Chen Yi

Adam Fikso adam14113@ameritech.net
Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:58:54 PDT
>From my personal correspondence with her--most recently about 3 years ago 
now.  She collected in advance of government clearing in various areas for 
housing, etc, in  China, and also on the Vietnamese and Burmese borders.She 
had a nursery where she grew what she collected(in Yunnan) which got flooded 
back about 2 years ago and she lost much of what she had. .  Yes, her stuff 
is often misidentified, sometimes to our advantage, sometimes not. Rarities 
turn up also. She also has a a copy of Gusman's Genus Arisaema to go by 
which she  bought on my urging.




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jane McGary" <janemcgary@earthlink.net>
To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2010 10:41 AM
Subject: Re: [pbs] Chen Yi


> The export plant operation of Chen Yi has been written up several times in 
> the Rock Garden Quarterly, which I formerly edited. One article, by Jim 
> McClements, was appropriately titled "The Chinese Grab Bag." I never 
> bought directly from her, but bulbs I purchased from Paul CHristian, which 
> he apparently got from her, were mostly misnamed. Dr. McClements does 
> write that he got some very interesting plants from this source, but is 
> still trying to identify some of them.
>
> My understanding is that Ms. Chen buys and resells bulbs that are both 
> collected in the wild and propagated on small nurseries in China. There 
> seems to be no real control over sources or identification. For instance, 
> I got the same thing under three different names.
>
> I strongly advise that this not be posted as a link on the PBS website. 
> The flora of China is being destroyed in many ways, and collecting for 
> ornamental uses probably is far less destructive than collecting for 
> traditional "medicine," but still we should never encourage the former 
> practice. Only seeds and cuttings should be taken from wild plants.
>
> To go off on a bit of a tangent, if you've noticed that cashmere is no 
> longer a costly luxury, it's because vast herds of goats are being raised 
> for it in China and Mongolia, resulting in greatly intensified habitat 
> destruction. When I found out about this, I swore off buying this fiber, 
> and suggest others do so.
>
> Jane McGary
>
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