Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Alpines => Topic started by: Susann on January 19, 2013, 06:08:58 PM
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EXPEDITION TO KAZAKHSTAN, SOUTH ALTAI, MONGOLIA, BAIKAL AREA AND HOKKAIDO IN JUNE 2014
As some of you might already know I had to postpone my expedition until 2014.
The main purpose of the expedition is to study Pulsatilla localities during a time of approximately six weeks with start around the beginning of June in 2014. You are welcome to join the expedition for part of the time or during all expedition.
The expedition is to start in Kazakhstan where localities in mountain and steppe are to be visited, before heading for the southern mountains of Altai, Russia. From Altai it will continue to Ulaan Baatar in Mongolia. In Mongolia localities in mountain and steppe are to be studied before the route goes to Baikal area, Russia. The end of the expedition is to take place in the mountains in Hokkaido; the northern Japanse island. The longer distances will be by the Transsibirian Railway. Hokkaido will be reached by air from Amur or Vladivostok.
As said above the main purpose of the expedition is to study Pulsatillas, but I will of course try to adapt it to your suggestions if you wish to join. No details are set yet, but with this route I hope it will be possible to study at least eleven species and subspecies of Pulsatilla, possibly some more.
If possible seed collection will take place for Botanical Gardens and seed lists.
If you are interested in joining or just want more details, please contact me.
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I just want to give my search for companions a push back to the top as it is falling way down in the list due to no replies. I am still looking for company for part of or whole expedition.
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Susann is making preparations for her 2014 trip and is still on the lookout for companions to join her on this exploring trip.
There will be a large number of fine plants to be seen on such an expedition - anyone interested can pm Susann or via the website contact button, or info@srgc.org.uk where I can pass on your message to her.
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I think Maggi is challenging AGS Tours with "Maggi´s Travel Agency"? Please, follow her advice not only in contacting me but also joining me for part of the trip or the whole journey. I can personally assure that Maggi´s description of the trip is correct; there will be many very interesting plants to see besides Pulsatillas.
I leave for the Pyréenes Friday 23th, being out of internet connection for a while, but I will be at the Dundee bulb meeting if you would like to speak to me.
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Hi, I am a student. I am interested in your expedition to Altai. I live in a village near the Altai.
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I would like to know which route you go through the Altai. Could you give me more information. I want to know what about the financial side. Can I join to your expedition. How much does it cost?
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Dear Sayat,
thank you for your message. I will contact you privately
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As Susann prepares to leave for her trip, she has sent this message :
Dear Rockers!
I just have to tell you how impressed I was by the plants you showed, and the organization of, the Perth Show which I recently attended.
I would also like to thank everybody for your kindness and encouragement, and of course for the Club´s support of my Pulsatilla project. I really hope that I will be able to pay back in some way. Without the support of the SRGC ( and NARGS- especially Jane Grushow that I am sure has some Scottish blood running trough her veins) it would not have been possible to do this trip.
I have been able to arrange that professional botanists will help me -opening their herbariums for me, and most important, going into field with me, in every corner of my trip. I hope I will be really fed up with Pulsatillas when I come back. The passport is filled with visas and the backpack is ready by the door, so I just wish you all a good growing season, and see you in August!
Susann
Another example of the SRGC Grant support in action 8) Good luck Susann!
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Dear Rockers, I just want to tell you all that I am now back from my journey in Central Asia and Far East, and no, I am not fed up with Pulsatillas, although I have - only in one day- seen more Pulsatillas than I thought were growing in the Universe. To that you can add all the others I was able to see. I have learnt so much and I have also got a lot of very nice pictures ( almost lost in one occation, that would have been horrible) and also quite a lot of seeds. They will be sent to the Botanical Gardens of Gothenburg and Edinburgh and of course the Scottish and Northamerican seedlists.
I am now planning for the second part of this project, which will be studying the European species. Third, but probably not last, part will be Northamerica. I have to admit that I am looking for some excuses to go back to Mongolia. Perhaps having seen a species only in fruit is a reason good enough for going back?
I will post photos at the forum later on, but probably not before autumn, as my small B&B is quite busy right now and the garden...Where is the garden? Might it be hidden under all the thistles and Stellaria media? Anyway, I hope to see a lot of you in the Summer Meeting. And once again, thank you for supporting me!
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Susann - really nice to hear that your (quite epic) journey went so well! It will be wonderful to see pictures of the plants and add to the stimulus that has come from all those photos you and Olga and others showed here earlier on, and Chris Grey-Wilson's book. These are definitely going to be up and coming plants in the garden thanks to all this!
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Wonderful that your trip went so well. Looking forward very much to your photos and descriptions.
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Hi Susann, Lovely to hear from you! Do you mean you will come to the Dunblane event? Will be wonderful to catch up with you and your big trip!
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Chris, yes, you are correct, I am attending the Dunblane meeting. The last year I have been visiting Scotland so many times so one would think I now understand the Scottish accent, but no! So, I will give it a new try. I have had the haggis though, and I liked it very much, it is like our Swedish pölsa. We eat it boiled or fried with fried egg and beetroot in vinager.
Tim and "Astragalus", thank you for your kind words. Photos and article will come, but please have some patience with me.
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hello susann, welcome back :D ...i'm quite fidgety to see what you found out about our plants of desire. 8) (btw... a sugawarai flowered this year in my garden ;))
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Wow, congratulations! I have never succeded to bring them to flower. ( Maggi, we need a green smiley to show our feelings sometimes)
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Pulsatilla sugawarii in case there is anyone who do not have a clear idea of what a beauty we are talking about
Fidgety was a new word to me, I have to look it up.
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I have added some pictures from the trip in another thread which means I have some images that are already converted to JPEG. So I will post them here too.
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Pulsatilla bungeana v tenuiloba. It was a quite big population in the desert in Mongolia. Just a few minutes later a heavy rain came and the driver litterary dragged me into the jeep. It was so hard to leave these beauties. Please, do not ask me where it was because I got so excited by the finding so I totally forgot to register the hight or the gps-point. I did not dare to ask the driver to drive back again, he was a very temper man, but that is another story...
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I had three totally unrealistic dreams; one of them was to see P campanella. Well, here it is. I was able to see it in the very first day in Kazakhstan in slope at 2 6000 m in Tien Shan, close to the border of Kyrgyzstan. It grow together with Primula albertii and two or three species of tiny yellow Tulipa. In the afternoon a few snowflings began to fall and the next day the big population was covered in snow.
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Pulsatilla multifida filled form at 520 m in SE Novosibirsk territory in Russia. It was a big population with mostly white flowers. Some of them had wonderful reverses with thick grey hair.
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Some days in Mongolia were spent in a strictly protected area where no tourists were allowed. ( Sometimes the moody driver came in handy. I do not know which lies he told the grumpy forrest ranger, but we were able to camp in the site for three nights) The Mongols referred to this mountain only as High Mountain not telling its name. It was situated in a mountain range not far from Uliastai, the oldest settlement in Mongolia. We spent a whole day in the saddle ( eleven hours to be precise;my poor knees want me to point that out to you) and went through valley to valley with never-ending meadows of P multifida in fruit. I have written before in this thread that I saw more Pulsatillas than I could image there was in Universe. But, I did not collect one single seeds, as the area was strictly protected. And besides, according to the buddists; the mountain´s owner would have gotten very angry with me if I collected any seeds, and he would have sent yet another heavy thunderstorm to show me his powers. And I had quite enough of the thunders anyway.
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Finally one more picture of P multifida, please note the beautiful reverse of the sepals.
My three dreams? Too see P campanella, and to find P bungeana v astragaliifolia and P taraoi ssp nipponica. They all came true! But I will tell you more about that another time. Let me just finish this first small report with a summary of the trip: It was more than successful; I could not hope nor image to see and learn so much as I have been able to. Once again thank you for your support!
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What a delight Susann. Must have been such a thrill to see your beloved pulsatillas in the wild like that!
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I just got home from a very inspiring week in Scotland where I met a lot of skilled rockers. In a weak moment after a very nice pudding I promised to write an article about my trip in search of Pulsatillas, so this will be the last pictures you will find in the forum. More will be published in the journal; I will try to write it as soon as autumn (or winter) is rainy and cold enough to keep me indoor.
If you are not already a member of SRGC the possibility to read about my trip might be as good reason as anyone to join! And of course, you will have the opportunity to read many more -and much more interesting- articles than mine.
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Pulsatilla ambigua in Mongolia; about 2 500 m
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Pulsatilla turczaninovii, also in Mongolia
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I was a little worried when I realized I had to climb all the way to the peak in the background in search of Pulsatilla taraoi ssp nipponica; first down into the valley and then all the way up again
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but it was of course worth it. The species is not beautiful at all, just very very rare.
A planthunt is not always exciting, which I think the last picture shows.
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The picture, taken by Elin Finnerup in Kazakhstan, shows Inga Epiktetova, that many of you met in Tabor last year, and me desperately searching for some action.
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Ooh can hardly wait for your article Susann, will be such a treat. I have put the ones above on my seed want list already....
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We looking forward to it Susann ! ::)
I agree , again a very good reason to become a member of the SRGC.
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I am sorry to say that I think you have to wait. And for a long time I am afraid. The weather is good and the B&B busy, so there is not time for writing.
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In another thread Olga revealed my weakness for mentha icecream. But there is actually one thing I like more; horses. And, this summer I saw almost as many horses as Pulsatilla.
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I am sorry to say that I think you have to wait. And for a long time I am afraid. The weather is good and the B&B busy, so there is not time for writing.
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In another thread Olga revealed my weakness for mentha icecream. But there is actually one thing I like more; horses. And, this summer I saw almost as many horses as Pulsatilla.
Most of us - people who are involved with this kind of plants -are very patient Susann.
I start my interest in plants with growing cacti .....so to be patient is one of my second natures.....
Okay B&B you said , that is interesting !
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Like the picture of the horses, Susann. One of my passions too.
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Susann - I think most of us are a little in awe of your journey, which obviously has a lot more to it than just pulsatillas. I hope we won't have to wait too long to hear about it and see your photographs - just the few you show capture it so well.
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Thank you to all three of you. Cacti...Yes, I gave it a try some years ago and sowed a few. They are now big enough so others than me can actually see they are real plants, and have begun to show their characters a couple of years ago. I tsuspect it is very dangerous-addictable-to get to involved with cacti. I had a guest at the B&B this summer whose father is the most famous cacti grower in Denmark. The guest of course had a look-not too impressed I am afraid-at mine, and told me a lot about them. It was very interesting and I learnt a lot. But I will try to keep away from them. There is really no time for more interests.
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Rhododendron camtschaticum/Terorhodium camschaticum in Hokkaido at 1730 m
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In Russian Far East were incredible many butterflies. When I was amazed by it the locals kept saying it was nothing, that I should see how many there were in August.
OK, these were the last pictures...
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Susann
My what a delicious pink form of camtschaticum that is, to say nothing about the spectacular scenery! Will you go back for seed...... ;)?
johnw
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Oh, to do that climb once again...This time I was motivated by finding the Pulsatilla nipponica, but to do it again in the same place? I am a mid aged women who likes chocolate and icecream a lot. It does not fit very well with climbing mountains.
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I keep saying "no more pictures here". But this photo is not mine, so it does not count. This is the cliff where the Rh/Terorhodium and Pulsatilla nipponica grew. The photographer is Hirosho Yuzawa. The waving girl is Sachiyo Yuzawa and the one in blue is me.
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I got a mail from Dieter Zschummel the other day asking when is the promised article to be published? Well, now your gardening season is beginning again...Of course I wouldn´t dream of stealing your attention from such important business. And, probably you wouldn´t care about reading anything in July...But Anton Editor and I have agreed on publishing the article in next winter issue of the journal. I am so sorry for the delay but hopefully the delay will bring more intresting pictures to the article.