Japan Trip Update - Week Three

Kyoto Botanic Garden

Ginkgo biloba at Kyoto Botanic Garden

Tom & Ben with staff from Kyoto BG

Makino Botanic Garden

Herbarium vouchers at Makino BG Herbarium

The view from Makino BG across to Kochi

Lagerstroemia subcostata

Kochi National Park

Our third week has seen Tom and I travel down to Kyoto, then onto Kochi, which is situated on the island of Shikoku.  At Kyoto, Mr. Nagasawa and his team met us, and had kindly put together an itinerary for the next couple of days. This allowed us to assess the collection sites for next year and establish some important contacts that will hopefully aid us in our permit applications.

The Botanic Garden was established in 1924, and despite a period of disuse between 1946 & 1962, showcases an impressive collection of plants, with almost 12,000 species.

Out in the field, it was great to have the support of Mr.Nagasawa and his team guiding us through some fascinating sites and assisting with the identification of some of the local flora.

For the next leg after Kyoto, we visitied Kochi, home to Makino Botanic Gardens. This visit was greatly anticipated as everywhere visited previously, had commented on how this was the best Botanic Garden in Japan.

Named after the eminent Japanese botanist Dr. Tomitaro Makino, the Garden was opened to the public in 1958. Within the 6 hectares, over 3,000 species of plant are on display, one of the reasons the Ministry of Education, Culture & Science recognized the Garden as a statutory Research Institute in 2003.

Dr. Tanaka kindly gave up his weekend to show Tom and I around the locality, where we visited a range of flora from sea level to almost 2,000m. The Sunday was slightly hampered by 4 hours of incredibly heavy rain, but this did not deter our enthusiasm!

Japan Trip Update - Week Two

Our second week has seen Ben and I travel from Hokkaido to Honshu and the city of Niigata on the western seaboard. Here we were greeted by Dr. Kurashige, Deputy Director of the Niigata Prefectural Botanic Garden. Three days were spent botaninsing the flora of the Niigata region in some breathtaking locations. The most exciting and memorable being a trek to find the most northerly population of Sciadopitys verticillata in Japan (the Japanese Umbrella Pine). It was a wet day with the mountain cloaked in mist, making it difficult to navigate and assess our progress. Finally however, at 700m we came across a single mature specimen of Sciadopitys, clinging to the steep slope just below the mountain summit. What made it all the more exciting was that it was displaying ripe cones full of seed. On closer inspection, five other semi mature specimens were seen, as well as a small number of juvenile saplings.

Taiga Kuhara - Guide Extrordinaire

Ben Jones next to Sciadopitys verticillata 

Tom, Ben & Sciadopitys - Mission Accomplished!

This species is endemic to Japan, and listed as threatened on the IUCN Red List. Seeing it in the wild was an experience that neither Ben or I will ever forget. Taiga Kuhara, of Niigata Prefectural Botanic Garden, was our guide and made each day an adventure.

Tom & Taiga heading through the forest

We then travelled on to Toyama, further south on the western seaboard, where we were welcomed by Dr. Godo and Mr. Shiuchi. Further field sites were visited including a trek through high altitude Faguscrenata forest. Bells were worn by all to alert our presence to any bears that may have been lurking nearby! Fortunately, none were encountered.

Ben with bells on!

Some of the other forest inhabitants

Our final evening was spent with the Toyama BG management team discussing our plans for next year over traditional Japanese fayre, including sashimi, black squid and some other 'unmentionable' dishes. The project is generating wide interest and support across Japan. Ben and I have been overwhelmed by the hospitality received and with the eagerness to collaborate.

Evening meal with Toyama BG Staff

One of many amazing plants at Toyama BG

Our journey now continues to Kyoto in southern Honshu, Kochi on the island of Shikoku and finally Tokyo and the Kanto region.

Japan Trip Update, Week One

Meeting with project partners at Koishikawa Botanic Garden of Tokyo University

Gingko biloba 

Our first full week has seen visits to Koishikawa Botanic Garden of Tokyo University, Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, followed by a flight up to Sapporo where we visited Hokkaido University Botanic Garden and Tokyo University Forest, Hokkaido.  The visit to Koishikawa Botanic Garden gave Tom and I a chance to meet with other project partners, representing the Ministry of the Environment, Niigata Prefectural Botanic Garden, Tokyo University Botanic Garden and the University of Bonn Botanic Garden.




 Of the plants encountered so far, two stand out in particular. Kalopanax pictus and Tilia japonica. Kalopanax pictus is grown as an important timber tree along with Betula ermanii and seeing it as a large tree, growing in a stand of Picea jezoensis and Abies sachalinensis was quite a sight!

L-R Tom Price, Hirofumi Stubano, Dr. Daisuke Sakue & Ben Jones

The second, Tilia japonica was encountered in a less obvious location – a local noodle bar! The seats were made from this tree, which we hope to encounter in its more usual context as we travel across Japan.

Kalopanax pictus

Bench in noodle bar made from Tilia japonica

At the meeting with other project partners, we gave a presentation, detailing the aims and objectives of the trip over the next two years, and where the outcomes of the project help us deliver the core activities of the University, Garden and Arboretum. The response was very positive with offers of support in the form of guides to accompany us in the field, permit applications, collaborative collecting trips into the field and other logistics. 

View from University of Tokyo Forest, Hokkaido

Exploring the flora of Japan..

Gardens Curator Tom Price and Arboretum Curator Ben Jones have embarked on their four week field trip to Japan. This, the first of two trips, is part of a project to develop the living collections at the University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Harcourt Arboretum and the University of Oxford Herbaria. 

Japan is one of the 34 global biodiversity hotspots. Collectively these areas hold over 50% of all known plant species, yet cover only 2.3% of the Earth's land surface. The aim of this project is to cultivate plants from Japan at both the Botanic Garden and Harcourt Arboretum to communicate the importance of these biodiversity hotspots and the need for both in situ and ex situ conservation. 

The department is working in collaboration with the Department of Plant Sciences at Oxford, the University of Bonn Botanic Garden and botanic gardens across Japan.

This first trip involves travelling the length and breadth of Japan. From Hokkaido in the north to Shikoku in the south, via Tokyo, Niigata, Toyama and Kyoto. At each stop meetings are being held with botanic garden staff to establish seed collection sites of endemic plant species. These sites will be revisited in 2013 for the collection of seed and supporting herbarium specimens.

The Botanic Garden and Harcourt Arboretum are extremely grateful to the Impey family for their generous donation and to the Friends of the Botanic Garden and Harcourt Arboretum whose collective generosity has funded this trip.

Tom and Ben will be posting regular updates here on their progress over the next four weeks. Watch this space!

Naked Ladies Provide Gout Cure

The oncology bed of the Botanic Garden's medicinal plant collection has been glowing with colour in the autumn sun. The source of this radiance is the autumn crocus, Colchicum autumnale. Along with several other bulbs, its habit of flowering before the appearance of any foliage has earned it the common name 'Naked Ladies.' The mythical origin of this plant has it springing forth from drops of a magical potion concocted by the sorceress Medea to restore youth to Aeson. As this myth suggests, the medicinal properties of Colchicum have been known about for some time. In fact, it is first mentioned in the Ancient Egyptian Ebers Papyrus three and a half thousand years ago.

Colchicum autumnale  flowering on the oncology bed

The medicinal uses of this plant have not changed over the millennia- it is still used for the treatment of gout and joint pain. Modern medicine is researching its potential as an anti-cancer drug. As with many medicinal plants, the genus is extremely toxic and should never be confused, despite its common names, for the autumn-flowering Saffron Crocus, Crocus sativus. The stamens of the latter are an astronomically expensive condiment. In Crocus species there are only three stamens whereas Colchicum species have six.

Amaryllis belladonna

Amaryllis belladonna is flowering now on the family beds. In its native South Africa it is known as the March Lily, reflecting the Southern hemisphere month of its flowering. But the lack of accompanying foliage gives it another common name - 'Naked Ladies.' Now, it is worth pointing out that Amaryllis belladonna belongs to an entirely different family from Colchicum. Unlike Colchicum, it does not contain the active chemical Colchicine and has no application in the treatment of gout or in cancer research. This, of course, is an example of the confusion that scientific names were coined to avoid.

Umbel Relations

  Apiaceae, the carrot family, is well represented at the Botanic Garden. A huge family of annual, biennial and perennial plants with a global distribution, Apiaceae is characterised by its distinctive inflorescence - the umbel, which gave the family its former name of Umbelliferae. From familiar foods, such as carrot and parsnip, to the striking architecture of the ornamentals Eryngium and Bupleurum, to toxic and invasive weeds like Giant Hogweed(Heracleum mantegazzianum), the family is rich in variety and uses. 

Eryngium paniculatum on the Apiaceae bed

  Three species of Eryngium have germinated on the Merton borders with E. planum 'Blaukappe' producing spectacular, metallic blue inflorescences. E. maritimum, our native sea holly, has germinated well. Its thick, glaucous foliage can be seen dotted across the borders. The candied roots of this species were considered aphrodisiac in Elizabethan England.

Eryngium planum 'Blaukappe'

  Of the many Apiaceae species native to the British Isles several are threatened by changing patterns of land use. Sium latifolium, the Greater Water-parsnip, is a native plant found in the rafts of fen vegetation that build up on the margins of rivers and lakes. Modern approaches to the management of waterways have made such habitats increasingly rare. Now the Greater Water-parsnip is mostly confined to drainage ditches adjacent to arable land and is nationally scarce. The Oxford Rare Plants Group is active in the conservation of many threatened species in Oxfordshire including Sium latifolium. The Botanic Garden will be working with the Oxford Rare Plants Group to collect the seed of this plant for germination trials at the garden. More seed will be sent to the Millenium Seed Bank for long-term storage.

The nationally scarce Greater Water-parsnip
Sium latifolium