Forrest's collection shows a whole new world of gardens in the UK, and also influences and changes the direction of the British Botanic Gardens and the garden world. The big tree azalea is one of the world's most important discoveries of azaleas, the peerless beauty of the big tree azalea, the kingly style completely conquered Forrest, for the big tree azalea, Forrest only worshiped.
With a wide variety of rhododendron flowers and bright colors, they are very popular in the British garden community, and soon swept the whole UK, setting off a world craze for azaleas. Forrest introduced many new varieties of azaleas from southwest China to the United Kingdom, and cultivated a large number of new varieties of rhododendrons. After the rhododendron flowers he collected bloomed, they were the most important exhibits in the exhibition halls of the London Horticultural Hall until the following decades. The azaleas he collected have won several first-class medals in exhibition evaluations, and the types exhibited are always sold out. Because the British climate is very suitable for azalea cultivation, Forrest's introduction of rhododendron-centered horticultural plants during this period is obviously extremely successful, and many of the azaleas introduced in southwest China have been growing in many botanical gardens in the United Kingdom for more than 90 years, and they are still flourishing and blooming.
Horse tasseled cuckoo
Hand-drawn vermilion cuckoo - from George Forrest the Plant Hunter
Vermilion cuckoo
Mingguang Valley, created by Zhao Chengzhang, added by George Forrest, 1925.
Each collected valley is marked on the map
Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh
Under extreme drought, alpine azaleas still bloom in Gaoligong Mountain
Alpine azaleas in bloom
During the collection process, Forrest sent back a large number of plant specimens, especially rhododendron specimens. Balfour re-revised the classification of rhododendron plants based on the rhododendron specimens collected and sent by Forrest. Balfour believes that Forrest's introduction of valuable horticultural plants from China had a revolutionary impact on British gardens. In 1922, Balfour died, and Forrest lost his mentor and confidant. He was succeeded by William Wright Smith, professor of botany at the University of Edinburgh. Continuing to collaborate with Forrest, most of the pair's research has been published in journals at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh. Since one of Forrest's main missions in China was to collect azaleas, one of the results of their collaboration was to make the Royal Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh the world's largest rhododendron research centre and arboretum with the largest collection of rhododendrons, with more than 300 species of azaleas from the mainland.
In August 1905, Forrest was in the moongate of the Dali Chinese mainland Meeting, which he called "the fun of going north" on the back of the photo.
Convex cuckoo
Rhododendron curly
Big tree cuckoo
Forrest collected Chinese rhododendron specimens have been described as new species up to more than 400 kinds, after nearly a hundred years of research, found that he collected the largest number of rhododendron plant specimens, accounting for 8.8% of its total collection of species, involving 269 species in 10 genera, including 50 varieties and 14 subspecies, although some of them have been merged in later studies, and there are still more than 200 accepted names, which is the world's most collected rhododendron specimens and found the most new species of azaleas, is the real "king of azaleas".
These rhododendron species model specimens collected by Forrest are mainly preserved in the Herbarium of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh, and are important materials and basis for research in the fields of rhododendron classification and flora. Forrest's plant collection work in China has opened up British scholars' understanding of Chinese plants, especially azaleas, and helped British researchers to prioritize the naming and academic achievements of azaleas. Forrest's research results were recorded in the annals of the British Empire, and Forrest became a world-famous rhododendron expert and a famous "plant hunter" in history, and Gaoligong Mountain was famous abroad because of the arrival of plant hunters such as Forrest.
The dense forest of Gaoligong Mountain
Rhododendron forest of large trees in Gaoligong Mountain
Statistics of distribution area type of Rhododendron species in Gaoligong Mountain
Today, biologists from both China and the world have to rely on the results of his research when studying the flora, fauna and catalogues of the Himalayas and the Gaoligong Mountains. In the process of compiling the Flora of China, because some rhododendron species were difficult to find in the wild, they could only be described according to Forrest's collection records. Even when entering the nineties of the 20th century and about to enter the 21st century, the domestic plan to sort out and compile a "Gaoligong Mountain Plant List" had to go to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh in the United Kingdom for a "pilgrimage" to check the specimens collected by Forrest and the materials left behind.
Rhododendron large tree type specimen
Collector/Expedition: George Forrest
Collection number: 19338
Date of collection: March 1921
Country of origin: China: Western Yunnan
Collection location: East side of the Enmekai-Salween River watershed
Latitude: 25°50'N, Longitude: 98°25'E
Habitat: Open forest.
Description: The edges of the flowers are dark rose to dark red, the base is almost white shade, the outside is lined with a lighter rosy color, the only sign is a small dark red spot at the base.
Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh
Large tree rhododendron specimen
Collector/Expedition: George Forrest
Collection number: 18458
Date of collection: September 1919
Verbatim latitude:36 31 11.92 N,Verbatim longitude:103 53 30.36 E
From Forrest's collection time and location, this specimen was collected from the Dulongjiang area of Gongshan County
Natural History Museum, London
The discovery of the big tree azalea is considered one of the great discoveries of the world's azaleas, how did Forrest discover the big tree azalea? What are the twists and turns? In January 1917, Forrest made his fourth expedition to Yunnan, and he led the collection team to continue to search for suitable specimens in the dense forests of the mountains and southwest of Yunnan. In January 1919, a severe influenza outbreak broke out throughout southwest Yunnan, and Forrest's expedition suffered heavy casualties, and his health also had problems, so he had to go to Tengchong to recuperate. In January, Forrest sent Gandong from Tsiyu, and Gandong and two other Tibetan Catholics walked to central Chayu. They carried a map, two mules, and a cartload of paper from Vesilla, Gandon's son.
Gandon wrote to Forrest: "They are received by the locals everywhere." But for more than seven months, there was no precipitation on the mountains, the ground was dry, flowers were scarce, and alpine meadows were burned. The team returned to Tslitting with only 82 species. In August 1919, Valentine guided them on an expedition to the watershed between the western mountains of the Nu River and the Dulong River, a northern tributary of the Enmeikai River. They stayed for three months and didn't get much. Instead of giving up his hopes, Forrest diverted them. "It's strange how they decided to scout there," he wrote, "and if I had made an effort to go north from here, I should have reached that area!" Eventually, Gandon and his team sent specimens and seeds of two mules to Edinburgh.
Big tree cuckoo
Tall tree cuckoo
In January 1921, Forrest embarked on his fifth expedition, and in March, Forrest arrived in Ba Mo, Burma. Zhao Chengzhang and his core team of collectors from Xuehao Village traveled through flu-ravaged Lijiang and Dali to meet him at Bamo. After the end of the previous season, another team of people from Xuehao Village stayed in Tengyue, spontaneously working on the Salween-Ruilijiang (Nujiang-Longchuanjiang) watershed, looking for flowering specimens of the recently discovered large tree rhododendron, a species that grows extremely tall and has very beautiful and spectacular flowers, and the appearance of special rhododendron species is very attractive to Forrest. Forrest then quickly followed the expedition into the primeval forest of Gaoligong Mountain in the Tengchong region. After a hard trek, he inadvertently looked up and looked forward, as if he had been struck by lightning, and he was suddenly stunned. Not far in front of Forrest, a large tree blocked his view, this rhododendron tree had a tall trunk, broad and long leaves, a crown straight into the sky, and the crown was covered with clusters of huge carmine flowers, in the ten thousand green bushes, like a sudden birth of red clouds and purple clouds, gorgeous mountains, graceful.
Big tree cuckoo
Big tree cuckoo
Rhododendron plants are generally 1-2m tall, and azaleas that can grow to 8-9m tall are very rare, and the rhododendron in front of them breaks through the limit of azaleas, nearly 25m tall, far beyond people's understanding of azaleas at that time. Forrest immediately realized that the rhododendron in front of him must be a big discovery that shocked the world, which was later recognized by the academic community as the king of azaleas - the big tree azalea. Forrest's heart was about to jump out, and he forced the ecstasy in his heart to welcome the most brilliant and dazzling moment of his life.
Big tree cuckoo
Big tree cuckoo
Forrest looked at the cuckoo tree in front of him obsessively, speechless for a while, the kingly style of the big tree cuckoo, the peerless beauty completely conquered Forrest, Forrest only worshiped her. Forrest labeled the collected specimens, and when describing the large tree cuckoo, he wrote: 80-foot tree; The flowers are dark rose-red with no markings, but have slight dark red spots at the base. The flowers have dark rosy to dark red edges, almost white shades at the base, and are lined with a lighter rosy color on the outside, the only sign is small spots of dark red at the base. The specimen of the large tree rhododendron arrived in Edinburgh, which immediately attracted a lot of attention, and everyone speculated that there could be such a beautiful and tall azalea in nature?
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