Kazakhstan and Mongolia: recent AGS trip

[kelaidis]

I just trolled through the archives and find few mentions of the Altai or Kazakhstan, so I feel incumbent to report! I returned mid July from a terrific trip to Central Asia sponsored by AGS and Greentours, my first AGS trip. I don't think it will be the last! It's taken a few weeks to put names on the thousands of pix I took, and organize my notes. Not to mention that leaving my garden for nearly a month during the wettest summer in Colorado history has been a sort of punishment: I've been removing endless wheelbarrow loads of herbage from my "xeriscapes": mulleins, glauciums, consolida, salvias etc. grown to unbelievable size. My rock gardens, however, took only a few minutes primping when I came back and they are thriving with the coolness: masses of oreganos and summer gentians putting on a brave show...back to Kazakhstan: incredibly lush (they too have had a cool wet summer) and surprisingly pristine. I recommend the Altai and this trip in particular to all rock gardeners: the flower displays were unparalleled. Mongolia was terribly overgrazed, although we finally made it (with our camel caravan!) on our 60 mile trek into a pristine, ungrazed valley that made the rest of the country look all the more desolate. I don't think I can convey the sensation on the middle of this trek as I looked up a precipitous slope and tried to discern the narrow track where I was supposed to climb--along with 9 camels, 5 horses and a regular army of provisioners: Greentours certainly does things in style!

There were too many highlights to enumerate: although the meadows filled with giant Aquilegia glandulosa (looking for all the world like Blue Poppies) and vast fields of Gentiana grandiflora (the spitting image of Gentiana acaulis in the Alps--only compact rosettes) and sheer cliffs in the Tian Shan with Paraquilegia microphylla tucked in here and there...sublime!

    Camel caravan M 329_resize.jpg
    Prim nivalis smallest.jpg
    gentgrand2.jpg
    gentgrandsmallest.jpg
    Callianthemum alatavicum smallest.jpg
    Drac grand smallest.jpg
    dracbungsmallest.jpg
    Tulipa heteropetala smallest.jpg
    Viola tianshanica smallest.jpg
    Paraquilegia smallest.jpg

[Maggi Young]

Hi, Panayoti, great to hear from you. We've been listening to your podcast from Denver radio about the DBG book, so  having to drop by to clue us in on the Kazakh trip is a treat.

Pity you hadn't felt like keeping a camel from the trip and taking it home with you, then all that herbage could have come in handy  

[ichristie]

What a superb lot of pictures the Paraquilegis is stunning thank you for the chance to see these wonderful plants,  cheers Ian the Christie kind.

[Ragged Robin]

What excitement a camel trek and fantastic plants looking so tempting - any chance they could they be posted a little bigger Panayoti?

[ranunculus]

Sensational images Panayoti ... any size up to 770 wide would be most acceptable (would there be any possibility of posting that incredible callianthemum as a slightly larger file so that we can see the foliage please)?
It is wonderful to formally welcome you as a poster to this magnificent forum.

[Maggi Young]

I have sent a note to Panayoti to suggest optimum sizes for future photo posts. I do hope we can look forward to more from this trip.


 I have posted a message about picture sizing for the Forum, again, here: http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=65.new#new

[kelaidis]

My Heavens, you all move quickly! Sorry about the pixel size: I used the size they request when I blog at work (using a web resizer). I have a slick sizing program on my work computer: when I get a chance I'll resize these to your recommended specs (at least the Callianthemum). The original files are ridiculously big: I intend to be publishing accounts of the trip in various specialist journals (Primula, Sedum, Iris, Rock Garden etc.) in the coming months, so you will get thoroughly sick of Kazakhstan, camels and blue flowers by the time I'm done!

[Maggi Young]

I suspect that you will be pleased to learn that you can post rather more photos here than you might expect to include in most print articles, though, Panayoti.... so this is an opportunity to get more of those great photos into the public gaze.........

[Lesley Cox]

Yet another fabulous journey to be undertaken (in absentia) by Forumists.

Any thoughts of visiting New Zealand one day Panayoti?

[tonyg]

It was good to hear your voice again on the internet radio this afternoon and its great to see you looking in here.  Super pictures which hint at a tremendous adventure.  We just love to walk with the correspondents in these reports.  Some of us take a month to post reports of a short trip (it does take time to organise pics and write them up.)  You must have some stories to tell of your adventures, we'll be happy to hear a few when you have time.

[Brian Ellis]

I intend to be publishing accounts of the trip in various specialist journals (Primula, Sedum, Iris, Rock Garden etc.) in the coming months, so you will get thoroughly sick of Kazakhstan, camels and blue flowers by the time I'm done!

Somehow I very much doubt that

[John Mitchell]

Hi Panayoti,

What a trip by the sounds of it, I cant wait to see the rest of your pictures.

Cheers,
John

[mark smyth]

Keep 'em coming!

[Luc Gilgemyn]

What a great start Panayoti ! 
Awesome pictures !
Please don't let us keep you from posting (lots) more... we're a greedy bunch out here !

Thanks a million ! 

[kelaidis]

Now let's see if I managed the image reductions correctly. I begin with the Callianthemum alatavicum, photographed near the nuclear facility above Almaty. Yes, I said nuclear facility. The Corydalis gotschakovii (sp/) was also photographed there, a bit lower among willows. Yet another picture of Dracocephalum grandiflorum, one of the many blue wonders of the Altai growing here with Hedysarum (consanguineum?): we saw this in each of the four ranges we drove through in the Kazakhstan and Mongolian Altai, usually commonest in clearings of montane woodlands in in the rich subalpine meadows. The Eritrichium pauciflorum grew EVERYWHERE in the Mongolian Altai--in dry steppe like meadows, in wet meadows, tundra--you name it. That's it growing with the Trollius altaicus in the scenery shot. Something tells me it could be easy to grow. "Gentiana uniflora" looked exactly like G. verna to my eyes. Paeonia anomala was over a meter tall, and much larger flowered than what we grow under that name. The Parnassia and Primula and Saxifraga are widespread plants, but made delightful vignettes nonetheless. Let's see if my repros are any better this time...