Taiwan Expedition Log

August 9-29, 2008
September 5, 2008 update

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Monday August 18, 2008

As we continued driving at a steady climb, we found a nice small sedum growing on a roadside cliff along with many clumps of Pyrrosia polydactyla, mostly with unlobed leaves ... possibly a factor of the high elevation of 7,600'. Another small patch of woods at nearly 8,000' elevation yielded a new mahonia and a long, narrow-leaf pittosporum which I already grew from one of Dan's collections, all growing under Tsuga chinensis and Picea morrisonicola. Hydrangeas were everywhere here, as was the case throughout most of Taiwan. It was fascinating to see Hydrangea integrifolia growing side by side with Schizophragma, two different genera of climbing hydrangeas. Also growing here were some very high elevation forms of davallia fern, Woodwardia unigemmata, and a stunning 4' tall, black-stiped dryopteris.

We stopped for lunch at a roadside caf\xe9 at the small town of Dayuling, located where Highway 8 and Highway 14 intersect. After waking up the neighborhood pigs as we emerged from the van, they warmly welcomed us by showing us exactly what they thought of their American visitors. This put us the in mood for a delicious, but probably not particularly sanitary lunch of ... what else ... pork. We decided since we had plenty of time and a short travel day, we would take off southwest on Highway 14 from Dayuling toward the top of Hehuan Shan. Between the high winds, crazy drivers, winding steep roads, and thoughts of our pig friends, it was one of those days you hope your deodorant has good staying power.

As we topped 8,600' feet, one stop near a short trail yielded our highest elevation sighting of Schefflera taiwanense. By our next stop at 9,340' feet, we had cleared the tree line and reached the sub-alpine zone. The base shrubs here were Juniperus communis and dwarf rhododendrons, interconnected by purple-flowered Miscanthus sinensis, and carpeted underneath with Rubus pentalobus and Lycopodium pseudoclavatum. At this elevation, the Lilium formosanum was dwarfed to 18" tall, which is what is known in the trade as L. formosanum var. pricei. Among the lilies were huge populations of astilbe and ferns such as dwarf aspleniums, ophioglossum, and gymnocarpium ... all known to love cooler weather. I was surprised to find patches of origanum, dianthus, and scutellaria filling in between the occasional clumps of flowering veratrum. This was our first sighting of a bright yellow flowered gentian, which was very abundant among the rocks. Another spectacular find, Coriaria sp. was in full fruit and was amazing, but probably not growable. On the other hand, a new groundcover yellow-flowered sedum might be. We continued to climb until we reached the Hehuan Visitor Station at 10,110' elevation. Signs for the ski resort and winter tire advisories told us for certain we were no longer in a subtropical climate. We had hoped to continue down the other side and check out the vegetation there, but the sign saying 10% climb ahead deterred us ... besides it was time to backtrack down the mountain in order to reach our hotel by dark. The drivers on this stretch of mountain road were among some of the craziest we had encountered, passing on blind corners around double yellow lines on one-lane stretches ... and all at 10,000' elevation. If NASCAR needs some new drivers, they should recruit in the Taiwanese mountains.

After we turned around and began descending, we made a couple of final stops on Highway 8 that yielded Tricyrtis ravenii and a spotted clone of Petasites formosanus on a bank at 8,000' elevation, a nice lepisorus fern from 7,800' and finally, but certainly not least, Iris formosana from 4,400'. Iris formosana is the Taiwan counterpart of Iris japonica that is larger in all parts. As we were descending into the Taroko Gorge region on Highway 8, our daily dose of fog arrived around 5pm. This slowed the already dangerous driving to a crawl as we crept down the mountain with visibility only a few feet until the fog finally moved out. Just before 6pm, we finally arrived at the Grand Formosa Hotel in the town of Tianshiang.

The Grand Formosa was another in a string of excellent hotels and our first with showers with a glass door to keep the water from running all over the bathroom floor. After getting cleaned and semi-presentable, we enjoyed a delicious buffet dinner at the hotel. Dinner was the first time since we left Taipei that we had seen any westerners, so obviously this was a major tourist destination.