Bloxham Broadsheet

At our first lecture of the new year our Chairman, Peter Sheasby, took us on a botanic travel tour of Sichuan in south-west China, taking in Chengtu, its capital, where there are about 70 pandas in a special reserve.
Peter’s trip was in June 2009, when that part of China was still affected by the earthquake a year previously. Travel was extremely difficult due to frequent landslides and the journey over 3,000 miles northwards to the Tibetan border was slow and often hazardous. The terrain is mostly over l0,000 feet; the highest pass was over l6,000 feet and the mountains reach over 20,000 feet. There are deep valleys with fast-flowing rivers and steep hillsides with inaccessible shrubs, such as peony, deutzia, clematis and hydrangea, also many lily species, some about 4 ft tall.
The villages and towns are fascinating, with tower houses, and houses decorated with protective symbols. There are few Chinese people – the villagers are largely Tibetan, and some of the houses are decorated with brown and white bands. Further north there are extensive grasslands at a high level. The weather is predominantly wet, with flowering in the monsoon season. Most mountains have no snow and the high passes are often blocked by landslides. There are large groups of flowers, including yellow, mauve and red poppies, iris, aquilegia, candelabra primulas, ligularia, anemone and tiny gentians in the grassland and in the more wooded valleys. Incarvillia grows in the lower, drier areas, and saxifrages in large numbers.
Buddhist monasteries are very dominant, especially on the Tibetan border, and they are highly decorated. There are Buddhist teachings in carved granite along the pilgrims’ routes, and shrines with prayer flags. These are also strung across important places. At the top of one of the high passes, the furthest north that Peter travelled, there is a very important monastery where Buddhist teachings are kept and distributed to other ‘lamaseries’. There are prayer wheels at monastery entrances, and monks everywhere, many of them making pilgrimages across the Tibetan plateau. In this area louseworts abound – there are 300 species in Sichuan alone! Up in the high passes there are roadworks everywhere. Many small flowers abound, such as aconitum, saxifrage, gentians and corydalis.
There are yaks at high levels where nomads live in yak tents. These animals provide butter and cheese, smoked meat and skins. Food is basic here, but varied, a typical breakfast consisting of green tea, dough balls and watery soup. Peter ended this delightful talk with photographs of many of the local villages with their markets selling a good range of fruits and vegetables, and the people wearing a colourful selection of costumes according to their own village – and broad smiles!
We always welcome new members, so come and join us at the Parish rooms at 7.30 pm on 22nd March, when Ernie Bingham will talk on Container Gardening.