Guizhou Fern Diversity Guizhou Fern Diversity

Contributor: Zhang, Libing 

This photo essay contains pictures of ferns from the trip to Guizhou, a province in southwest China.

Through funding provided by the National Geographic Society, I arrived in Beijing, China on August 7, 2007. Supported by the Flora of China project and Chengdu Institute of Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, from August 8 to 25 I traveled from Beijing to Kunming and then to Chengdu to help organize a Botanical Nomenclature Workshop at Kunming Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and to arrange a series seminars at Chengdu Institute of Biology, CAS, given by Fred Barrie, John McNeill, Dan Nicolson, Nick Turland and myself. The workshop in Kunming and the seminars in Chengdu were followed by excursions in west Yunnan and in Emei Shan in Sichuan, respectively.

Together with Hai He of Chongqing Normal University, Bo Xu and Yu Wang of Chengdu Institute of Biology, CAS, and our driver, I started my field work in Guizhou in late August. By the time we came back to Chengdu on September 29, we had been to 46 counties in Guizhou. Sequentially they are Tongzi, Zunyi, Xifeng, Xiuwen, Guiyang, Qianxi, Dafang, Bijie, Hezhang, Weining, Shuicheng, Liupanshui, Panxian, Puan, Xinren, Zhenfeng, Wangmo, Ziyun, Pingba, Anshun, Qingzheng, Huishui, Guiding, Majiang, Duyun, Dushan, Libo, Sandu, Rongjiang, Congjiang, Liping, Leishan, Kaili, Taijiang, Jianhe, Sanshui, Cengong, Yuping, Xinhuang, Wansan, Tongren, Jiangkou, Yingjiang, Sinan, Dejiang, and Yanhe. In addition to the 46 counties in Guizhou, we had also passed by 13 counties/cities in Chongqing (Chongqing, Nanchuan, Wansheng, Qijiang, Youyang, Xiushan, Qianjiang, Pengshui, Wulong, Fuling, Changshou, Tongliang, and Tongnan) and five counties/cities in Sichuan (Anyue, Lezhi, Jianyang, Shuangliu, and Chengdu).

We collected about 2,500 sheets of specimens in ca. 700 gatherings, of which 200 are seed plants and 500 ferns. We also obtained silica-gel dried DNA material of some 400 fern and seed plant accessions in the field work.

The pictures in this photo essay reflect only a small portion of Guizhou fern diversity.

Feedback on the identities of the ferns illustrated in this photo essay would be most welcome: Libing.Zhang@mobot.org

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