A 2 week impulse trip to Yunnan

[arisaema]

As some of you may already know I'm just back from two weeks of "botanizing" in Yunnan with Bjarne, another forumist from Norway. It was a bit of an impulse trip with very little planning, I think we decided on the trip in late April, but a busy schedule and a last minute change of province ment we didn't really get anything planned till the very last week before we took off.

Looking back the lack of planning didn't really mater, China is an incredibly easy and welcoming country to travel in, and Yunnan is so rich in plants that you can't really go wrong no matter where you are! (Well, unless you're on a wild goose chase hoping to find Meconopsis betonicifolia on the road between Lijiang and Jianchuan - that particular road has absolutely nothing of interest, the specific location must be further south between Jianchuan and Dali where the road passes over the CangShan range.)

If there's any interest I'll upload a few pictures of a few of the plants we spotted, Bjarne is a far better photographer than me, so hopefully he'll join in with his pictures.

[fleurbleue]

Great, great interest Arisaema !  Be sure of it 

[arisaema]

ShikaShan, Zhongdian - at the summit

ShikaShan is a limestone mountain right next to Zhongdian/Shangri-La, developed for tourism and complete with a ropeway, wooden walkways, fences and (annoyingly) several guards to keep you from straying off the path, starting landslides or tumbling off cliffs. We made sure to follow the rules, and always kept our, umm, toes soundly planted on the right side of the fence

[arillady]

ooo wah I don't think I would have trusted that fence - seems a loooooooog way down.  The things that gardeners/photographers do to get that plant.

[arisaema]

The summit of Shika Shan is some 4300m above sea level, Zhongdian/Shangri-La town by comparison lies at about 3200m. Corydalis pachycentra grew everywhere it had enough moisture, but there was also another taller, yellow-flowered species.

Anyone know the names of the legumes?

[arisaema]

Getting a decent picture of the Paraquilegia required quite a bit of the "fence acrobatics" pictured above... Is this P. microphylla or P. anemonoides?

[Maggi Young]

Super photos.... can't help feeling that the plants are being kept safe from all sorts of dangers by the fences... even if that is making life frustrating for the photographers!
One only has to see the trampled corpses of plants beside open paths in some mountain paths to realise the damage that can be caused by the careless feet of many tourists......

[arisaema]

An Aletris, a Pedicularis, a Potentilla and a few crucifers.

[arisaema]

The summit had plenty of Primula species, carpets of P. nanobella, plenty of P. amethystina, a lot of a species with affinities to apoclita and a few scattered P. chionantha (ssp. sinopurpurea?).

[Gunilla]

I enjoy your photos from Yunnan very much.  More, please  .

[fleurbleue]

The legum. could be Chesneya nubigena...  ("Plants of Himalaya and chinese mountains" by Cedric Basset)

[Maggi Young]

FOC link for the Chesneya -  http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=242312402  I do like these "peas" though I cannot tell one from another, wherever it comes from. 

The Aletris is new to me so I found that in FOC too.... quite a few Chinese species, I discover....
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=100995

[art600]

My impulse trips are always Europe.  Now I know that it is possible to include China....

Will PM to get more details of how you arranged Hotels/travel etc, unless you want to post this helpful info here on the Forum.

My trip to Yunnan was in 1996 and it is a place I would like to return to.

[arisaema]

Will PM to get more details of how you arranged Hotels/travel etc, unless you want to post this helpful info here on the Forum.

We did it the "backpacker-way", arranging everything as we arrived... I used Lonely Planet China's Southwest as a rough guide, picked locations from the gallery of Harry Jans and off the Greentours intineraries, and chose to stay in western-oriented backpacker hostels/guesthouses (they have staff fluent in English and can always arrange cheap local drivers, the only down-side is that they tend to be a bit noisier than your standard business hotel).

If you want pointers on where to stay or where to go just drop me a PM, I've spent some three months vacationing in China, mostly Yunnan and Sichuan

[arisaema]

The legum. could be Chesneya nubigena...  ("Plants of Himalaya and chinese mountains" by Cedric Basset)

Thanks, that looks close, but checking thru Harry Jans' gallery there's also Spongiocarpella yunnanensis, which also looks close Like Maggi, I have a hard time telling one yellow pea from the other...

More pics coming up later, hoping Bjarne will post some of his before we move on to the next location