion'.

See how the teeth on the edge of the leaves suggest a lion's fearsome denture. Actually there are many old English country names for it like 'Piss-a-loo' and 'Wet-a-beds', because of its effect on the urinary system when it is eaten. It is diuretic in action; that is, it causes urine to be secreted.

The roots are used locally both as a vegetable, and as a medicine to cool the blood and counteract nosebleeding.

The leaves are eaten as salad.

A use for the roots in Europe in times of shortage of coffee has been to roast and grind them so as to make a coffee substitute; or, as they say in Germany, ersatz kaffee.

When broken, the plant exudes a milk-white juice. Such a juice, produced by many plants, is called latex. The latex from the rubber tree is the source of natural rubber. In Russia, isolated by war from all tropical sources of rubber, unsuccessful attempts were once made to make it from dandelion latex instead.

The beauty of the dandelion is ignored by most of us. It flowers in spring on sunny days, but remains closed on dull ones. Later it produces seeds which float in the wind on little umbrella-like structures, and these seeds germinate as unwanted weeds in every nook and cranny. So beautiful on good days, on others so unloved for its sulky fickleness and unsociable habits. Just like some humans! Five Flower Lake Flower Five

P116 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Viburnum dilatatum var. dilatatum jiá mí 荚蒾

九寨沟植物

The berries of some Viburnums turn from green to red, and then finally black as they ripen.

Jia Mi is grown in gardens for this feature.

Other kinds of Chinese Viburnum

are popular Mirror Lake in horticulture for their flowers and scent.

九寨沟植物

Sichuan Pepper is a kind of Zanthoxylum much like this.

The berries have an effect like electricity on the lips and tongue!

Although the cultivated form of Hua Jiao is so widely used as a spice in Chinese cooking, there are parts of the world where it is quite unknown. However it is valued in Nepal, where it is called Timur. Tiger Lake Tiger

P118 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park

Chapter 4 - Productivity

“You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.” Isaiah 55:12

Have not the mountains 九 and forests always lived in peace? Isaiah questions 寨 the truth of this assumption. He declares that they await 沟 a day which is yet to come, a day of harmonious 植 co-existence with man. 物

Regrettably the land, which should be used sustainably, is instead exploited; and it groans. But at Jiuzhaigou such harvesting 生 of the forests has been ended so that peace may be restored. It is a sample of what has 产 been, and of what could be again. Lessons can be learned about the part that man should play. Chapter 4 - Productivity For in this chapter we shall meet plants which have traditionally been used and still are being used by villagers outside the Park. We'll meet their use as timber, as fuel, as food, for fodder, as fibres, and in medicine; and their role in folklore and religion. They include uses which were not aways destructive, when man was part of nature and he took no more than he needed.

The tourist in Jiu Zhai Valley is urged to enjoy the lovely surroundings, while keeping to the well-maintained boardwalks; and to take away nothing but memories and photographs.

Then when night falls, the wild pig and the hog badger will emerge to continue rooting in the turf. When winter snow closes the road, the goral will return to browse in the clearings. Nature is left to itself once again

© www.otaniproduction.com and all is quiet. Quiet? Is it so? What is that singing I hear in the trees, that sounds like a clapping for joy? P119 Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Betula albosinensis hóng huà 红桦

Chinapaper Birch, found in many parts of the Park, is one of several kinds of 九 birch trees that are 寨 native to Sichuan. 沟 And, because 植 it is decorative, 物 it is also grown in horticulture, for example in Europe. It has pink or reddish- brown trunks with large flakes of semi- detached bark that is like paper. It is in fact possible to write on it. In Canada and in China birch bark has been used for the waterproof outer skin of canoes. A Tibetan name for Hong Hua is ‘Thick Skin Tree’ . TIMBER - The wood of HongHua is hard, dense and rather brittle; in colour the heartwood is pinkish or light brown. These are qualities making this species a timber tree of commercial importance. Outside the Park it is mainly young growth of Hong Hua that is to be seen, and there the villagers

Below Long Lake Long Below use the straight poles for rough construction, or else as fuel. In the hills around, such small wood is stacked in piles along with other small timbers, and left to dry out for later use.

P120 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Betula albosinensis hóng huà 红桦

九寨沟植物 Below Long Lake

九寨沟植物

A herbaceous climber belonging to the Bell Flower Family.

The roots are used as a tonic herb in TCM. Below Heye Village Heye Below

P122 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Dactylis glomerata yā máo

Cock's Foot grass, here growing on previously cultivated land. 鸭 It is good grazing and fodder for animals. 茅

九寨沟植物 Zechawa Village

九寨沟植物

The young leaves are often purple. Violet coloured flowers begin Five Flower Lake Flower Five to appear in July. Jagdig, as they call it, is used in Tibetan Medicine.

九寨沟植物 Rhinoceros Lake

A beautiful Lily. Many kinds of Chinese lily have been used in hybridisation programs to create some of the most hardy and popular hybrids grown in gardens.

九寨沟植物

English Names: Sea Buckthorn, Seaberry, Siberian Pineapple, Alpine Sandthorn

This very common thorny shrub is used around Songpan to prevent soil erosion.

It produces in autumn a conspicuous crop of yellow berries known for their healthy properties and strong taste. Genghis Khan and his armies drank the juice to increase stamina and speed up the healing of wounds.

In recent time Russian and Chinese scientists have shown that there is an extraordinary quantity of antioxidants in the berries.

Additionally the seeds contain an oil which is of a quality unequalled by any other dietary oil, and has the effect of reducing cholesterol.

So Sha Ji has a claim to be in the very top rank of superfoods.

Huge quantities of Sha Ji berries are collected annually in Aba Prefecture. Mirror Lake Mirror

九寨沟植物 Mirror Lake

shān yè zǎo Hippuris vulgaris 杉叶藻

九寨沟植物

The submerged shoots of Mare's-tail are good for aquatic life.

The picture also shows Equisetum sp. and a grass.

Examination of both photographs will reveal that Shan Ye Zao has shoots of two quite different kinds, fully submerged ones that are dull green, and bright green stiffly erect emergent ones.

The latter bear the small green flowers.

FRESHENING OF AIR AND WATER

All green plants take carbon dioxide out of the air, whether they be the trees of the Amazon rainforest or water plants like Hippuris.

Both replace carbon dioxide with oxygen, and in so doing trees freshen the air - the clean invigorating air of these valleys; while Hippuris also oxygenates the water - whose clarity and purity are such a feature of Jiuzhaigou. Arrow Bamboo Lake Arrow

九寨沟植物 Arrow Bamboo Lake

pí jiǔ huā Humulus lupulus 啤酒花

九寨沟植物

The Hop plant is a liana whose very rough stems are the means by which its long new green shoots cling to the surrounding vegetation.

The picture shows it growing in a thicket beside Five Flower Lake.

Hops find use in China in T.C.M. for treating digestive problems, cystitis and pulmonary tuberculosis. The bitter principle present in the flowering shoots is used for flavouring beer and for its preservative qualities.

The wild hop plant found in Gansu and northern Sichuan may, as indicated by its DNA, be a distinct endemic variety of Humulus lupulus that has arisen in China. Five Flower Lake Flower Five

pí jiǔ huā Humulus lupulus 啤酒花

九寨沟植物

FLAVOURING OF BEER

Hops have a long history of use worldwide.

In China they are both collected from the wild and cultivated on a large scale, especiallyin the Qingdao part of Shandong, and also in Xinjiang.

Within recent times up to 70 tons per year have been produced locally in the counties of Nanping, Maoxian and Mianzhu.

The author's English home county was at one time famous for its hop Five Flower Lake gardens, and his grandfather George Foster Clark was made Hop Comptroller for Kent county during the First World War.

This meant that he had the responsibility for deciding how much hops should be grown, and of fixing the price that would be paid for them.

luán shù Koelreuteria paniculata 栾树

九寨沟植物

This ornamental tree is native to China, Korea and Japan.

Two Chinese Golden Rain Trees may be seen growing near the ticket office at the Park Entrance. It is also found near Shuzheng Village, in the Zharu Valley and elsewhere. The author of this book first encountered Luan Shu in Kew Gardens, England.

The flora of China is so rich that beautiful Chinese plants have found their way into horticulture all over the world. Plant hunters from France, Britain and America have explored Sichuan in particular for its treasures of ornamental plants, and the mountains of Sichuan are described as having both the richest, but even now the least well known, of Northern Hemisphere temperate floras. So there are doubtless yet more species waiting to be discovered.

Luan Shu is much used for street planting in Chinese cities, as in Chang'an Avenue in Beijing. Likewise, many other native species would be good choices for planting by roadsides and in gardens. China has a suitable tree or shrub for every location. Let her take pride in them, and not plant foreign species unnecessarily.

The flowers are used in TCM for the eyes, to treat epiphora - which is excessive

Bonsai Shoals tear production - and conjunctivitis.

九寨沟植物 Park Entrance

huǒ róng cǎo shǔ Leontopodium sp. 火绒草属

九寨沟植物

The well-known German name of this plant is Edelweiss.

Coming out in early July, the silvery starlike flowers of this small herb can be seen here and there in the Park, as on the stretch of boardwalk between Swan Lake and Arrow Bamboo Lake. Several other kinds of edelweiss may also be seen.

The more conspicuous, but no more beautiful, edelweiss of the Swiss mountains, much loved by everyone, is a kind of emblem of Switzerland.

And its name is known the world over because of the song of that name in 'The Sound of Music'.

We wonder which plant tourists would choose as the emblem of Jiu Zhai National Park?

We ourselves have chosen Arrow Bamboo, for reasons given at the close of the book. Upper Seasonal Lake

九寨沟植物 BelowForest Virgin

九寨沟植物

Alfalfa is the Spanish name for this non-grassy, deeprooted herb which is much grown as a fodder crop for livestock in the USA, Argentina, Australia, South Africa and the Middle East. The adjective ‘sativa' in its scientific name means 'cultivated'. It is thought that it arose from wild ancestors in West Asia. The photograph was taken in the meadow to the north of Heye Village where the absence of trees allows the growth of a rich flora of light-demanding herbs.

The plants in turn support a great variety of animal life, such as birds, mammals and insects. As for alfalfa, it is widespread in the Park mainly on disturbed ground such as the banks of the roads, which suggests that it is a relatively recent introduction. It does not seem to be spreading aggressively beyond such sites and causing a threat to the native vegetation. Indeed it may perform a valuable function in stabilising the soils of the banks and verges.

FODDER FOR ANIMALS

Being a legume, alfalfa fixes nitrogen from the air, so making its cultivation less dependent on fertilisers. And on good soils it is the highest yielding of all fodder plants because of its high protein content. As such it is fed to dairy cattle in particular.

Apart from cultivation, the collection of wild plants for fodder is widely practised; forests and jungles may provide the bulk of the fodder needed when crops are growing but animals have to be kept tied up. Clear felling of forest and unsustainable destruction of wild vegetation may seriously affect the livelihood of villages. Heye Village Heye

九寨沟植物 Heye Village

九寨沟植物

An important herb in Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chong Lou's function is to clear away heat so as to expel toxic substances. Among its extensive applications is its use to treat liver, stomach, lung, and nose and throat cancers. The way it works is explained as the clearing away of heat so as to expel toxic substances.

The commercial exploitation of Chong Lou, as opposed to mainly regional use, began from about 1940 onwards. Since then, in Sichuan and Yunnan, where a large proportion of local household income may derive from the collecting of wild medicinal herbs, there has been serious over-collection of Chong Lou's underground parts and a danger of the plant's extinction.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CONSERVATION

Clearly, Paris and other medicinal herbs must be conserved by sustainable use; or else by other measures. In Jiu Zhai National Park all collecting is forbidden. This allows the natural population to recover. The photograph was taken in the Zechawa Valley.

There are now serious attempts in China at cultivating wild herbs. These range from a local initiative at Pingwu, to a large community project at Ludian in Yunnan, and herbal nurseries are being established by at least one big TCM manufacturing company. In each of these Paris polyphylla is one of the herbs being grown Above Upper Seasonal Lake Above © www.otaniproduction.com P138 Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Paris polyphylla var. stenophylla xiá yè chòng lóu 狭叶重楼

九寨沟植物 Above Lake Upper Seasonal

yún shān Picea asperata 云杉

九寨沟植物

Cu Zhi Yun Shan is an important forest tree, and a common component of the coniferous forests of Jiuzhaigou National Park. In height it can reach 45 metres and provides valuable timber. It is much planted in the government re- afforestation programme. For example the bare slopes around Songpan are extensively planted with Cu Zhi Yun Shan in mixture with Sha Ji whose sharp thorns give it protection from the grazing of livestock until the soft growing tips of the spruce have risen above the reach of horses and yak.

AFFORESTATION

The coniferous forests of Sichuan and South-Eastern Tibet are among the most concentrated sources of timber in the world, and have as a consequence been much logged.

However China has set a very fine example in planting and replanting far more forest in recent years than any other Asian country has done.

Most other countries suffered loss of forest cover during the same period. This is an extremely important programme whose effect will be to combat erosion, preserve soils and protect water catchment areas. It will provide habitat for wildlife and medicinal herbs, it will supply traditional forest products for the use of villagers, and maybe even modify climate for the better by influencing the rainfall. Below Virgin Virgin Forest Below

九寨沟植物 Five Flower Lake

This picture of Xia Ku Cao was taken in the grassy area west of Five Flower Lake, where there is an abundance of species thriving in the open habitat, some of them being important herbs. Known in English as Selfheal or Heal-all, this small non-woody herb is found in 16 of China's provinces and all across northern Eurasia, also in N. Africa and in N. America. In the folklore of many countries it has a reputation as a cure for all manner of complaints. Flowers and leaves are the parts used. Extract of Prunella is commercially available for use in TCM.

HARVESTING OF MEDICINAL HERBS

Over 4000 species of Sichuan's native plants are of use to man, and Sichuan is the Chinese province with the greatest harvesting of wild plants for their medicinal properties. Many people make their livng in this way. And among the medicinal raw materials for sale in Chengdu's busy marts, Xia Ku Cao is one of the four best- selling herbs. © www.otaniproduction.com P141 Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park

fāng zhī bǎi Sabina saltuaria 方枝柏

九寨沟植物

The Du Bi Lao Ren, or One-armed Old Man Tree, at Long Lake is a juniper of this kind. It also occurs below the Virgin Forest.

FUMIGATION RITES, AND FUEL

Junipers are valued as incense plants. Along with other plants they are burned at Tibetan sacred sites, and especially during cleansing ceremonies. Their durable timber has also been used in temple construction and for the large containers found in kitchens, as in the monasteries around Lhasa.

The Tibetan junipers have been almost wiped out from the locations where they used to grow, as indicated by the research work of German botanists Georg and Sabina Miehe. The decline was greatest about 600 years ago, but among the trees that remain individuals with ages up to 1300 years have been found. These Tibetan junipers include Sabina convallium, which is another species recorded from Jiuzhaigou National Park.

Miehe concludes that there is great potential in dry inhospitable places for re- afforestation with junipers, and for their use as fuel. Below Long Lake Long Below

九寨沟植物 Below Long Lake

九寨沟植物

PHARMACEUTICALS

It was in a kind of willow in 1827 that salicin was discovered. Later, in 1899 in Germany, salicylic acid was synthesised, which is an ingredient of aspirin tablets, and a mild painkiller.

Plants are chemical factories making a variety of chemicals, a huge number of them being unique. Some are poisonous, some are scented, some give flavour to our food, others cure our illnesses or give us relief from pain. It is plants that provide directly most Chinese medicines, while others again provide unique chemical 'building blocks',or molecules, which pharmaceutical chemists then turn into medicines.

On a sunny day, the 16th March 2009, among the first of any flowers to open was a willow growing beside Tiger Lake. Just four or five of their catkin flowers were open, yet they had attracted the attention of the first honeybees of the season – see how flower and bee met together at the dying of winter! There were no cell phones to bring about this uncanny rendezvous.

There are many kinds of willow, or Salix, in the Park, and an expert is needed to name them all. 'Salix spp' is a shorthand way of writing ' several species of Salix'.

Virgin Forest Virgin Willow at Tiger Lake, March 09

P144 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Salix spp. liǔ shù FOREST PRODUCTS When cut back to the ground there 柳 are willows that produce long 树 straight bendy shoots;in the case of British osier willows they may be three metres long. Villagers in the National Park use the pliability of such shoots in the same way as string for tying cross pieces to the upright poles of their fences. Baskets, chairs and sculptures may be woven from them.

九寨沟植物 Reed Lake

Willow sculpture of Lotus Lily Fruit at Kew Gardens, England.

九寨沟植物

Di Yu has been used in TCM from very early times to treat both internal and external bleeding Zechawa Village Zechawa by its astringent action. It also arrests discharges such as diarrhoea, and heals burns. P146 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Stellera chamaejasme láng dú huā 狼毒花

九寨沟植物

This somewhat striking plant is found in the Park on

scree and other rather stony open sites. Elsewhere BelowForest Virgin its presence is often an indication that pasture has been overgrazed. “Cursed is the ground .... . It will produce thorns and thistles for you.” Genesis 3:17,18 .

Overuse of impoverished land frequently results in a take-over by unfriendly plants, those too spiny like thistles, and those so toxic like Lang Du, that livestock cannot eat them. But one herder says that goats will eat the flowers of Lang Du. FOLK USE OF RESOURCES

Mankind's ingenuity has overcome many unfriendly situations. It has done so in the case of Lang Du by even exploiting its very toxicity. In this way Tibetans employ it as a vermifuge medicine for driving the parasitic worms out of livestock. The roots of Stellera are also used in papermaking.

© www.otaniproduction.com P147 Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park mǎ líng shǔ Solanum tuberosum The potato plant which is grown 马 in agriculture spread around the 铃 world from South America in the 16th century, probably originating 薯 from a centre in Chile. It reached China towards the end of the Ming Dynasty, and China is now the world's biggest potato-producing country. Potatoes are the world's fourth largest food crop. The name 'potato' comes to us from Amerindian names via Spanish.

FOOD PLANTS

The forests around Jiuzhaigou Valley do not produce much food that is suitable to keep a human 九 alive. There are berries and fungi, but no staple food to provide the 寨 energy that a person needs. There are carbohydrates in pine seeds 沟 and lily bulbs, but these are scarce or difficult to collect. Like lily bulbs, 植 the potato we eat is an underground storage organ. Its tuber is 物 rich in energy-giving starch. A good crop is produced, even in rather poor soils. It must then be stored in a frost-free place. The picture shows potato cultivated by villagers who live in the Park.

This white chorten has powerful meaning in Tibetan culture. It is an art form which is found from Indonesia to Pakistan, and from Sri Lanka to Nepal. Zechawa Village Zechawa

九寨沟植物 Zechawa Village

九寨沟植物

'Sp' is shorthand for 'species'. So Urtica sp means 'some kind of Urtica' or nettle. We are not sure of the correct species name. This plant was seen below Swan Lake.

Whichever species it is, don't touch!

Nettles give an irritating rash to the skin. It may seem surprising therefore that they are food for the caterpillars of various butterflies, and even for humans! They make a good green vegetable rich in minerals when boiled.

The famous Tibetan hermit Milarepa survived for a long time on a diet of nettle soup.

FIBRES

In nettle stems there is a strong fibre. It has been used both in times past to make clothing, and more recently as well, in wartime Germany for example. Below Swan Lake Swan Below

P150 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park Valeriana officinalis xié cǎo Xie Cao is a herb from whose dried roots a remedy is prepared for the 缬 treatment of anxiety and insomnia. 草 It has been used in TCM for many centuries and also is well-known across the world. It is a safe, mild, fast-acting sedative and improves the quality of sleep. The species name 'officinalis' means ‘used in medicine'.

九寨沟植物 Long Lake FOLK MEDICINE

Modern scientific investigation of herbs such as Xie Cao focuses on the isolation of those chemicals contained in them that bring about identifiable reactions in the human body. In Xie Cao, as in other herbs,a variety of active chemicals is present; each herb is like a chemical factory, with its own unique combination of products. The medical traditions of different cultures, even the folk medicine of a small tribal group, may show us where to start looking for that new drug that is needed. There is huge potential in the plants of our world. It is as though they have been provided for us to discover in them the cure for each of our illnesses!

What a strange plant this is, with its forked, succulent, leafless green stem!

It may look like some kind of seaweed, but in fact it is a 槲 flowering plant, which in English 寄 is called Mistletoe. 生 It is a shrub that 九 attaches itself to other plants and 寨 sucks their sap. In the picture it is 沟 seen sprouting from the branch 植 of a maple. It has joined up its 物 feeding tubes to the maple's tubes.

This way it both obtains its water and its salts, and also finds a place high up in the sunshine. Think how kings sitting in comfort on their lofty thrones have been described as parasites feeding on their subject people. Well, that is what Mistletoe is; it is a parasite.

FOLK CUSTOMS

In England too we have Mistletoe. As an ancient custom we hang it up in our houses at Christmas time. Then, if a boy should find himself standing next to a girl under a piece of mistletoe, he is allowed to kiss her. Or indeed, vice versa, she may kiss him, as once happened to the author!

The use of plants in folk customs continues, sometimes just for fun, but sometimes in rituals with

Mirror Lake Mirror a religious significance; maybe, in Mistletoe's case, it was once used in fertility rites that are now long forgotten.

九寨沟植物 Mirror Lake

九寨沟植物

This is the only kind of bamboo in the Park, and was the chief food for the Giant Panda. So, when the bamboos died, it was also the end for the local pandas.

Bamboos put all their energy into one big flowering and seeding event. After years of quietly growing, there comes a time when suddenly and mysteriously every bamboo plant produces grass-like flowers (for bamboos are just big grasses). Cut them down, burn them; you can't stop them. They have to flower. Flowers even push up from underground. Such is the urge to reproduce.

Suppose every man and woman waited until they were 30 years old before they had children. It is a bit like that. But in the case of bamboos they all do it at more or less one and the same time! And in the case of bamboos, after flowering they all die!

Some kinds of bamboo grow for 60 years. Then they flower and die. Arrow Bamboo Lake Arrow © www.otaniproduction.com P154 Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park

Arrow Bamboo flowered and died in the 1970s and 1980s. And that was the time when Giant Pandas ceased to be seen in the Park. Now, once again, there are bamboos, but they are small. They have grown from the seed produced at that time. Each year they will increase in size and density, until once again, so we hope, they can support a population of browsing pandas.

FOOD CHAINS

What was that squirrel, or that butterfly, that you saw in the Park? Did you know that it might have just one kind of plant 九 on which it depends mainly for its food? What if a plant like bamboo or a habitat 寨 like pine forest were destroyed? The consequences are difficult to assess, and we humans are slow or reluctant to work 沟 them out but are ever quick to wreak destruction. However, in the Park a 植 precious opportunity has been taken to look after the world in which we live and 物 of which we are a part. It is a chance to learn how to be good stewards of the environment. 结论大熊猫 End Word © www.otaniproduction.com P156 Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park

箭竹

九寨沟植物

结论

As bamboos stand for longevity in Chinese thought, so too in the forest the bamboo represents the endurance of plants. Plants remain from year to year. They are shelter for animals; they provide food, because almost all food chains begin with End Word plants. Without bamboo there would be no Giant Panda, which in turn is emblem of wildlife in Sichuan, in China, indeed in all the world. We therefore have chosen for symbolic plant the Arrow Bamboo to be our emblem of Jiuzhaigou National Park. P157 © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park

Authors - David Zhang Jiquan and Brian Foster Clark Sennitt FLS

Images provided by David Zhang Jiquan

Photo editing by Otani Studio Concept Production Limited.

Page Layout and by Otani Studio Concept Production Limited.

Design and Art Work by Otani Studio Concept Production Limited. 九 Chinese Text and PinYin by Otani Studio Concept Production Limited. 寨

沟 Acknowledgements 答谢植物 Mr Zhang Xiao Ping (JiuZhaiGou National Park Director) and Mr Li Shao Jian (Former Vice Director of JiuZhaiGou National Park), particular thanks are owing for permission to undertake this project 答 in JiuZhaiGou National Park during the year 2009. Warm appreciation is felt for the welcome and help given by many 谢 in the Park over this period.

Mr Cai Young Xiu (Vice Manager of Science Department) for facilities made available.

Miss Chen Ru (Science Department) for plant identification.

Mr Kieran Fitzgerald (Tourism Marketing Department) for programme consultancy.

Special thanks are given to : -

Mr A J Weeks - Pearson for proof-reading.

Mr Craig Brough (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, U.K.) for use of the Library.

And to the many others who gave support, encouragement and advice. Acknowledgements Acknowledgements © www.otaniproduction.com Plants of Jiu Zhai Gou National Park

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