Bergenia ciliata (Cultivated- USA)

Bergeniaciliata (Haw.) Sternb., Revis. Saxifrag. Suppl. 2: 2 1831.(syn. Bergeniaciliata (Royle) A.Br. ex Engl. [Illegitimate]; Bergenialigulata var. cliata (Royle) Engl.; Bergeniathysanodes (Lindl.) C.K.Schneid.; Saxifragathysanodes Lindl. (Unresolved));

W. Himalaya to SW. Nepal as per POWO;

Jammu & Kashmir, Pakistan (Hazara), Nepal, Myanmar [Burma] (Chin, Kachin), Bhutan, Sikkim, India (Arunachal Pradesh) as per Catalogue of Life;

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Fwd: Bergenia ciliata being grown in New England, USA : 1 post by 1 author. Attachments (2)

I came across this container-grown Bergenia at the home of one of my hosts during a lecture tour in N.America.

Appears to be Bergenia ciliata (as opposed to what is now Bergenia pacumbis).

The plant is brought inside over-winter to protect it from frost.

I grow what is now Bergenia pacumbis (B.ciliata var. ligulata) in the garden here near London. It survives the frosts, as I would expect a plant which originated at moderate altitudes in the NW Himalaya, to be able to cope- though the species has a reputation in cultivation of being damaged but not killed off by late spring frosts.

Clearly, there has been confusion between the two ‘species’ and they are probably mixed-up in cultivation.

Note the hairy leaves on this container-grown specimen.

I have observed Bergenia pacumbis at the bottom of the Rohtang Pass, Himachal Pradesh incl. on inaccessible sheet cliffs in a ‘ravine’. Bergenia stracheyi occurs abundantly higher up.

These photos were taken during a tour(mostly to North American Rock Garden Society chapters) which provided the opportunity for me to spend some time in the herbaria of the New York Botanical Garden (when speaking 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 by Russian NIcholas Roerich for the Urusvati Institute at Naggar, Kulu Valley and pressed a Kohli Memorial Gold Medal to the Herbarium, see: https://sites.google.com/a/shpa.org.uk/main/kohli-memorial-gold-medals (scroll down 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 of the Gordon College, Rawalpindi. Stewart, whilst working in Pakistan regularly visited the New York Botanic Garden Herbarium.

The best quality set of pressed specimens (with good field notes) I know of the flora of upper Kulu Valley and Lahoul anywhere in the world are at Ann Arbor, Michigan – far better than Kew or the Natural History Museum in London. What a shame that the duplicate set of these lies, abandoned for 80 years “behind-the-scenes” at the Urusvati 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!

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Fwd: Bergenia ciliata being grown at New York Botanical Garden : 4 posts by 2 authors. Attachments (1)

Just posted images of a container-grown specimen of Bergenia ciliata in a private garden in New England.

Here we have a plant just coming into leaf near the Rock Garden at New York Botanical Garden, The Bronx.

Whilst the upper surfaces did not appear particularly hairy (the degree of hairiness varies on the upper surface and can be +/- glabrous) one of the petioles appears decidedly ‘hairy’ so presumably it is this species, though somewhat surprising it copes outdoors at NY get seriously low winter temperatures.

I was on a lecture tour (mostly to North American Rock Garden Society chapters) which provided the opportunity for me to spend some time in the herbaria of the New York Botanical Garden (when speaking 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 by Russian NIcholas Roerich for the Urusvati Institute at Naggar, Kulu Valley and pressed a Kohli Memorial Gold Medal to the Herbarium, see: https://sites.google.com/a/shpa.org.uk/main/kohli-memorial-gold-medals (scroll down 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 of the Gordon College, Rawalpindi. Stewart, whilst working in Pakistan regularly visited the New York Botanic Garden Herbarium.

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!

I think you forgot to attach the images.

Apologies if this was the case – I am prone to forget to attach images….. See attached. Attachments (1)