by Margaret de Weese
The superb lecture given us by Dr. Peter Wharton, Curator of the Asian Gardens at the University of British Columbia is a result of the Victoria Rhododendron Society (amongst others) who so generously contributed to the financing of a seed collection trip by Peter Wharton, Steve Hootman (Curator of the RSF), Dan Hinckley and others in the Fall of 2001.
It was particularly interesting to see the pictures of the big leaved rhododendrons. These rhodos which we have in our gardens and have seen in specialty gardens are usually under fifty years in age, so to see them having tree trunks the size of our oaks, made us appreciate their great age in situ on the verticality of the mountains of Qiqi Pass and the Gaoligongshan. I have been lucky enough to have visited China three times, in 1988, 1990 and again in 2000. My travels took me to many destinations in that huge country, Guanxi, Sichuan as well as the cities of Shanghai, Beijing, Wuhan, Xi’an but, though I saw many magnolias, orchids, and peonies, there was to my visual perception, never a rhododendron! The vigour, knowledge and stamina required to undertake such a strenuous and dangerous trek by ponytrain and bus into the wilderness of the Salween is beyond me. Just dealing with the vicissitudes of travel in the late eighties makes me admire the major accomplishment of the seed collectors of this last trip.
The big leaved rhododendron: R. falconeri, hodgsonii, rothschildii, coriaceum, protistum, sinogrande, fulvum, rex, arizelum and kesangiae which graces the cover of Cox’s ‘The Larger Rhododendron Species’ gave us a new appreciation of these indumentum beauties with their large leathery leaves and to see how wet their natural habitat is for nine months of the year. One of the beauties that made us gasp was Lycorus aureum, the Golden Spider Lily that is a native of China and Japan. This lily grows to 24 in. (60 cm.) tall and bears a cluster of 4 to 5 golden-yellow flowers in summer. The 3 in. (8 cm.) wide flowers have narrow, sharply recurved petals and long, straight stamens.
Peter spoke about his friend, Keith Rushforth, and his exploration in the Fan Si Pan ranges of Vietnam and finding R. sinofalconeri growing there as well as seeing it in abundance in Yunnan. A new species found in the Tibet region by Keith, named after his wife, Heather, is an exciting announcement. One can see from the dense foliage in that hard to traverse area, that there may be more new clines to find. Peter’s concern with the clear cut logging of the rhododendron habitat in Burma and Thailand, and his surprise statements about China’s concern to protect the habitat for flood control, gives rise to an admiration for the protection of these areas in China. All in all, it was an excellent presentation.