Flora of the Silk Road
Flora of the Silk Road - by Christopher Gardner
Crocus Korolkovii Chris Gardner
We may all be locked in, but at the March EAGG talk we were carried away to the exotic Silk Road for a fascinating floral adventure. Chris Gardner lives in Eastern Turkey at the moment so is ideally situated for his explorations eastwards, travelling through Turkey, Syria, Iran, Tajikistan, Tehran, and Samarkand to name but a few, finally ending in China in Tien Shan. 50,00 plant species are found along this route, and the talk gave a detailed insight into how the distribution of the species varies as we travel east. The numbers for species and distribution, came thick and fast, and although I made many notes, I won’t begin to give them all to you here. He concentrated largely on Iris, Fritillaria, Eremurus, Anemone, Primula, Corydalis, Orchis, and Rhododendron, with many additional species en passant.
The Iris is widely distributed along the route, and the colour variations differ strikingly according to the soils and locations. For example the most highly coloured and varied examples, the I. germanicus, are found in greater numbers in Antalya, 225 species grow on the Steppe habitats here, whereas by the time we reach China most of the local species in that region are mainly blue. Primulas have 500 species worldwide, 300 of which are in China and only 7 in Turkey. Similarly of the 1000 species of Rhododendron worldwide, an amazing 650 come from China, as well as over half of the world’s species of Corydalis. Whilst all the facts and figures were most interesting, the sheer variety and colours shown in the slides was wonderful. From the stunning flower meadows of the Black Sea, where Campanula, Astrantia and Gentians jostle for position, to the drifts of Delphiniums, Eremurus albertii and Tulipa in fields on the route to Samarkand; the huge varieties of Fritillaria, Corydalis and great domes of Dionysia growing in the most inhospitable of rock faces, to the rare Meconopsis lancifolia and abundance of Orchids, I found myself overwhelmed by the sheer diversity and beauty of it all. I would certainly recommend his book, co-written with his wife – Flora of the Silk Road, by Christopher Gardner and Basak Gardner to appreciate the sheer scale of their work there. For those of you who couldn’t join in on this lecture – you missed a treat! A recording is available until 13th March - see panel to the left.
Erica Legge
for further information about publications and botanical tours:
https://www.viranatura.com/publications
https://www.viranatura.com/tours
Chris Gardner will be giving a zoom talk for the Alpine Garden Society at 19.00 on 25th March 2021 on Flora of the Mediterranean. Contact the Secretary, Jenny Clarke Jenny@mml.co.uk