Vietnam Trip

[Mick McLoughlin]

I've finally got around to sorting my 700 and odd pictures from Vietnam, been back 2 weeks now. Mandy suggested the idea in December and as neither of us knew much about the country is was very much a trip of discovery. One that we enjoyed very much, Vietnam being such a different place to anything we had experienced previously. I am conscious that this could degenerate into a travelogue if I'm not careful (if it does somebody letme know) but I'll try and just show general shots of the areas we visited and any plant related aspects of the trip.
We initially arrived in Hanoi At around midnight, after getting a puncture in the taxi from the airport. (A good start there I hear you say, but actually that was probably the only thing that went wrong the whole trip.)
Hanoi is a frantic city with something like 3 million motorcycles, and it seems like they are all being ridden at the same time.
In the midst of this is Hoan Kiem Lake, an area of quiet tranquillity compared to the manic streets. In the middle of the lake is an island with a temple on it and as with all temples in this part of the world there are bonsais and other unlikely plants growing in containers.

[Mick McLoughlin]

After 2 days in Hanoi, the noise and pollution were getting to us and we went to Halong bay for a 3 day boat trip in this area of oustanding natural beauty. As you can see we were not the only ones there.
There are fish farms dotted about the bay and floating villages (not sure what they used before the blue platic oil drums were invented), we were told that some people never set foot on the mainland and are born and die on the floating villages. They have boats equipped as shops which they row out to the tourist boats in the hope of selling a packet of biscuits or super-glue.

[Mick McLoughlin]

There were quite a few birds of prey about so I presume there was some wildlife on the islets, of which there are about two thousand. We also caught sight of a heron, any identification anyone.
We stopped off for a cycle trip around Cat Ba island where we saw this stunning leaf, no idea of what plant. There was also this white flower quite common and the flowering shrub was used as a hedge.

[mark smyth]

I enjoyed Rick Stein's programme when he went around the far east sampling food. It looked great. Did you enjoy the food?

[Mick McLoughlin]

We also had a trip into a cave system. The Vietnamese insist the gaudy lights make it look better, but it did show an example of plants opportunism as these 2 ferns were growing in the area of the lights which would otherwise have been darkness.
Thats all for tonight, tomorrow we go trekking in the hillsides around Sapa on the chinese border.

[Mick McLoughlin]

Yes Mark we had good food everywhere we went. It was all cooked fresh and a number of different dishes at each meal. Whilst in Sapa we stayed with a local family of the Zay tribe and cooked the meal with them over an open wood fire, even sampling some pork they had curing over the fire, as everything we ate was grown there on the farm.
We had to quickly learn to use chopsticks otherwise we may have starved to death.

[Gail]

Wonderful pictures Mick, lovely to see somewhere so exotic. 
I think you giant leaved plant was probably an Alocasia, one of several plants that share the common name of elephant ears, & the red flowering shrub is most likely Malvaviscus arboreus, related to Hibiscus.

[TheOnionMan]

Wonderful pictures Mick, lovely to see somewhere so exotic. 
I think you giant leaved plant was probably an Alocasia, one of several plants that share the common name of elephant ears, & the red flowering shrub is most likely Malvaviscus arboreus, related to Hibiscus.

I concur with the Alocasia ID, however I don't believe the red-flowered plant to be Malvaviscus, it surely looks like a true Hibiscus species to me (it is a huge and wonderfully varied genus).  Malvaviscus has softer light green mildly rugose leaves, and upfacing flowers that never open more than shown in my photos, although the stigma does exsert itself beyond the twisting petals.

[Gail]

I concur with the Alocasia ID, however I don't believe the red-flowered plant to be Malvaviscus, it surely looks like a true Hibiscus species to me (it is a huge and wonderfully varied genus).  Malvaviscus has softer light green mildly rugose leaves, and upfacing flowers that never open more than shown in my photos, although the stigma does exsert itself beyond the twisting petals.

Happy to bow to your superior judgement Mark, I've never grown the plant.  Although interestingly in the Martin & Rix book Conservatory and Indoor Plants Vol 1, they show a pic of M. arboreus in Hong Kong with distinctly nodding flowers and M. arboreus var. mexicanus at the Huntington garden, California which looks very like yours with mostly upright flowers (but protruding stamens); though the text for the latter says nodding flowers.....

[TheOnionMan]

Happy to bow to your superior judgement Mark, I've never grown the plant.  Although interestingly in the Martin & Rix book Conservatory and Indoor Plants Vol 1, they show a pic of M. arboreus in Hong Kong with distinctly nodding flowers and M. arboreus var. mexicanus at the Huntington garden, California which looks very like yours with mostly upright flowers (but protruding stamens); though the text for the latter says nodding flowers.....

Well Mick, I just spent some more time on this and it seems there is much more to the story, and my response on Malvaviscus may have been hasty .  The following link shows photos of both upright forms (with which I am familiar) and drooping forms (M. penduliflorus, M. arboreus var. penduliflorus, M. arboreus var. mexicanus).  The one I grew was from Plant Delights Nursery (M. drummondii, Malvaviscus arboreus var. drummondii), a Southern US native.

http://almostedenplants.com/shopping/shopdisplayproducts.asp?Search=Yes&sppp=10

[Oron Peri]

We stopped off for a cycle trip around Cat Ba island where we saw this stunning leaf, no idea of what plant. There was also this white flower quite common.

Mick, the white flower is Bidens pilosa, an invasive plant originated to S. America.

The Alocasia is probably A. macrorhiza.

[cohan]

what a great winter trip! looking forward to more...

[Mick McLoughlin]

Thanks for all the response everyone and plant IDs. Some more for you now Cohan.
We went for a 3 day trip into the mountains at Sapa in the north of the country. Hope to ethnic tribes and villages. It can be very misty and cold there, but we happened to get some very warm and sunny weather and no rain. The hillside is terraced to form the paddy fields, picture 4 is'nt Devon David N although you may consider it if your amount of rain continues.
They looked to be trying to modernise the irrigation with concrete channels but there was more running in the old bamboo drain. The villagers were self sufficient with pigs and chickens wandering about the paths, the buffalo are used for working the fields and very precious to them.
It was approaching the TET festival of the new year and it is tradition to bring flowering and fruiting shrubs into the house for good luck. In the final picture are some lads who had been up into the hills cutting boughs off flowering cherries and selling them by the roadside. It is quite amusing and amazing to see somebody riding past on a motorbike with half a tree in flower on the back or even a fully fruiting orange bush.

[Mick McLoughlin]

We didn't get much chance to look off the beaten track for any plants but here are a few we did see.
First is Indigo plant which they grow all around the villages to dye their fabrics.
Next I'll guess at Iridacae? Sorry about the loss of colour the light was very strong, the flower in the background is probably best indication of the blue colour.
The rest are plants that were seen around the pathways. No ideas on any of them.

[Mick McLoughlin]

More plants now. On returning to Hanoi we paid a visit to Hanoi botanical gardens, there didn't seem a lot to see it was more of what would be a recreational park in this country, although there was a nice orchid house.
Some of the trees in the grounds were labelled. The roots on the Ficus elastica had wonderfull supporting root systems.