Japan , Taiwan , Korea

[Philip MacDougall]

Most of the countries in Eastern Asia have direct flights from Vancouver, I've made several trips there, including a recent one to Japan and Taiwan. Taiwan is fascinating because the flora is so close to that of mainland China and so much easier to acess, no travel restrictions exist. I can rent a car and hoof up to the mountains upon landing, there's even an English based GPS unit to help with the drive, something hard to come by in the rest of Asia. John Weagle has been encouraging me to post some pics, it's been remiss of me not to, I'll try to do this over the next few days.
 To my mind the most astounding plants in Taiwan are the ferns, there are over 600 taxa, except for the Asplenium and perhaps the tree fern all the ones in this post are temperate. Ferns have been given short shift by plant collectors, nothing brings this to the fore more than visiting the mountains of Taiwan. Keep in mind many of these taxa are my best guess, I'd welcome more informed views.
  It’s hard to pick a favorite, the Woodwardia Jens is beside was great, the fronds were 8 feet long. It may not be unigemmata as it was so much larger than this fern should be and it’s location at 2600 meters makes it cool temperate. The Pteris wallichiana was also tall enough to stand under, a beautiful thing that appeared to be a clumper. Araiostegia pedurans had great texture and form as did the Davallia that seemed to be everywhere. Will move on to flowering plants with next post.

 Adiantum capillus-veneris.JPG
 Adiantum caudatum perhaps.JPG
 Adiantum philippense and perhaps Onychium sp.JPG
 Araiostegia pedurans.JPG
 Aspenium before lunch.JPG
 asplenium for lunch.JPG
 cheilanthes.JPG
 cheilanthes spore.JPG
 Chionogramme sp..JPG
 Climbing fern.JPG

[Philip MacDougall]

More ferns

 Climbing fern spore pattern.JPG
 Dana holds a cool fern from a rock fall.JPG
 Dana's fern closeup.JPG
 Davallia sp.1.JPG
 Davallia sp. at 3300m.JPG
 Diplopterigium glaucum.JPG
 Dipteris conjuncta.JPG
 Dryopteris wallichiana.JPG
 Fern sp 1.JPG
 

[Philip MacDougall]

And the last few

 Dipteris conjuncta closeup.JPG
 Getting a bit small spore pattern.JPG
 Fern sp 1.JPG
 Fern sp 2.JPG
 Fern sp. 2 spore pattern.JPG
 Fern sp. 4.JPG
 Gary and dana trying to decide what fern to shoot first.JPG
 I give up.JPG
 Microsorium mebranaceum.JPG
 Microsorium mebranaceum closeup.JPG

[Paddy Tobin]

Philip,

I'm glad that John prevailed on you to post a report on your travels as it is very interesting indeed with a selection of not so often seen plants. I am intrigued by the lunch menu.

More to come?

Paddy

[Philip MacDougall]

Paddy, 25 more to post if I can get this blasted peice of techo-crap to work. Philip

 Microsorium mebranaceum spore pattern.JPG
 Microsorium sp.JPG
 Nephrolepsis sp. perhaps.JPG
 Perhaps Colysis sp..JPG
 Plagiogyria formosana.JPG
 Plagiogyria formosana under.JPG
 Polystichum perhaps falcatum.JPG
 Polystichum spore pattern.JPG
 Pteris ensiformis.JPG

[Philip MacDougall]

Yes, there are more.

 Pteris multifida.JPG
 Pteris wallichiana 1.JPG
 Pteris wallichiana fiddle.JPG
 pyrosia ligua.JPG
 Pyrosia ligua leaf.JPG
 Pyrrosia polydactylis.JPG
 Thin fern at nanushan.JPG
 Tree fern at the top of Yamingshan.JPG
 Unknown perhaps Cheilanthes.JPG
 Woodwardia unigemmata.JPG

[Paddy Tobin]

That woodwardia is a fabulous plant.

For future postings it might make it easier to resize your shots to about 600/650 on the long side. They will be a smaller file size as a result and will post faster for you. You can also save at a medium quality as high quality is not needed at the size they photographs will be viewed.

Paddy

[Philip MacDougall]

Paddy, I will try to use your method, getting these to the right size for posting was a chore. I think my Olympus program will let me follow your suggested route. Thanks for the tip. Philip  

 Woodwardia unigemmata new growth.JPG
 Rhododendron pseudochrysanthum pearches off a clif at Heuhan Shan.JPG

[Maggi Young]

Philip, great to see these plants... so glad John prevailed!
Saw Jens at the SRGC AGM on Saturday last, think he said hello to Ian, but he always sails right past me!

I am resizing your photos, to make them easier to load on those  Guys with dial-up or  slow connections and  to see on smaller monitors and also adding the photo file names in the text of the posts, otherwise they cannot be found by the search engine!  
You will notice that I am reducing the width to a maximum of 760 pixels and compressing them to reduce overall file size.

[Brian Ellis]

Wonderful ferns Philip, you can see why the Victorians went mad over them!  Thanks for posting, well persuaded John

[cohan]

glad to see these.. i've always loved ferns, though not grown that many