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snasxs

Emmenopterys henryi - pink strain from Hunan

snasxs
12 years ago

These may be what E.H. Wilson saw in the wild in 1907. The plant flowers for extended period. The abundant clusters of fragrant creamy white 1-inch funnel-shaped flowers can be up to 10 inches across and are surrounded by large pink 'bracts'. The bracts last until frost and deepen to a burgundy color. I am sorry that I cannot supply larger or better pictures due to copyright respect.

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The whole tree from afar.

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Inflorescence detail:

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Sample collected before frost.

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Comments (28)

  • Embothrium
    12 years ago

    You own all these images yourself?

  • snasxs
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    bboy, the original images are much larger and detailed. I am allowed to use 10% and small versions for non-profit purposes.

    For everyone else, Emmenopterys henryi is an endangered and unusual deciduous tree that has grown to over 100 feet, though in cultivation, 60 feet is more reasonable. It is the only surviving species in a monotypic genus of the Rubiaceae family. As you can see, its flowers are unlike others. After the last Ice Age, it most disappeared from earth with only a few surviving colonies in China. These have rapidly declined with the development of rural China, the pollution and environmental changes. The tree is healthy but they require very long childhood and exact climate before reproducing. The trees in cultivation refused to bloom. The first tree in Britain to flower, in 1987 at Wakehurst Place, was more than 75 years old; the first in Europe, also decades old, was at Villa Taranto on Italy's Lake Maggiore, in 1971. The Wakehurst Place tree has not flowered since; nor have any others in Britain.

  • brandon7 TN_zone7
    12 years ago

    "The tree is healthy but they require very long childhood and exact climate before reproducing. The trees in cultivation refused to bloom."

    They are supposedly blooming at 6 years old at Quarryhill. There's also many other reports of Emmenopterys henryi flower displays at other gardens.

    ForestFarm has these at a decent price BTW.

  • brandon7 TN_zone7
    12 years ago

    Here's a link to a similar thread (including the picture copyright concerns - LOL)....

    Here is a link that might be useful: Emmenopterys henryi, do you enjoy the fragrant?

  • brandon7 TN_zone7
    12 years ago

    "The Wakehurst Place tree has not flowered since; nor have any others in Britain."

    Apparently, this info is outdated also....

    Here is a link that might be useful: Article from the Guardian

  • snasxs
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Brandon, are you the person who said to have lost memories? (smile ...) I hope you are not color-blind. Ok, anyways, I saw the alleged blooming in Britain. Nope, it is not a real bloom. A guide has to point out where the flower is. The tree was not in bloom. I also feel the Quarryhill situation strange. Could it be that they used some chemicals? NC State did have a bloom. But the pictures show a whitish green color ...

  • snasxs
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Brandon, I have another question: is ForestFarm a large farm? I visited their website. It looks quite clean. Are you familiar with these farms?

  • brandon7 TN_zone7
    12 years ago

    "Brandon, are you the person who said to have lost memories?"

    I don't remember.

    "Nope, it is not a real bloom."

    ???

    "I also feel the Quarryhill situation strange. Could it be that they used some chemicals?"

    I guess anything's possible, but that would be quite a leap to believe with currently available info.

  • snasxs
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Interesting story from Quarryhill:

    (quote) The first time that I collected seed of Magnolia wilsonii was in the fall of 1992 on Niba Shan in
    western Sichuan. Hans Fliegner and Martin Staniforth from Kew, and Charles Howick and I
    were on our way to Muli in southwestern Sichuan. Our guide from the Chengdu Institute of
    Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences had told us that it occurred on Niba Shan, so we
    stopped on our way to take a look. We hunted for hours through dense forest and finally came
    upon one good sized 10 meter high tree. After a thorough search of the tree, we found only one
    fruit with six good seeds. We divided these three ways and found out later that Kew successfully
    germinated one seed, Howick one, and Quarryhill only one. I went over the same mountain two
    years later in the fall of 1994, this time with Charles Erskine and Hans Fliegner from Kew, and
    Charles Howick. We were all shocked to see the area where we had found the magnolia two
    years previously completely denuded and being planted with a monoculture of spruce.

    We did manage to make a seed collection of Magnolia wilsonii later during that expedition in

    1. On our return to Chengdu, we decided to stop at Luoji Shan. Unlike my recent visit there,
      this time we were on the other side of the picturesque range. This was long before Luoji Shan
      was made a Nature Reserve. Now there is a cable car and stone steps bringing thousands of
      tourists up into this botanical paradise. I first visited Luoji Shan with Charles Howick in 1990
      and hadn't noticed any magnolias then. On that first visit we had started from a small Yi village
      and climbed for days with porters and horses carrying our gear over the rugged steep mountains.
      However, on our second visit, despite torrential rain, we spotted an area that we had overlooked
      before just above the village. Here, there were several Magnolia wilsonii, though few had seed.
      Our frustration with the lack of seeds was further exacerbated by their failure afterward to
      germinate.

    That one seed that germinated from our 1992 expedition is now a healthy three meter high tree at
    Quarryhill, as wide as it is tall. Growing in Sonoma Valley in our rocky acidic soil, in mostly
    sun with a little light shade from a Toona sinensis, it flowers heavily and consistently year after
    year. I frequently bring visitors to see it, not just for its beauty and delightful fragrance, but
    more importantly to tell the story of how it is disappearing from the wild.

  • brandon7 TN_zone7
    12 years ago

    Don't those type of stories make you incredibly jealous of those that can take such trips to exotic places hunting for rare plants. It's not like the physical extremes that I know some of them have to go through would be my cup of tea, but the adventure would really be something.

  • snasxs
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    To Sam in Maryland, do you have some of these flowering? If you do, are yours pink?

  • snasxs
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    I suddenly think: could this be given a cultivar name like pink hydrangea tree?

  • brandon7 TN_zone7
    12 years ago

    Is it noticeably distinct from all other individuals within the species and from all other previously accepted cultivars? If so, are the distinct features/characteristics uniform and stable?

  • snasxs
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Brandon, the ones with pink flowers always bloom with pink flowers. Unfortunately, the tree is disappearing rapidly from the wild. It was always rare. Now, original forests are cleared out for commercial farms as locals seek financial gain.

  • brandon7 TN_zone7
    12 years ago

    But just because the "type" (maybe a variety or form?) is rare, doesn't mean it qualifies for cultivar status.

  • mackel_in_dfw
    12 years ago

    I had pink-strain from hunan, very spicy. I try sing, I try dance, I even make funny joke; nothing work. She run off with man name Salamander.

    Here is a link that might be useful: So, I Whistle in the Wind

  • snasxs
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Brandon, what are the requirements for something to be called a cultivar?

    Michael, I am sorry but could you cut on the sappy love songs?

  • mackel_in_dfw
    12 years ago

    Salamander, a cultivar is defined as a race or variety of a plant that has been created or selected intentionally and maintained through cultivation. The cultivar must retain distinct, stable, and uniform characteristics through repeated propagation.

  • brandon7 TN_zone7
    12 years ago

    Mackel,

    Apparently, you are back onto the moonshine, and rather heavily I might add. It makes your definitions horrible and your social skills awful!

  • mackel_in_dfw
    12 years ago

    Mea culpa, Brandon. If it's a Friday or Saturday night post it sometimes veers. I'll check contents of cornjug later on today to see what might have happened last night. I believe I am ok now.

    I never take myself too seriously, my Tennesse friend, and am happy to say I have enjoyed a life long interest in the world.

    Anyways, the defintion of cultivar as offered is accurate in that a cultivar has a legal connotation, since it's designation is often meant to protect patent rights.

    An unkown "cultivar' wouldn't be a cultivar in the strict sense of the word, a race or variety might be a more accurate term. But that would still have to be predetermined, as it truely would have to be distinct within the specie.


    I would like you to know, Brandon, all kidding aside, that I am a happily married man to my first and only wife, with two smart and pretty daughters, graudated with honors with a B.S. in Biology in 1996.

    I work now in the construction industry, it's a very non-p.c field. I like trees, rock n roll, books, foreigners, odd people, gracious souls, bamboo, suirrel, and pick-up trucks. I appreciate the many knowledgeable people here.

  • mackel_in_dfw
    12 years ago

    Salamander is my comrade, despite what he or she might suspect, and I have been attempting the non-linear communication suggested as unique to his or her Chinese dialect, in which both frontal lobes are involved in speaking.

    Understand the difficulty I am having, Brandon, first transribing proper english into cantonese and then back into pidgen.

    Very challenging for a novice, though my wife speaks pidgen herself (native Asian dialect), she is always busy as she is an independent American woman now and pursues self-realization in a more traditionally western sense. In other words, she likes to go shopping every weekend, no time for how to communicate with both lobes for me.

  • brandon7 TN_zone7
    12 years ago

    Cultivars are very different critters than plant varieties or races, especially in a scientific/biological definition. That was my issue with your definition. Sometimes people refer to cultivars as cultivated varieties, but that's really a very poor analogy.

    As for the rest of the conversation, I'm unsure of exactly what to make of it, but I do hope it wasn't meant in an offensive way towards snasxs. I may not always understand and agree with everything she says on here, but she is still a valuable contributor deserving the same respect everyone else here does.

  • snasxs
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Brandon, thank you for the clarification. Yes, the strain is stable. However, there is none in human cultivation. The strain is not human-developed either.

    Michael, thank you for the self-clarification. You don't know that I lived in the Appalachian mountains for quite a while. I do not recommend moonshine, however :-) Please spend more time with your wife because your exchange with me may cause her to feel jealous, no? Let's focus on the subject of plants, trees and relative topics, ok? BTW, I never reported you to anyone. If you feel a need to discuss off topic items, feel free to email me via GW.

  • pteroceltis
    12 years ago

    Very, VERY interesting indeed. Is there any chance, snasx, that this population has been- or will soon be- accessioned? If a university got involved, I think this could be done right in terms of obtaining germplasm without exploiting the natural population to death. As a relict species and potentially a popular ornamental, I think it may be worth the while of such an entity to devote resources to this venture.

    Again, really cool and thanks for sharing!

  • salicaceae
    12 years ago

    I just planted an E. henryi, but probably the normal white form. Still, should be a good addition to my garden. It is in partial shade in sandy, acidic moist soil with a Taiwania of known wild origin as it's closest neighbor.

  • snasxs
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    pteroceltis and salicaceae, yes, I like both the white form and the pink form. The white form is very pure white. The pink form's blooms do not have strong colors either ... with clusters of creamy yellow-greenish flowers contrasting creamy pink bracts. However, the color effect with the scent is strikingly sophisticated :-)

  • snasxs
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    In comparison, here is a good photo of the white type:

    {{gwi:328685}}

  • snasxs
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Although Emmenopterys Henryi is in a monotypic genus of the Rubiaceae family, I still feel it has some resemblance to Hydrangeaceae family. May be the looks are just superficial.

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