Feature Article Plant Hunting in Asia By Andrew Bunting

ver since I was a little boy, Plant Exploration Consortium). Many EI enjoyed being outdoors, hiking and other institutions have wild-collected exploring. In my adult life, I got hooked centric collections such as the Mt. Cuba on ecotourism, which took me to Peru, Center, which collects plants native to the Brazil, Panama, Costa Rica, Tanzania, and Piedmont. The Morton Arboretum near Madagascar. Through these trips, I started Chicago focuses on hardy woody plants. to develop a passion for birding and The University of California Botanical began taking birding trips to Honduras, Garden at Berkeley has strong collections Ecuador, Tunisia, Gambia, and Uruguay. of California natives, cycads, and As Curator at the Scott Arboretum, magnolias. Quarryhill Botanical Garden I have also had the opportunity to do in Glen Ellen, California, specifically Seed collecting in Taiwan a fair amount of international travel to collects plants native to Asia. conferences in Belgium, South Korea, and In 2010, I was contacted by Bill and M. wilsonii. Magnolia sargentiana Chile. But for many years, I have dreamed McNamara of Quarryhill Botanical is listed as “vulnerable” by the IUCN of plant hunting somewhere wild and Garden to see if I were interested in and Magnolia wilsonii is listed as off the beaten path. To me, this seemed participating in a planned seed-collecting “endangered” with scattered populations like the ultimate travel adventure. I have trip to Sichuan, China in October of that in Sichuan, Yunnan, and western Ghizhou. read many of the accounts of the famous same year. Of course, without hesitation Prior to any collecting trip, it is plant explorers, such as E. H. Wilson, I said, “Yes!” However, I needed to secure important to determine the route; arrange Joseph Rock, Frank Kingdon-Ward, and funding for this trip. In addition to Bill drivers and accommodations or camping; Augustine Henry and, in more recent and me, we would be joined by Christophe have sufficient supplies, especially those times, have followed the explorations of Crock from the Arboretum Wespelaar in needed for collecting; and determine the the late Peter Wharton, Bill McNamara, Belgium, and Andy Hill, Curator of the roles of each of participants on the trip. Paul Meyer, Tony Avent, Bleddyn Wynn- Asian Garden at the University of British Throughout the trip, there is a need for Jones, and Dan Hinkley. Columbia Botanical Garden. Through the collecting data; taking images; collecting At the Scott Arboretum, the emphasis support of The Chanticleer Scholarship and making herbarium specimens (in of our collections development is based and the Franklinia Foundation in Belgium, triplicate); and collecting, processing, and on adding cultivars and ornamental I was able to make this trip a reality! sorting seed for export. To make your seed woody plants. It has never been part of On September 26, 2010, the group collections most valuable from a scientific the Arboretum’s goals to conduct plant- convened in Chengdu, China, where we point of view, you want to collect as much collecting expeditions to foreign countries. were met by out host Professor Tang Ya information as possible, such as GPS There are, however, many botanical at Sichuan University. Prior to starting the coordinates, elevation, slope, soil type, institutions where plant-hunting trips are expedition, Bill had established several and associated plants growing nearby. core to their missions and where many goals. Part of the trip would be spent Much of this trip we spent traversing of the plants in their collections have documenting wild populations of Acer massive valleys at towering mountainous detailed notes of where pentaphyllum, considered divides as high as 15,000'. We made some they were obtained in the to be perhaps the most important coniferous collections including wild. Locally, the Morris rare maple on the planet. Abies forrestii var. georgei, A. forrestii, Arboretum has a strong The IUCN (International A. squamata, Tsuga chinensis var. forrestii, representation of plants that Union for the Conservation as well as over a dozen collections of resulted from seed collected of Nature) Red List has Acer pentaphyllum. In total, we made 187 in foreign lands with an A. pentaphyllum listed as collections. emphasis on Asian plants. critically endangered—the In 2012, I was invited by Dan The Morris is part of a highest level of conservation Hinkley, Ozzie Johnson, and Scott consortium, which includes status given by the IUCN. McMahan on a seed-collecting trip to the Arnold Arboretum, U. We also wanted to make Taiwan. Dan Hinkley is one of the most S. National Arboretum, seed collections of three heralded plant collectors in the last century Morton Arboretum, and important magnolia species, with an impressive list of expeditions: others, called NACPEC including Magnolia China (10), Vietnam (12), Taiwan (3), (North America-China Tsuga chinensis, Taiwan sargentiana, M. dawsoniana, as well as collecting trips to Japan, South Vol. 29, No. 1 Hardy Plant Society/Mid-Atlantic Group 3 Sinopanax formosanus. All of these, while tropical looking in nature, might be hardy in the Delaware River Valley with a little protection. In addition to woody plants, we are always combing the forest floor looking for ferns, gesneriads, Arisaema, Asarum, and hardy begonias. We collected Blechnum, Woodwardia unigemmata, Polystichum, Begonia chitoensis, Paris polyphylla var. stenophylla, Arisaema taiwanense, Arisaema formosanum, and Arisaema ringens. Magnolia foveolata, Vietnam It is always exciting to see a plant Five Finger Mountains, Vietnam Korea, Bhutan, Nepal, Turkey, South that we cultivate in our gardens growing Our group had collected the softball- Africa, Chile, and Costa Rica. Ozzie and in its native habitat. In several locations sized fruits a couple years earlier. Upon Scott have been collecting with Dan for throughout Taiwan, we collected the our return, we discovered that either this the last ten years or so and have collected wheel tree, Trochodendron aralioides Aesculus is cyclical in its fruiting or there multiple times in China and Vietnam. from specimens over 60' tall with is also a possibility that wild pigs feast on Along coastal Taiwan, the flora is massive robust trunks! Hanging on the fallen fruits. subtropical; once you get into the interior to the steep mountainous slopes were Our overriding goal in northern mountains and reach elevations as high several spectacular conifers including Vietnam was to do further exploration as 9,000', there are plants that have Abies kawakamii, Chamaecyparis and collecting in the famous Fan Xi Pan considerable hardiness. For this trip, we obtusa var. formosana, Tsuga chinensis, Mountain Range (Five Finger Mountains) had a few specific goals. We wanted to see Pseudotsuga sinensis var. wilsoniana, and and the Bat Dai San peaks north of Ban if we could document wild locations of the Cunninghamia konishii. Quan. Once again, in addition to the endemic Magnolia kachirachirai, which In 2013, I was invited back with Dan, aforementioned, it was a botanically rich is found in the southern tip of Taiwan, as Scott, and Ozzie to northern Vietnam. We and bountiful trip—211 collections in total well as the endemic Sassafras randaiense all met in Hanoi and took an old Russian which included 13 different magnolias, in the northern tip of Taiwan. We were night train to the mountainous village of Mahonia aff. duclouxiana, Schefflera unable to locate the magnolia, but did find Sa Pa. According to Dan, alpina, Viburnum several large specimens of the sassafras, this is one of the richest hoanglienense, Hydrangea however none were fruiting. At the end of areas in which he has heteromalla, Aucuba aff. this trip, we were able to visit the Taiwan collected and it continues chinensis, and Blechnum Forestry Research Institute where we to draw him back. Partial orientale. Following made contacts that offered to send us seed funding for this trip was our trip to Vietnam, Dan and one of the scientists agreed to write an contributed by a grant from continued on for two more article documenting M. kachirachirai for HPS/MAG. Goals for this weeks of collecting and the Magnolia Society International trip were multifold. doing reconnaissance Journal. 1. We knew from work in northern Taiwan is rich in many fantastic prior trips that this was Myanmar (Burma) for a broadleaved evergreens. We made a very magnolia-rich more expanded collecting collections of several evergreen area. At the end of the trip planned by the group Araliaceae, including Schefflera trip, we had collected: in the fall of 2016. taiwaniana, Fatsia polycarpa, and Magnolia foveolata This year (2014), our with luxuriant golden Holboellia sp., Hubei, China destination was Hubei, idumentum; Magnolia China. We were very floribunda, M. cathcartii; M. martini; fortunate to be joined by Hubei native M. championii (a relatively low elevation Dr. Donglin Zhang, who is a professor species); and the edemic, M. sapaensis, of horticulture at the University of which has only been recently described. Georgia. We all met in Wuhan, China. 2. Our goal was to document any A primary goal of this trip was to collect wild populations of the exceedlingly in the Shennongjia Forestry District in rare Cupressus vietnamensis (syn. northwestern Hubei. The SABE (Sino- Xanthocyparis vietnamensis), as American Botanical Expedition) had well as the yew relative Amentotaxus surveyed and collected in this region in hatuyenensis. We were able to find both of 1980. We were also very interested in these species in the wild, albeit both were documenting locations and making seed at the top of mountains in very rugged collections of the rare paperbark maple terrain. Acer griseum. While this species is 3. We wanted to make a new collection abundant in private gardens and botanical of the rare horse chestnut Aesculus wangii. Abies kawakamii, Taiwan gardens, very few collections have been 4 Hardy Plant Society/Mid-Atlantic Group January 2015 properties in their bark. On a hike, at relatively low elevations of about 3,500', we made multiple epimedium collections, including one species that was 4' tall! In Jianshi, the woods were filled with Liquidambar acalycina and Sassafras tzumu. The forest floor was rich with ferns—Pyrrosia, Blechnum, Dryopteris, and Arachniodes, and on one hillside there were hundreds of Cardiocrinum cordatum. Midway through the trip, we made a day trip to Mo-tau-chi, site of the Metasequoia glyptostroboides, Hubei, original dawn redwood, Metasequoia Sassafras tsuzumu, Hubei, China China glyptostroboides, which was discovered The understory was a very thick bamboo, made of this plant in the wild and it is in the wild in 1945. While it is a failing Hydrangea aspera, Holboellia sp., Cornus thought that most plants in gardens today and decrepit specimen, it was incredibly kousa, Kerria japonica, and Sarcococca are the offspring of an original collection exciting to see this venerable tree. hookeriana. We were able to find five made by E. H. Wilson over a hundred Perhaps, specimens in total. One tree had seed on years ago. Finally, we all hoped to see the the most it, but it had all fallen to the forest floor. original type specimen of Metasequoia exciting So, Dan, Scott, and I spent about an hour glyptostroboides, dawn redwood. day of the sifting through the fallen leaves in search On the road to Shennongjia, we trip was on of the maple seed. We gathered about spotted a fantastic, approximately October 150 in total. It is our hope that Donglin 400-year-old specimen of Emmenopterys 28, when back at his lab will be able to do embryo henryi. Luckily, it was hanging over the we woke to rescue on the seed and significantly speed road and there were still some capsules dark skies up germination. In cultivation, Acer intact. We found Shennongjia to be a very and heavy griseum is notorious for having very low rich area for both herbaceous and woody rains. Our germination levels. plants alike. We made collections of colleagues From China, Dan headed back to Helwingia japonica, Decumaria sinensis, had spent a Hanoi to start a short collecting trip in Sa Epimedium fargesii, Paeonia obovata, lot of time Pa, his 12th collecting trip to Vietnam. As Polygonatum zanlanscianense, Euptelea talking soon as we were back in the U.S., we pleiosperma, Acer henryi, and Fagus aff. Donglin Zhang, to local Cercidiphyllum japonicum, almost immediately began planning for lucida. foresters to Hubei, China our trip in 2015 to Arunachal Pradesh on From Shennongjia, we headed west to see if they the northeastern edge of India, which Jianshi County. We started to see quite a could find any local populations of Acer borders Bhutan to the west, Myanmar to few Magnolia officinalis, but most likely griseum. We drove through the mountains the east, and China in the north. these were cultivated for the medicinal in poor visibility. At 5,500', we stopped at a small forestry station and the forester said he knew where one was, but it was Andrew Bunting is the curator at the Scott in cultivation on a farm. We drove up a Arboretum of Swarthmore College where he muddy farm road and the farmer took has worked for the last 25 years. He owns Fine Garden Creations, a design/build garden us to a cinnamon-barked tree, but it was company, which is in its 23rd year. Andrew was Stewartia sinensis! However, after some also the curator at the Chanticleer Foundation discussion, the farmer said he knew of this in Wayne, PA in the early '90s. His home tree on a local mountainside. We followed garden Belvidere has been featured in This Old him on his motorcycle. In the pouring rain, House Magazine and the Wall Street Journal. He has served as president of the Magnolia we slogged across a cabbage field and Society International and The Delaware Center climbed up a steep and muddy hillside, for Horticulture; chaired Horticulture at the finally taking us directly to a fantastic Philadelphia Flower Show; and chaired the Collecting Emmenopterys henryi in 40' tall specimen of Acer griseum. It was North American Plant Collections Consortium, growing out of rocky bluffs at '. a national collections scheme through the Hubei, China 5,940 American Public Gardens Association. He has gone on plant exploration trips to China, Taiwan, and Vietnam. He has written over 100 articles for the American Gardener, Fine Gardening Magazine, Horticulture, Public Garden, and Arnoldia. Andrew is a passionate gardener and avid birder and traveler. Ed Note: All pictures ©Andrew Bunting. For a full-color version of this article, go to the HPS/MAG web site, www.hardyplant.org. Andrew will be one of this year's MIS speakers, talking about the development of his Swarthmore garden Belvidere. Vol. 29, No. 1 Hardy Plant Society/Mid-Atlantic Group 5