Flooded roads required many detours through the rugged terrain. Plane trees ( Platanus), Chinese elms ( Ulmus parvifolia), Cunninghamia, and dawn redwoods ( Metasequoia) were all common along the roadsides, along with fields of hemp ( Cannabis) and sugar cane. They had the distinction of being the first foreign visitors to Shennongjia in over 30 years, a rich forest district explored by Ernest Wilson in the early 20th century.įrom Wuhan, they traveled to Yichang (Ichang) on August 22 by minibus. At Wuhan Botanical Institute, the group further refined their collecting plans and met with Professor Sun, the expedition director. After settling at their hotel, they met with Ran Chong-shi and Wang-Wu Ling, both of the Wuhan Academy of Sciences, for an initial briefing. On August 19, the team traveled to Wuhan by air. Observed included the yellow-paint maple (Acer pictum), date-plums ( Diospyros lotus), and the lacebark pine ( Pinus bungeana) with it’s striking white bark. Notable taxa Taxon: In biology, a taxon (plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. The next day they were introduced to the 1384 acre (560 hectare) Beijing Botanical Garden, which at that time had 3,000 species in cultivation.

The team visited the Great Wall, where Spongberg noted a large variety of mountain flora. Of species not represented in the west, such as whitebeam ( Sorbus) and Magnolia. Of particular interest were the type specimens type specimens: While at the Institute, they spent time in its herbarium. It was the co-publisher of the monumental Flora of China series.

Founded in 1950, the Institute focuses on morphology, biology, ecology, paleobotany, the vegetation of China, and in more recent years molecular biology and phylogeny. Before venturing into the field they met with their Chinese hosts at the Institute of Botany. Spongberg and his colleagues arrived in Beijing in mid-August. The other Chinese members were Tang Yan-Cheng and Ying Junshen (Ying Tsun-Shen) of the Institute of Botany, Beijing He Shan-An of the Jiangsu Institute of Botany, Nanjing Zheng Zhong (Cheng Zhong), Jin Yi-Xin, and Wan Jiz-Xiang of the Wuhan Institute of Botany Li Qing-Yee of Wuhan University and Zhang Aoluo (Chang Ao-Lo) of the Kunming Institute of Botany.Īugust 16-23 Leaves and a blossom of an Indian lotus (Nelumbo mucifera) at the Beijing Botanic Garden. The Chinese team included expedition leader Sun Xiangzhong (Sun Siang-Chung) of the Wuhan Institute of Botany, who oversaw the trip and directed his Chinese colleagues. Dudley of the United States National Arboretum and James L. The American delegation included Bruce Bartholomew of the University of California-Berkeley David Boufford of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History Theodore R. The original slides are housed in the Arboretum Archives. Unless otherwise noted, his photographs accompany this article. Spongberg represented the Arnold Arboretum. The three-month trip, from mid-August to mid-November 1980, involved 13 botanists from nine institutes in China and the United States. The specimens were widely distributed to a number of botanical institutions throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Specimens can be stored indefinitely and are used for a wide variety of botanical research. The joint Chinese-American team working mostly in the species-diverse Shennongjia Forest District and surrounding region in Hubei Province, made 621 germplasm germplasm:Ĭollections and 2,085 herbarium collections Herbarium specimen: An herbarium specimen is a pressed and dried plant sample that is generally mounted on a sheet of paper. Photograph by Stephen Spongberg on the Great Wall of China, August 1980. Some of the expedition team members with other associates and friends. This project is a benchmark for the volume and variety of its collections, and for the collaboration of the participants, during what were then escalating Cold War tensions. The 1980 Sino-American Botanical Expedition (SABE) marked the first plant collecting trip to China by western botanists since the end of the Chinese Revolution and the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Map of the collecting area for the 1980 Sino-American Botanical Expedition.

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