Taiwan Expedition Log

August 9-29, 2008
September 5, 2008 update

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Thursday August 14, 2008

From the Villa, we drove higher up the mountain, then down slightly, ending at the Wang Yang Shan trail at the 6,200' Cueifong Lake. Along our drive to the top, we noticed abundant quantities of a familiar plant, Polygonum cuspidatum. Ironically, the vast majority of the plants here flowered red, with only a few white flowered clones interspersed. If I didn't know better, I'd swear this is where the genetics of P. 'Crimson Beauty' originated. Other interesting plants we encountered along our drive included Sassafras randaiense and Rhododendron formosanum, the latter forming huge thickets atop the roadside banks ... it must be spectacular in flower.

This cloud forest area at Cueifong Lake was filled with many huge specimens of the endemic trees of the region, most adorned with both terrestrial and epiphytic ferns. The trail started with masses of a eupatorium resembling E. fortuei growing among the Hydrangea aspera. As we hiked further, we were greated with large plants of Schefflera taiwaniana, followed by more cool evergreens including an amazing small leaf evergreen lindera, a killer little-leaf skimmia, S. japonica var. distincte-venulosa, along with a nice selection of perennials including asarums, gentians and even Shortia appendiculata, all growing among large specimens of Rhododendron formosanum and a massive overstory of Chamaecyparis obtusa var. formosana towering like giant skyscapers above our heads.

When we finished hiking the trail, we retraced our route, while rising in elevation to 6,548', where we made a stop by a steep roadside rocky cliff to see native stands of Lilium formosanum in flower. This species had fascinated me since most of the plants in cultivation are a tall-growing form with no purple on the back of the petals, while all material with wild collection data had dark purple flower backs and matured in the 3-4' tall range. If this was the real Lilium formosanum, what are the plants I and many others are growing under this name? ... stay tuned. Growing in the rocks was an amazing davallia (rabbit's foot fern), an o nychium, Pyrrosia polydactyla, and a very cool 2'-tall nephrolepis, probably N. auriculata (Boston fern), all interspersed with hundreds of astilbe that should most certainly be winter hardy. The plant that really surprised us was the European native Digitalis purpurea, which has naturalized throughout the entire Taiping Shan region.

Within the next mile we stopped again at a small patch of trees to find an amazing array of woody plants, including what we think is a chionanthus (fringe tree), Michellia compressa (Taiwan magnolia), Cyclobalanopsis moorei (Moore's evergreen oak), a lovely Acer (maple) with red new growth, the familiar Hydrangea paniculata in flower, and of course, the country's namesake, Taiwania cryptomerioides.

As we passed our hotel heading down the tightly curving mountain road, we came to a screeching halt when we spotted a huge mass of Pyrrosia sheareri growing along the road. Little did we know that it would soon become a widespread find during the next week of our trip. At the same stop, we found a huge clone of Arisaema taiwanensis with excellent stem markings along with our first sighting of Disporopsis arisanensis (evergreen Solomon's seal). The trees here were covered with superb climbers, the evergreen Hydrangea integrifolia and Schizophragma integrifolia.

We continued down the mountain to another stop just above 6,000', where we found some dazzling black-stemmed Arisaema formosana along growing under some high elevation Fatsia polycarpa. There were also hugh clumps of what seemed to be a davallia (possibly an araiostegia) fern with 2'-long fronds, growing on several of the large trees. This would surely make a fine garden specimen if it proves to be winter hardy, which seems very likely at this elevation. We were also at the top elevational reaches of a colocasia we saw throughout Taiwan. Although they call this C. esculenta var. aquatilis, it is nothing like the plant we grow under that name. This form, which occurs between 3,000' and 6,000' never reaches more than 2' in height and spreads vigorously by stolons.

As we continued down the mountain, not far from our previous stop, we paused to examine some unusual wavy-leaf Arisaema we thought resembled A. formosana. Unlike A. formosana, these had rhizomes instead of corms ... I need more time to study this one. Unsure of how much time it would take to find our next hotel, we rushed down the mountain and headed back north on Highway 7. While we had hoped to spend two nights at the Taiping Shan Villa, we were only able get reservations for one night, so our Taiwan travel agent had booked us in to a Bed and Breakfast about 1 hour drive from the top. We were off the mountain by 315pm, not knowing how long it would take us to find our upcoming nights accommodations. The first rain we'd seen on the trip started as we exited the mountain, but it wasn't even heavy enough to interfere with driving. As we had traveled back up the stretch of Highway 7 we had come down a day earlier, we had kept our eye out for the B&B, fearing it could have been one of the many buildings swept away by the raging waters of the Lanyang River during the recent typhoons.

After only about 15 minutes on Hwy 7, we recognized our evening accommodations from the photos on the web. The Ying Shih Bed and Breakfast was anything but what we expected. As the rain subsided, we found a delightfully modern Japanese-style hotel, complete with a 5-star rotating restaurant ... yes, a rotating restaurant. Why anyone would put a rotating restaurant in the midst of nowhere I can't figure, but I'm glad we found it. We checked into the room to find a lovely, spacious, but steamy room and an air-conditioning we couldn't get to work. After a call to the front desk, it was explained the air conditioning wasn't turned on until 5pm, but magically it kicked in just after our call.

The hotel room view to the pond of giant koi and the not so distant Lanyang River bed was quite nice, but I'm glad I didn't have this view during the recent typhoon. I was even more glad when I noticed the back of the hotel was secured with tractor tires as a retaining wall. Some how, I don't think the ferns that had naturalized in the tires would be enough to hold back a raging river. The restaurant was exquisite for dinner, and if you're in the area, I encourage you to drop by.

The farm next door was the first, but certainly not the last place we saw persimmon trees with every fruit individually bagged. We would later see the same with both peach trees and bananas throughout central Taiwan. It appeared to us this technique was employed to grow perfect, high quality pesticide free fruit that could then be sold at a premium price. Fruit was not the only widespread crop as tea plantations also dotted some amazingly steep slopes in the Central Mountain Range. There is evidently a small backlash movement in Taiwan against fruit and other crops grown on farms in the high mountains since we saw advertisements telling people not to eat fruit grown in the mountains because of Ecocide ... the tree huggers new catch word in Taiwan for those who do anything other than gaze at trees.