UBC Botanical Garden's collection of plants contains over 6000 species, from magnolias to maples to rhododendron, representing diverse habitats and regions throughout the world. These plants need to be gathered from the wild before they are brought to grow at the Garden, and UBC Botanical Garden researchers and curators regularly take trips around the world to find new specimens. One such trip took place over the last month in Vietnam, where Douglas Justice, Associate Director of Horticulture and Collections, and Andy Hill, Curator-Horticulturist at the David C. Lam Asian Garden, embarked on a journey that took them from busy Hanoi to the breathtaking peaks of Five Fingers mountain.
Below is an excerpt from Douglas Justice's blog about the adventure through Vietnamese wilderness (which became quite dangerous at points!) in search of new plant species.
"Day 3-6, Five Fingers: The four days we spent on Five Fingers kind of blurs. Every day was a series of steep ascents and descents, the tracks at times hardly recognizable as trails. Our route was frequently exceptionally precipitous, and often dangerous if you weren’t paying sufficient attention. The worst times for me were usually late in the day, when a numbing kind of fatigue had set in after hours of serious exertion. When so drained, I constantly slipped and tripped and barked my shins negotiating the steep down-slope trails. It was not so much galling as bewildering that the porters, who were loaded down with 30- or 40-kilo baskets and wearing rubber boots or plastic sandals, could descend vertiginous slopes with a steady, unhesitating gait, while I was clinging to branches and roots, often having to sit and skid on my bum or even turn around and feel my way slowly to where my feet found safe purchase. My confidence was undermined by the gradual loss of leg muscle stability (the knees becoming more or less rubbery with the constant jarring) and a few slips and falls; there was little hope of regaining balance or indeed, my composure. It was unnerving. At one point, I caught my shoe on something and would have tumbled some considerable distance (to where, I know not) if I hadn’t pointed myself into a sizeable tree. My chest and the tree trunk met suddenly. It thankfully stopped my fall, but I bruised a rib painfully in the process. It was at that point that I started thinking wistfully about my upcoming Hawaiian vacation. Rather than depress myself by dwelling on my own physical shortcomings, I took some comfort in knowing that the fitness level of my travelling companions was much greater than mine, and that they would be there to carry me out should I need any kind of assistance."
Find out what happened during the rest of the trip via UBC Botanical Garden's blog.
