Woody plants introduced from North America by Soňa Tichá and Luboš Úradníček DFBDG FFWT Brno, 2014 MENDELU in Brno This educational material was created within the project InoBio – Inovation of the biological and forest disciplined for higher competitiveness, project reg. no. CZ.1.07/2.2.00/28.0018 supported by the European Social Fund and the state budget of the Czech Republic. Introduction The present teaching material covers woody species introduced from North America. The discovery of America in 1492 marked the beginning of colonising, exploring and exploiting the continent that had been completely unknown to Europe. It is a milestone of such significance not only in botany, but also in horticulture, forestry and other practical fields focused on plant life that all the plants introduced into Europe after 1500 are termed neophytes. While the North American continent has climate on large expanses that is similar to that of Europe to a degree sufficient enough for a large number of plants to be ready to accept Europe as their new native country, the vegetation of North America is significantly more diverse than that of Europe, which has been decimated by recurring ice ages. In North America, plants were much more likely to survive such periods, since the ground configuration (the main mountains oriented from north to south) was allowing the plant life to steadily retreat to the south and return to the north. North America is native to many species that are now grown on different continents and thrive even in Central Europe, hence in this country. The black locust was introduced to virtually all continents (except Antarctica), where it often became a permanent part of communities or even a major species within those newly emerging. As an ornamental tree, the Colorado spruce (called also "silver spruce" in Czech) is in fact grown all over the globe with the exception of the tropics and Antarctica. Multitudes of other woody species are planted as ornamental trees in parks and gardens. Spruce, pine and fir trees, as well as Douglas firs, cypresses and giant cedars are grown in large numbers not only in parks, but also in forest stands. Forest management in many countries is dependent on the plantations of introduced woody plants; thus, although the Czech Republic still has enough stands of native woody species, it is also here where the Douglas fir, grand fir, eastern black walnut and northern red oak as well as the other group members are cultivated for the woodworking industry as promising species. Other woody species were imported to Europe and tested as a source of raw materials for pharmaceutical or cosmetic industry (the witch hazel, the sweet gum) or serve for fruit production (serviceberries, the black chokeberry, hawthorns, cranberries or the blue huckleberry). Some woody plants were or still are promising as a source of various materials (the staghorn sumac - tannins, the osage orange - antioxidants). Of course, introducing woody species involves drawbacks. Sometimes imported species got out of control and began quickly spread in the new settings; they can potentially damage the native communities. Some of them can cause allergies, are poisonous, etc. While cultivated only as ornamental plants in this country, many of the species possess a far greater importance in their native regions, whether being utilised as forestry woody species for timber or for planting, amelioration and reclamation in the great outdoors (the black cherry, the white ash, the osage orange). And even if not having any practical use, a number of the species were inevitable for indigenous cultures, whether as a source of food and medicinal substances, or as technology plants or sacred and symbolic species (the staghorn sumac, the red osier dogwood, the American sweet gum, the common snowberry, the pencil cedar, etc. However, even if the trees were just beautiful, they are worth to become familiar with. General information The textbook has several parts. The main part consists of chapters dedicated to particular species of woody plants. They are sorted alphabetically by scientific name. Each chapter provides a species' scientific name and common name, synonyms, vernacular names in other languages where appropriate, a species description and distribution, ecology or conditions of cultivation, where applicable, the importance and use of the species and its variability. The nomenclature was used by Koblížek 2006 or Horáček 2007 (namely the lower taxa and cultivars). Any data not included in these sources were supplied by biolib.cz and databaze.dendrologie.cz. Conifers were compiled by Doc Ing Luboš Úradníček, CSc, while deciduous species were prepared by Ing Soňa Tichá, PhD. Complementing the main part is the chapter dedicated to major Czech botanists and travellers - Thaddaeus Haenke and Benedikt Roezl, who take credit for much more than just contributing to the discovery of new plant species in the New World. This chapter was compiled mainly using Internet resources. (Note: references are given for each chapter.) List of acronyms and abbreviations AGM - Award of Garden Merit; refers to quality branding awarded to garden plants by the UK Royal Horticultural Society. IPNI - International Plant Names Index AMSL - Above mean sea level NP - National park NL - Northern latitude The story of Thaddaeus Haenke, the "hunter of lilies" Thaddaeus Peregrinus Xaverius Haenke was a Czech traveller, naturalist, botanist, physician and ethnographer. Called "hunter of lilies" or "Czech Humboldt", he entered the history through several accomplishments, which essentially involved travelling and botany, but generally reached far beyond the fields. He launched the first Montgolfière-style hot air balloon in what is now the Czech Republic; he was the first Czech to arrive in Alaska (1791), New Guinea (1792), New Zealand (1793), Australia (1793), Tahiti (1793), and Cuzco (1794); he was the first to conquer Chimborazo, the highest mountain in Ecuador (1804) and to recognise Chilean saltpeter to be an excellent fertiliser. Notable are his ethnographic findings as regards Native South Americans, thousands of museum specimens of botanical and ethnographic importance that Haenke collected and sent to Europe, or a number of botanical discoveries that are now lost somehow to the memory of the public. Youth Thaddaeus Haenke was born in Chřibská, North Bohemia (then Kreibitz in German) on 6 December 1761 as the seventh of the twelve descendants of Elijah Haenke, a lawyer, farmer, local lay magistrate and a well-respected person. Haenke's older sister Anna Maria married in 1775 Jan Kaspar Bienert, a merchant with glass operating in Cadiz and later in Cartagena, thus creating a very close family relationship with the territory of Spanish language. Small Thaddaeus lived for several years with his uncle - a pastor based in the village of Robeč by Česká Lípa. In addition to teaching him Latin and paid him music lessons at Professor Schubert in the town of Varnsdorf, his uncle Eschler was essential for the insightful, talented and diligent young man to be able to attend studies in that he sent Thaddaeus to the Jesuits in Prague. In the beginning, young Haenke was a singer and player of bassoon and trumpet in church; since however his musical career was soon terminated by pneumonia, he devoted to studies of mathematics, astronomy, physics, philosophy, medicine and botany at Prague university. In 1784, he attracted the attention when he constructed a hot-air balloon following the French Montgolfière style and made successful experiments with unmanned flights. He also became the assistant to his teacher Mikan, the Director of the Prague Botanical Garden. He made several botanical trips and surveys in Bohemia focusing on the administrative regions of Rakovník and Beroun. Perhaps the most important expedition was that taken by foot and by cart from Prague to the foothills of the Krkonoše Mountains and to Lučiny, the mountain tops of Černá Hora, Studniční hora and Sněžka, the River Elbe valley, and back to Prague. This journey produced one of this country's first botanical inventories. Still in the 1780s, Haenke left for Vienna, where he continued his studies at professors Jacquin (botany) and Maximilian Stoll (medicine), soon becoming the former's assistant at the university. Haenke brought so many findings from his scientific expedition to the Alps that he was admitted as a member of the Royal Czech Society of Sciences in 1789. Travelling around the globe Thaddaeus Haenke wanted to participate in the expedition led by Captain Billings, for which the cost was paid by Russian Empress Catherine II. Since however Billings eventually did not take any scientist, Haenke decided to attend another such event. Thanks to his excellent knowledge and skills, he was invited, upon the intercession of Ignatius von Born - an important scholar, to participate in a scientific expedition to the western hemisphere. It was organised under the auspices of the Spanish King Charles IV Bourbon. Thaddaeus Haenke received a permission to participate in the operation from Emperor Joseph II only upon the condition of returning to the homeland; this however never happened. The corvettes of Descubierta and Atrevida led by Alessandro Malaspina di Mulazzo, an Italian captain in the Spanish service, were to sail away from Cadiz in 1789. Although Malaspina with his expedition fleet unfortunately went away before Haenke handled all the paperwork in Vienna and arrived at the Spanish port, the strong-minded and determined expedition naturalist did not give in and, assisted by a fellow, made his way onto a merchant ship bound for South America. Despite its poetic name, "Our Lady of Good Roads", the ship wrecked off the coast of Uruguay, Haenke being amongst the very few that saved themselves. The waves of the ocean retained all his personal belongings and scientific equipment; the credentials from the Spanish King Charles IV and a copy of Linné's Genera Plantarum were all that the traveller salved.