CONIFERS IN YUNNAN.pdf - Porterhowse Farms

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that name. Abies georgei has until recently been listed as a subspecies of Abies delavayi. It all seems veryconfusing. The branches of both the Larch and the Fir were weighted down with the heavy wet snow. TheLarch had accessible cones that I collected. The few cones on the Fir were not reachable. LargeRhododendron sp. grew on the slope among the Larch and the Fir trees. Zhong turned the bus around andreturned to about the snow/rain line. From the bus window I spied some young Fir trees along the road thatwere loaded with large erect purple cones. They were almost within reach from the edge of the roadway. Ina flash of a second Sue Miliken had leaped through the air and was hanging in the top of a sapling Fir treeabout 15 feet above the ground. She then proceeded to pick the purple cones and hand them over to us. Wegathered a sack full of cones, which it turned out all were loaded with seed. At another stop a short distancebeyond we found two species of Mountain Ash. One was Sorbus paulescens with entire leaves with aserrated edge, and clusters of a rosy-orange fruit. The other had white berries, and pinnate leaves. It wasmost likely Sorbus rehderiana. There were other species also present. We also found several species ofMaple. Acer forrestii and Acer caudatum being two species we could identify. With the broad diversity oftrees and being October the fall colors were beginning to appear. We also found some herbaceous plants,such as Arisaema sp., Polygonatum sp., Iris sp., Primula dentata (in flower), Primula secundiflora, andMegocodon stylophorum. We again came across the handsome Fir tree with the large needles, Abiesernestii. Again there were no apparent cones. Wet and tired we sloshed our way back down the rutted andmuddy road we had climbed to another noisy night in Benzilan.The wet and cool weather had again thwarted our attempts to reach the high country. It had been a very wetsummer in a land that usually has much rain during the summer months. Their dry season normally is in thefall, when we had planned our trip. Trips made in previous years reported dry and sunny weather during thesame dates. We were not so lucky. And as luck would have it the day we turned south the weatherimproved. Together we all chanted our mantra, “What’cha gonna do, Eh?”. Our drive from Benzilan toZhongdian was without incident. The scenery was very beautiful, and we made several stops enroute toagain collect seed and photograph plants and people. We chose a beautiful and glorious sunny day to travelsouth from Zhongdian. At a high point on the Zhongdian Plateau we could see the snow covered Haba Shanto the south. The mountains surrounding the plateau were all covered in new snow. However the sun waswarm and we knew we were leaving too soon. During our long travel days Ted kept us well entertained withhis zany dialogue, that was almost unceasing. Our hosts had to get used to these 70’s era western kidssinging their “Golden Oldies” as we tooled down the road. As we approached Tiger Leaping Gorge on theYangtze River the famous Jade Dragon Mountains (Yulong Shan) appeared in regal majesty, cloaked in anew ermine-white mantle. The deep blue sky did not have a single cloud in it. The sight was magnificent. Iam sure each of us shot a full roll of film on this magnificent sight. Rather than returning to Lijiang we tookanother road that took us to the industrial city of Jian Chuan.In Jian Chuan we drove up a street lined with tall Eucalyptus trees and turned into a drive through an ornategate. Inside the gate were gardens and a fountain. We were arriving at the official guest house, a state runhotel. It is a beautiful old building with a curved drive and a drive through portico. The windows had carvedshutters. The floor of the entrance area was marble and very clean. The furniture was an ornate Chinesestyle, made of heavy wood and inlayed with Dali marble. There were embroidered satin cushions. We wereall awe struck over the beauty of the place. We were welcomed by a very efficient and proper younguniformed woman, who did not seem friendly, but who was doing her job. My room had a comfortable bedwith the embroidered satin spread. A large over-stuffed chair occupied one corner of the room. Thebathroom was damp and not a comfortable place. We were advised to wear sandals in the shower andbathroom areas, as the wet floors and fixtures did not seem very clean. The fixtures were old, leaky, stained,and loose. When Diana Ballentyne asked for some toilet paper, she was informed by the uniformedattendant that the three squares of thin paper in the cabinet was her allotment, and she would not get anymore. A high wall enclosed an old garden with potted plants, a carved stone table and benches, andmeandering pathways. Plants were potted in attractive clay vessels. A large planter held an attractivelimestone rock on which many ferns and other plants had been grown. The large rock was set in waterinside the planter. Many of the garden plants were subtropical, like Bougainvillea, Gardenia and Hibiscus.There were Palms, Bananas, and Bamboos in the garden also. Bonsai-like specimens of Pinus yunnanensiswere displayed in beautiful ceramic pots.Beer (Pijou) is served as a beverage at the mid-day and evening meals, along with tea (Chai). However ourdriver Zhong arrived each evening with a new bottle of grain alcohol, a Chinese “White Lightning”. He14
would set small glasses in front of each of us and fill them to the rim. We would all holler “Gam Bey”(something equivalent to “Bottoms Up”), and then down the clear liquid in a single swallow. We wouldcontinue this ritual until the bottle was empty. He sometimes would find another bottle and continue theritual. Dinners became interesting events, as we all became giddy. We (the seven westerners) would sit at alarge round table, and our hosts sat at another. They would order the food, which came to us in largeplatters or bowls. Each place setting would have a set of chopsticks, a glass, a small bowl, a small plate, anda sealed pack of paper tissues. Upon sitting down we would smash the sealed pack of tissues between ourpalms, and they would split with a pop, as the air trapped inside would burst out. We then took the tissuesand wiped down all the utensils and bowls and plates. They were usually still wet from being washed, andwho knows where or in what water source. One streetside restaurant we ate at did the dishes on the stepsabove the street gutter in an old washtub. Miraculously no one in our party got sick. Some folks did catchcolds soon after we arrived in Yunnan, which they shared liberally with everyone else. I was fortunate inthat I did not even catch the cold.After our evening meal in Jian Chuan we had a surprise celebration for Sun. He was going to leave us thenext day when we reached Dali, and fly home to Kunming. He had some urgent business to attend to at theKunming Botanical Institute, which had a deadline. He was replaced by another Botanist and field guide,Fey, for the last few days of our trip. We had talked young Mr. Li into acquiring a decorated sheet cake forus. We then had it brought to the table and set in front of Sun. He was very surprised and overjoyed. Wehad partaken liberally of the Chinese White Lightning, and so we were not feeling quite boisterous. Theother patrons in the restaurant all watched us in disbelief as we laughed and even sang. Since it was a ratherlarge cake we had extra plates brought to us and we served everyone in the restaurant. They all gladlyjoined in our celebration and the cold stares became warm smiles and greetings. Everyone in the hotel andrestaurant enjoyed our celebration.During our stay in Jian Chuan we visited the home of a local entrepreneur. He had the truck repair businessin the region. With as many broken down lories we had seen along the roads, he must have a very busyshop. His home was several blocks from our hotel, but we walked there to get a feel for the city and thepeople. Children soon gathered around us and accompanied us to our destination. They stood out in thestreet and peered through the gate the entire time we were there and then accompanied us back to the hotel.We met Mr. Yang Jianchan and his wife. They were very hospitable and invited us into their home. Weentered through a streetside gate into a long dark hallway that opened into a lovely courtyard. Many pottedplants were set about the courtyard. Some of the potted plants were actually trees. A quince tree bore fruitthe size of large grapefruit. Rex Begonias and Orchid plants were on the stoop, some of which were inbloom. A rectangular shallow pond on one side held fish and pond plants. The courtyard had several levelswith steps between. Mr. Yang’s home surrounded three sides of the courtyard. The dark hallway we hadpassed through was in a low single story house, that had been his first home, and now his mother lives there.On the other side of the courtyard we ascended steps to an open living room with comfortable furniture anda TV. This seemed to be their main living quarters and entertainment center. The room was nicely decoratedwith paintings and scrolls. There were two more floors of rooms above, which included the kitchen. Weclimbed up a zigzag staircase that was encased behind glass panels facing the courtyard. We came out ontothe roof of the building where Mr. Yang had constructed a shaded greenhouse. In it he raised CymbidiumOrchids in pots. There were thousands of plants on raised benches covering the entire roof. He had awatering system set up and somehow had solved the drainage problem. This was not the time of year for theOrchids to be in bloom, so only a few were. However it was an amazing sight. His hobby had become anenterprise and he sold his plants commercially. From the rooftop we could look out over the city to thesurrounding countryside, and even see the snow capped Yulong Shan and Haba Shan in the distance to thenorth. We retreated to the living quarters on the first floor, which was open to the courtyard, where Mrs.Yang served us tea and home made pastries and cakes. They were wonderful. I was fascinated by theircourtyard-potted gardens. One plant that caught my attention was a bonsai-ed Pinus yunnanensis thatappeared to be very old and contorted. I was told that it had been collected in the wild in that form. Mr.Yang chided our academic hosts about the fact that they could never have such a fine home because theyworked for the state, while he had ventured into the world of free enterprise. Sun said he could only dreamof having such a place, but knew it would never be. Capitalism at work in communist China.For the next two days of travel we had another man on the bus. He was never introduced to us and he andour hosts all conversed in Mandarin. He disappeared when we departed Dali to return to Kunming. On the15
Page 1 and 2: A PLANT ADDICT IN YUNNANBy: Don How
Page 3 and 4: as inlay in furniture. Many fine ar
Page 5 and 6: The day we traveled from Lijiang to
Page 7 and 8: thoroughly soaked by the end of the
Page 9 and 10: commented on the blue color of the
Page 11 and 12: The gravel and mud road climbed up
Page 13: were melons, squash, and peppers. B
Page 17 and 18: Tourist literature about the areas

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