Guizhou Crew

I talked about the rain (see Milling Around and Counting the Rings), and slogging uphill (see Going to Work), and putting the correct names on the trees (see Species Determinations), but I haven't said anything yet about what a good time we had running transects in southeastern Guizhou. From left to right: Yin Jin and Zhiyao Lu from Minzu University, Yu Yong Fu from the Leigongshan Nature Reserve, and Dr. Mark Ashton from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Everyone is smiling at the prospect of one more plot.

Pingshu

We were heading into Beijing from the airport at 1:00 AM after flying for 16 hours.  All was dark and the driver had the radio on. The eerie sounds of pingshu, or traditional Chinese story telling, filled the cab. For the time and the place and my state of mind - it was a delightful dose of surrealism. [NOTE: The voice on the clip is that of Shan Tianfang, a well-known pingshu performer].

Tea Flowers...Finally

So, I got these three tea (Camellia sinensis L. Kuntz.) seeds from my friend Sebastian Beckwith.  I planted them in a pot and faithfully kept them moist - for several months. It seemed like nothing was happening, and then, one day, a little shoot poked its head up out of the soil. I carefully re-potted the seedling and put it out in the backyard to get some sun. The squirrels dug it up and I later found it, out of the pot and with the roots exposed, laying out on the ground. 

I carefully picked it up and re-potted it and moved it to the front porch where it would still get lots of sun. The cat knocked it over trying to squeeze itself into the window.

For the third time, I carefully re-potted my battered little tea plant and moved it to a protected spot inside the house where it has continued to slowly grow - in spite of perioidic cat nibbles - for two years.

This morning, the flower bud that I had been observing for several weeks finally opened (shown above).  I am ecstatic.  A bit of germplasm from a tea garden in Yunnan, China has opted to reproduce itself in the stairwell of my house. And there are eight other floral buds waiting to open.  [NOTE: Tea is apparently self-incompatible, so I doubt I will get any seed]. 

Corn

The Miao grow corn for their animals. After harvesting, they hang it up to dry in a number of different artistic ways (see Miao Still Life), and then bring it into the house where it is stored in baskets (again, artistically) until needed for cooking pig food. [NOTE: This shot was taken in the living room of one of the houses where we did interviews in Xijiang].