Author
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Widrlechner, Mark |
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Submitted to: Symposium on Landscape Plants Exploration Breeding Evaluation Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings Publication Acceptance Date: 9/17/1996 Publication Date: N/A Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: China has one of the most varied forest floras of the temperate world. Many Chinese plants that were introduced to the U.S. in the 1800s and early 1900s are now widely grown here. After a long hiatus, plant exchange with China is again possible. In September 1995, a six member team of U.S. scientists, hosted by the Chinese Ministry of Forestry, met with Chinese scientists at institutes, universities, and botanical gardens and toured forests at preserves in central and eastern China. From these meetings, the U.S. team established contacts with Chinese foresters who can help with plant collections and obtained weather that might help plan future plant collections. We identified opportunities for cooperating with Chinese foresters, who seem eager to obtain improved plant varieties and modern production technologies. We used the recently obtained Chinese weather data to locate parts of China with weather resembling that of the north central U.S. The weather in two parts of northeast China resembled that in the north central U.S., making them candidate areas for detailed studies of their plant life and soils. One of the regions (in Heilongjiang Province) has forests and soil types which suggest that it contains well-adapted landscape plants for the north central U.S. The other (in Inner Mongolia and adjacent provinces) contains soils and plants that show that it is too dry for all but the driest parts of the north central U.S., indicating that the use of weather data may require some refinement. Our methods of using weather data to guide plant explorations may greatly help locate new, well-adapted landscape plants from China. Technical Abstract: The Chinese forest flora is among most diverse of the temperate world. Many woody taxa from China are widely cultivated in North America from introductions before the 1950s. After a long hiatus, germplasm exchange with China is again possible. In September 1995, a six member U.S. team, hosted by the Chinese Ministry of Forestry, met with plant scientists at institutes, universities, and botanical gardens and toured forest preserves in central and eastern China. From these meetings, the team established contacts with researchers who regularly collect germplasm. The team also obtained climatic data to help focus future collections. This report describes opportunities for bilateral U.S./China landscape/plant research. The recently obtained Chinese climatic data are applied to a set of photoperiod, temperature, and moisture criteria designed to identify Chinese regions with climates resembling those of the north central U.S. Two regions in northeast China met all criteria, making them candidates for detailed examination of their flora and soils. One of the regions (in Heilongjiang Province) has forest vegetation and soil types which suggest that it contains well-adapted landscape plants for the north central U.S. The other (in Inner Mongolia and adjacent provinces) contains soils and vegetation too xeric for all but the most arid parts of the north central U.S., indicating that these climatic criteria may require some refinement. This study presents climatic data and a general protocol for increasing the efficiency of research devoted to locating new, well-adapted landscape plants from China. |
