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You are here: Home / Archives for China & Vietnam 2014

Three Tree Moments

November 20, 2014 By Daniel J. Hinkley

A spire of limestone rising through fog and mist in China
The hauntingly beautiful karst formations of Hubei Province

I am home again, reunited with family and garden. The dogs no longer growl when I come into the room. Now, after a full week of recovery, I am of sound enough mind and body to download my images and ponder the wonders of this latest voyage; those things that are undeniably wondrous enough in the moment that it might seem to others assured of mental cementation. But, as often happens in life,  when confections exist in such ample supply they often cannot be savored until long after the first taste.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Essays, Expeditions, Plants Tagged With: China & Vietnam 2014, Trees

Perpetual Fog, Wind, & Rain in North Vietnam

November 11, 2014 By Daniel J. Hinkley

In 2003, Bleddyn and Sue Wynn-Jones and I spent several weeks together in the mountains of northern Vietnam, in the highland French redoubt of Sa Pa. It was late in the season, so we were hardly expecting météo parfaite but the weather was nothing short of comical; it was a gulag of fog and rain. Sa Pa and the surrounding mountains were bathed not so much in gray but the smoky aspirant used to dramatically portray fog in  B-Grade Frankenstein movies. We made fires in our rooms to hang our seed collections in order to achieve some degree of dryness. We actually heard wolves howling while walking to local restaurants at night. Cloris Leachman served as our waitress one evening. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Essays, Expeditions Tagged With: China & Vietnam 2014

The Utter Magic of the Unexpected

October 28, 2014 By Daniel J. Hinkley

Rare maple tree in China.
Acer griseum from a population more than likely never collected from before. It was from the tree 300 feet above that we were able to secure viable seed.

Since leaving the botanical buffet of Shennongjia- indeed one of the most diverse floras our consortium has ever experienced, there had been, as expected, more time getting toasted with government officials than meaningful time in the field. Frustratingly, the weather- virtually unworkable during the most floristically opulent part of our trip- was now close to perfection. Our second to the last day of collection work had taken us up a mostly denuded mountain 2.5 hours from our hotel on roads under construction to a research facility devoted to medicinal plants. After lunch, we worked down slope along the remaining remnants of forest, and though some important collections were made (Rhododendron auriculatum, Lindera cheinii, Disporum cantoniense., et al), there remained no dubiety that our collective spirits were punctured. And though dramatic in silhouette against a scuttling sun, large thunderheads to the west heralded another change in the weather due in that evening.

Awakened the following morning at 5 am by someone’s attempt to repair the hotel’s hot water heater with a jackhammer (no, it was not a successful essay), and during considerable discussion over breakfast regarding possibly returning to Wuhan a day early, we ultimately donned our raingear and boarded our transport. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Essays, Expeditions Tagged With: China & Vietnam 2014

A Three Hour Tour…

October 24, 2014 By Daniel J. Hinkley

A group of hikers sitting by a river.
A relaxed lunch with our party along the river.

Precisely a year ago, most of the same participants on this trip to Hubei Province in the PRC were together in northern Vietnam; Ozzie Johnson, Scott McMahan, Andrew Bunting, and myself (this year we have been gratifyingly conjoined by Dr. Donglin Zhang from the University of Georgia, Athens, graduate student Ms. Tung and Professor Cheng from the Dept of Botany from the University of Wuhan). Twelve months prior, our ‘two day’ trek up and over a sheer mountain range known as Five Fingers had turned into 3.5 day death march. During that experience, the lot of us were not only pushed to our limits, but were adamantly committed to making sure that such a situation would never arise again. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Essays, Expeditions Tagged With: China & Vietnam 2014

The Dragon Gate and Emmenopterys

October 18, 2014 By Daniel J. Hinkley

Emmenopterys henryi treeBleary eyed from arriving to our lodging at midnight, after over 50 hours of continual travel, we arose early the next morning to sodden skies in the village of Shennong. This mountainous area of eastern Hubei has both the highest peak of this part of Central China (Shennong Peak, just under 11,000’) as well as the perfect collision of eastern and western floral elements. We worked up a small road in starts and stops, piling out of our transport, piling in, progressively more saturated.  Yet the plants were exciting to see and unexpected all in one place together holding onto their own tiny bits of real estate;  Hydrangea longipes,  Cotinus coggygria, Epimedium fargesi, Metapanax davidii, Chloranthus fortunei. The richness was beyond our most hopeful imaginations. Yet, it continued to pour buckets the entire day, making photography and the logistics of collecting seed and taking notes wearisome. Factoring in our collective fatigue with the weather, there was little argument when we made the decision at 4 pm to drive back to the village and our accommodation. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Essays, Expeditions Tagged With: China & Vietnam 2014

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Daniel J. Hinkley

Teacher, writer, lecturer, consultant, nurseryman, naturalist, gardener.
Above all, he is committed to solid and sustainable horticultural practices, above average garden plants, landscapes of distinction and raising the collective awareness of the diversity of plant life on Earth as well as the magic and mysteries of our natural world. Learn more…

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