Dear Rockers from all over the world!
I am very sorry to admit that I have not been on the forum for many years. I it is a very bad excuse, but it has been for personal reasons.
I still love Pulsatilla very much and I hope that you all do the same. The monograph is still under process but I have now pt a deadline for the field studies. After July 31 there will be no more field studies even if God drops a new species with golden leaves and diamond tepals right outside my fence. Well, maybe then... with your permisson?
The manuscript is being written but slovely. I really want to include as much as possible about every single species but in the same time make sure that what I tell is correct. That makes the process advancing slowly. Maybe I would need an editor chasing me as true writers have?
Just to tell you a little bit what I have been doing for the last six years. I have every spring/ early summer been in field to study the natural habitats. I have spent 14 months in field. I have felt so blessed being able to do this and I am so grateful to all local botanists that have helped me to conduct those studies in situ. You will be, not surprised, but stunned, when you see the list of acknowledge.
I have if I have calculated correctly visited 23 countries in my hunt for finding species (53 this far), many of them not only on the IUCN Red list but also on the very top classifications from "vulnerable" to "critically endangered". Some of them might soon be in the classification "EW"; extinct in the wild. A very sad but true vision of the future.
If there will be time and if I can learn how to do it I would like to create a webpage to give you some teases while waiting for the result of my studies. But I am afraid it will be too time consuming and complicated to learn how create a nice and well functioning webpage as it would need to be updated all the time to tell about both past achievements but also update about the progress of the work. Please, do not take my dream too seriously and wait for it. It is just as I say just a dream; a way to thank you for being so patience with the time this work has taken.
Now, as many times before I have som questions.
First of all is there anyone that have any knowledge of a really good translator- from Swedish to English? The translation will be done during 2020.
And may there be anyone that know about any editorials that might be interested in printing such a work? As being a non-scholar, not connected with any institution, most doors are being closed for me regarding printing.
Finally I want to mention someting that might interest you a little more than my worries about finishing the project. And that is theT ieldstudies that (hopefully)will be conducted during 2019.
There are two areas that I have not yet covered. Saving the best to the last. I always prefer to travel alone as I am very focused on
Pulsatilla and
Pulsatilla only.
But now i am searching for travel company as these two places will be too expensive to visit by myself and also because it would be very nice to spend a little longer time once being there.
My first place I offer to visit is Pamir; Tien Shan. it is most likely to be Tadzjikistan but might be Kyrgystan (or why not both of them) for
Pulsatilla kostyczewii; a very interesting intermediar species between
Anemone and
Pulsatilla . There are two more species being placed between the two genuses, one of them being placed in
Anemone -Anemone occidentalis and the other in
Pulsatilla - Pulsatilla bungeana v astragalaefolia like
Pulsatilla kostyczewii. This part of my trip might be as early as late May but most probably in early June.
The second area I need to cover is western Himalaya, that is somewhere around Baltistan, Jammu and Kashmir or maybe even, but not very likely, Himachal Pradesh. This for the mythical and almost extinct
Pulsatilla wallichiana. This part will be after visiting Tien Shan.
Of someone might be interested in coming, please, just let me know. Feel free to contact me; it does not mean that you are "signing up" for my mini-expediton. If you decide to come I will of course adapt to your wishes. But please be aware; my travelling style is not four stars hotels or fancy restaurants. My focus is on mountain.
To contact me - if you would have red this far - please use my e-mail suss.garden@gmail.com or contact me via a phone call or WhatsApp by +46 705389654. (I hope our dear Maggi will not get crazy me putting the personal contact details here)
Let us end with a competition. Who is this little darling? First person to answer correct is offered a free sip of this cures it all tincture.
