China 2009 - 6

13 Feb 2009 - Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanic Garden.

After visiting the museum, we were given a tour of the herbarium and some of the garden.

This is the herbarium building. It's a very modern facility with compactors for the cases.










Every herbarium has stuff to process and these look like parts of presses that need to be sorted and put away.










We signed the visitor's log. This is Jim Doyle signing in.














The collection is stored in compactor cases. To open an aisle the wheels on the case are turned.











Sean Graham and YQ examining some specimens. I annotated quite a few sheets in Orobanchaceae while we were there.
















The administration center is near the herbarium.












After that short tour of the herbarium, we were taken by cart to tour the garden. I'm not quite sure what this sculpture represents, but it was rather large.











Now, that's a huge leaf. Sean Graham is standing there for scale.















The mountains in Xishuangbanna are very beautiful - when you can see them through the haze, that is.












Musaceae - very interesting plant there in the foreground.
















Another view of the mountain and a pavillion.











Our private coach for the tour.













It seemed as if most of the gardening tasks were done by hand.












An avenue line with
palms.












This was interesting - a group of Dai people touring the garden. Our guide told us that the Dai like to dress alike when they travel as a group of friends. The guy standing on the right was filming.









We visited the bamboo collection, which was very impressive. There were 250 species growing in the part of the garden. I had no idea about how diverse this genus is until seeing this collection.









I love the colors of these stems.


















YQ is showing me the defense mechanism of this species of bamboo. . .













Spines galore.














Graffitti, Chinese style.

















And graffitti, Dai style.














There are a lot of interesting little display and shelter areas in the garden. I enjoyed seeing the water gardens.













A different angle of that water garden.













This tangle of vegetation is growing through a well.











The late afternoon sun made for some scenic views.












The cycad garden was also lovely in the late afternoon glow.











Some Dai people touring the garden.












One of the many species of butterfly that inhabit the garden. I really enjoyed the diversity of butterflies - I wish I could have photographed them all, but they never stayed in one place long enough for me to get a good picture.






I found these ants to be very interesting, too. They had hairs on their posterior segment.