Taiwan Expedition Log

August 9-29, 2008
September 5, 2008 update

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Sunday August 24, 2008

Today was some sort of bicycle day as we passed hundreds of bicyclists of all ages, climbing to the crest of the mountain as we passed from Ali Shan to Yushan. At our first stop at 7,800', we found huge patches of the 3' tall white-flowered Astilbe longicarpa. This differed dramatically from the pink flowered shorter plants I had found earlier, but the Flora of Taiwan didn't give us another option, so the astilbes certainly need more study. From there, another forested knoll was rich with cyclobalanopsis, Hydrangea chinensis, Rhododendron oldhamii, all at a much higher elevation than the Yang Ming Shan plants, along with our first sighting of Cephalotaxus wilsonii and a beautiful white-fruited gaultheria. There were seemingly new ferns at each stop, and the 4' long polystichum and 8' long Diplazium species certainly got my attention. After a long drive, it was time to retrace our steps back to the hotel.

Although we made several stops on the way back, nothing new of interest was seen ... until our "Hey, Hey, there are the monkeys!" moment ... actually it was another Formosan macaque (Macaca cyclopsis). Up until this point, the macaques had kept their distance, but here, unsuspecting visitors near a favorite tourist picnic site were feeding them, despite pleading signs to the contrary. It's a little weird to see macaques sitting on the Jersey barriers as well as car hoods looking for food. We kept our distance with windows barely open, well aware they are ferocious attackers when looking for food.

Longing for one final stop, we spotted a waste area for large boulders on the lower side of the road, but one that appeared to have forests that stretched back on a more gentle slope. The typical roadside trees are on such a steep slope, nothing short of repelling could keep you from tumbling down the mountain. As we climbed over the huge rock piles and entered the forest, we realized we were in one of the horticulturally richest sites of the entire trip. We found an old road bed, which was obviously from an earlier highway, and was now nearly 200' further out from the cliff than the current road. When the rest of the road went down the mountain, this section miraculously remained ... along with those damn loud cicadas ... oh, but for a can of RaidŽ.

Cool broadleaf evergreens were everywhere from oaks to hollies and including Daphniphyllum membranaceum, a new mahonia, viburnums, and very narrow leaf forms of Eriobotrya deflexa. Trees were again covered with both epiphytic ferns as well as Hydrangea integrifolia. There were finally good spores on the amazing white-backed Pteris fern, Dryopteris atrata, and well as a another dryopteris that was a spitting replica of Osmunda cinnamonea. The 6' tall clumping Arachniodes almost sent me over the edge ... literally, and then there was the miniature epiphytic birdnest asplenium. There was more Disporopsis arisanensis, athyriums with solid black stipes, a great clumping narrow leaf carex, the biggest clumps of Pyrrosia gralla I'd seen yet, and even cool parasitic orobanche (broomrape) ... I could go on for hours, which we actually did.

As we were driving back to the hotel, Mark screamed for me to stop. While it took a minute to find a pull off, we retraced our steps to find the plant he had glanced out of the corner of his eye when we rounded a sharp bend in the road ... a terrestrial orchid with 4'-tall bright yellow spikes in full flower, but no foliage. The plant seemed wedged beneath several feet of rock, so it was difficult to tell whether it could have been an cultivated escapee, on some fabulous native that should be in cultivation. It was the only plant in the area, so possibly the others slid down the mountain in one of the many landslides to hit this area, but at 7,200' elevation, this should be a great plant to try in temperate cultivation. Upon return, several readers let me know that the orchid is the saprophytic Galeola nudifolia...virtually ungrowable. Oh well.

After returning to the hotel, enjoying another excellent dinner, and catching up on field notes with my new laptop, we finally collapsed in our beds, only to be awakened by the 3am exodus to catch the Sunrise viewing train. Not only were the crowds noisy, but they rang the village bells for what seemed like an eternity, and although I had installed my earplugs by then, Mark tells me the hotel actually called the room to tell us the train was departing. It's obvious lots of people find a reason to get up at 3am to see the sunrise, but from the point of view of a non-interested guest, the hotel staff didn't seem to get it.