Thanks Dr Rawat.
You mention records of provenance? Is there a site for plants grown at NYBG
and their provenance?Whilst being shown "behind-the-scenes" I got a quick look
at old notebooks for plant introductions pre-WW2 but did not check anything for
G.cerastioides, so presumably this may well be widely cultivatedin North
America. Many plants in cultivation in N.US originated from nurseries,
sometimes seed exchangesin the UK.
The UK Royal Horticultural Society has references which say when a plant was
first thought to be introduced intocultivation but that tends to be the first
introduction to places like Kew or through the Royal Horticultural Society
itself. There are often one-off introductions as well, sometimes earlier.
Britisher (and other European) visitors to the foothills of theHimalaya did, on
occasion gather seeds of local plants and took back to the UK in addition to
introductions by formal expeditions.
G.cerastioides being common on mineral soils in Kashmir @ 2400-3900m could
easily have been spotted by visitors. I have to sayI personally did not pay
much attention to this plant during my visits to Kashmir in the 1980s. My
attention was only drawn to iton the Rohtang in Himachal Pradesh by others.
Never found it especially 'ornamental' to my eye but "beauty is very much in
the eye ofthe beholder".
As for other species of Gypsophila in the Himalaya. Stewart lists 9 species
from Pakistan and Kashmir, though most of these were from S.Pakistan or
probably reduced to synonyms of existing species. I have not checked.
I am in agreement that G.sedifolia is a completely different plant to
G.cerastioides. Dickore & Klimes list the former but not the latter,in their
check-list for Ladakh (2005).
It would be more accurate to say that G.sedifolia is recorded from N.Pakistan
(Chitral) and Ladakh (which is of course part of the Indian State of J&K but as
the plant has no records for Kashmir Valley, this distinction is meaningful -
the species appears very much one of the borderlands ofWestern Tibet). Stewart
gives an altitudinal range of 2700-3900m. Koelz collected it in Zanskar.
You are right that Gypsophila cerastioides is the correct spelling. The
authors of 'Flora of Lahaul-Spiti' are incorrect is using G.cerastoides -they
found G.cerastioides on moist slopes at Gramphoo which sounds feasible as I
have seen the plant on the Rohtang itself - it is unlikely that this species
occurs in the drier parts of Lahaul.
But my query was more to do with whether the plant at the NYBG was firstly,
definitely a Gypsophila and then not so much a different species originating in
the Himalaya but if any other members of the genus from other parts of the
world are of similar appearance to G.cerastioides? And thus was the specimen
at NYBG one of these? 'The Plant List' accepts 151 species for this genus -
which makes it large and complicated!
Stewart mentions G.paniculata as a garden plant in Pakistan, which he knew as
'Baby's Breath' (a native of Europe) widely used as a Florist plant -
apparently widely cultivated in Peru.
When checking the identity of plants in the wild, one usually can limit the
possibilities to those species previously recorded from the region concerned.
I have found plants in cultivation to OFTEN be misidentified. In the case of
specimens labelled as belonging to species which occur in the Himalaya, my
informal research into examples from specialist nurseries, commercial seed
companies, seed exchanges and even some botanic garden Index Semina, that AT
LEAST 50% were misidentified.
Few keep good records of the provenance of introductions into cultivation (this
applies to botanic gardens) and rapidly (often within years, or certainly after
decades where the specimen originated is often lost). I am not speaking of
examples of hybridisation.
With large genera with species from many different parts of the world, it can
be difficult to work out the correct identification. Even when they are
correctly identified, plants in cultivation do not always match its general
appearance in the wild. This is particularly true of higher alpines, which IF
they can be grown at all (many such species represent a challenge to even the
most skilled and dedicated growers), often not taking kindly to warmer, softer
conditions at sea-level in another country, can end up not "true-to-type",
being "leggy and unattractive".
Take the genus Cremanthodium (found in the Himalaya and SW China) as an
example. Most species have proven a challenge for more than a century. The
majority are virtually impossible to flower in the UK, whilst some growers in
arctic Norway have succeeded with them - though I should add this is not just
about low minimum temperatures; other considerations like day-length and light
intensity may come into play?
Attempts at "Ex-Situ" Conservation of higher alpine species in the Indian
Himalaya are in most cases doomed to fail, if attempts are made to grow
specimens dug up at say 3600-4000m and then transported down thousands of feet
to face comparatively high temperatures in a drier environment, which is the
case for most botanic gardens. Unless specialist, environment-controlled,
'alpine-houses' exist, with highly skilled "hands-on" horticulturists looking
after them, said species stand little chance of surviving long. And even if
higher elevation 'stations' of botanical gardens are established it would be
much better if attempts to grow them stemmed from seed, not digging up live
plants. This would be more eco-friendly, especially if said species really
were 'Rare & Endangered' and stand a greater chance of success, as in general,
plants adapt betterfrom seed. In some cases, "cuttings" might fare better and
one is living the parent plants alive. Though, whichever propagation method
is involved, skilled, dedicated horticulturalists are required to work at such
'stations'.
Bernard Coventry (author of 'Wild Flowers of Kashmir') rented a hut at Gulmarg
(like many Britishers did) conducted trials on 'alpine' Kashmir species whilst
Conservator of Forests - during late 1920s and early 1930s, successfully
flowering quite a number. Few of these species would survive long in Srinagar.
At the New York Botanic Garden (New York experiences seriously low winter
temperatures and snow), they have a small traditional 'alpine house' which is
not state-of-the-art environment-controlled but does have an alarm system in
case the temperature rises above a certain point. New York experiences
unpleasantly hot summers.
I saw no Himalayan species from higher elevations growing in the New York
Botanic Garden rockery.
Best Wishes,
Chris Chadwell
81 Parlaunt Road
SLOUGH
SL3 8BE
UK
www.shpa.org.uk
From: D.S Rawat <[email protected]>
To: J.M. Garg <[email protected]>
Cc: efloraofindia <[email protected]>; C CHADWELL
<[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, 6 December 2016, 7:14
Subject: Re: Gypsophila cerastioides in the New York Botanical Garden
To me this species is G.cerastioides D.Don The plant here is a cultivated
specimen and if the records ofprovenance are faithful (as I think they are) it
should be G. cerastioides only.Two species of Gypsophilaare known in Western
Himalaya- G.cerastioides and G. sedifoliaKurz.G. sedifolia (=G. tibetica) is
quite different withlinear leaves, smaller flowers and compact inflorescence
(Herb specimen at
Kew-http://apps.kew.org/herbcat/getImage.do?imageBarcode=K000725779).It is
known from Kashmir, above 2700m videMajumdar (1993).G. ceratioidesD.Don is
widely distributed from Pakistan to Arunachal Pradesh and occurs above2600m. It
is quite variable also and I have seen one population in NorthGarhwal with
petals equal to sepals.David Don while describing the species used specific
epithetas ‘cerastioides’ but The Plant List2013 show ‘cerastoides’ which I
think is incorrect.
DSRawat Pantnagar
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr D.S. RawatDepartment of Biological Sciences, G.B. Pant University of
Agriculture & Technology Pantnagar-263 145 Uttarakhand, INDIAeflorapantnagar
displaying wild flora of Pantnagar
On Mon, Dec 5, 2016 at 6:04 PM, J.M. Garg <[email protected]> wrote:
Forwarding againfor validation please.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: C CHADWELL <chrischadwell261@btinternet. com>
Date: 23 November 2016 at 01:08
Subject: Gypsophila cerastioides in the New York Botanical Garden
To: "J.M. Garg" <[email protected]>
Have noticed recent posts re: Dr Rawat identifying a specimen from Narkanda
asGypsophila cerastioides.
Came across this plant growing in the rockery of the New York Botanical Garden,
the Bronx.
Do members considered it has been correctly labelled?
I was on a lecture tour (mostly to North American Rock Garden Society chapters)
which providedthe opportunity for me to spend some time in the herbaria of the
New York Botanical Garden (whenspeaking to the Manhattan Chapter) and Ann
Arbor, Michigan (when speaking to the Great Lakes Chapter, NARGS and gave a
seminar at the University about the 'Himalayan Travels of Walter Koelz' who
with Thakur Rup Chand from Lahoul and their local collectors made extensive
collections in the NW Himalaya including Kulu Valley, Lahoul & Ladakh in the
1930s; Koelz was a zoologist engaged byRussian NIcholas Roerich for the
Urusvati Institute at Naggar, Kulu Valley and pressed a Kohli MemorialGold
Medal to the Herbarium, see: https://sites.google.com/a/shp
a.org.uk/main/kohli-memorial- gold-medals (scrolldown to 2011).
Duplicate sets of pressed specimens collected for Roerich went to Ann Arbor and
the New York Botanical Garden,where they were subsequently identified and
labelled by Dr Ralph Stewart after he retired from being Principal ofthe Gordon
College, Rawalpindi. Stewart, whilst working in Pakistan regularly visited the
New York Botanic GardenHerbarium.
The best quality set of pressed specimens (with good field notes) I know of the
flora of upper Kulu Valley andLahoul anywhere in the world are at Ann Arbor,
Michigan - far better than Kew or the Natural History Museum inLondon. What a
shame that the duplicate set of these lies, abandoned for 80 years
"behind-the-scenes" at theUrusvati Institute - no doubt many of the thousands
of specimens have rotted away or become infested by insects.What a waste of
such a hard-won resource. I have tried, on 3 occasions, to gain access to what
is left of the specimens to undertake an initial assessment but have not been
permitted entry......
This saddens me. Those is a senior position should have done something about
it decades ago!
Best Wishes,
Chris Chadwell
81 Parlaunt Road
SLOUGH
SL3 8BE
UK
www.shpa.org.uk
--
With regards,
J.M.Garg'Creating awareness of IndianFlora & Fauna'Winner of Wipro-NFS Sparrow
Awards 2014 for efloraofindia.
For identification,learning, discussion & documentation of Indian Flora, please
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