Sun Sept 6 – Back into the Field
Sunday morning, we snuck out of the show to return to the Apuan Alps, this time with John Grimshaw, and Alastair Gunn, in tow. Our first stop, just over an hour north of town, was just past the town of Massa at 1250’ elevation. We had hoped to climb higher to reach a potential Ruscus site, but the road ended unexpectedly, where the asphalt turned into a walking path of crushed shale. Parking in a small lot at the end of the road, we couldn’t help but notice the fascinating graffiti mural, obviously of a young man, recalling his amorous evening adventure, while parked at the roadhead.
We wandered around the steep, dry bank, which was on rain shadow side of the mountain, studying the adapted flora. The dry riverbed beneath us, told tales of massive floods, when the water from the mountains above roared below, enough to fill the massive channel. Growing In the gravel just beneath the path was a significant patch of butterfly bush, almost certainly what is known as Buddleia davidii var. nanhoensis. There must be a fascinating story how this got so far from its native China, and so far from any homes.
On the steep slope to our north, the 3’ wide patches of Globularia sp. were outstanding, and still clinging to a few seed. Even the Scabiosa sp. patches here still had some remaining flowers, despite these harsh conditions.
After a brief stop below Massa, we climbed our way nearly three times as high, into the coastal mountains near Sera Veza, where we finally stopped at 3380’ elevation. This was an amazing botanical site, with masses of Hepatica nobilis, Asarum europaeum, a very narrow-leaf form of Helleborus foetidus, Geranium nodosum, a nice patch of Polypodium vulgare, and the terrestrial orchid, Epipactus helleborine, still in seed. A plant with great garden potential, that I’d fallen for a few days earlier, Epilobium angustifolium, was also here, but this time, in full flower. This circumpolar species is one we’d tried previously from seed, but with no germination. From this elevation, it should perform well for us at JLBG.
We realized that lunchtime was upon us, and as luck would have it, we spotted a restaurant across the street, barely visible through a small patch of woods. The LeGobbie restaurant turned out to be another amazing culinary discovery that we can highly recommend, if you find yourself in the Apuan Alps.
By the time we finished lunch, we were well into the afternoon, with only time for one more botanizing stop before we left Italy. We chose to take John and Alastair to the Pinguicula site we’d discovered a few days earlier, so off we went, still keeping our eyes peeled for the Ruscus taxa we’d yet to run across. We continued down the mountain, retracing our steps back to the original site we’d visited at 1280’ elevation.
After admiring the butterworts, and as we were preparing to depart, we noticed a side path along a dry rocky waterway that we’d missed earlier, since it was nearly obscured by a mass of impenetrable brambles. Almost immediately, Zac noticed Solomon’s Seal, Polygonatum multiflorum growing here…a first for our trip. The more we looked, the more we found.
As we hiked deeper into the forest, we started finding Ruscus aculeatus, growing near Euonymus europaeus, and huge clumps of Asplenium scolopendrium, perched on the cliffs, high above our heads. Before long, I heard calls of “We found it” from further down the rocky valley. Although I had visualized finding hybrid Ruscus at the start of the day, the heat and humidity made me first assume I was hallucinating.
As I scrambled over the large rocks in the dry stream bank to finally catch up with John, Allistair, and Zac, I finally realized that they had indeed found both Ruscus hypoglossum, and the intermediate hybrid between it and Ruscus aculeatus. The first plants were perched so high on a near vertical cliff that reaching them for good photographs was difficult. This hybrid is so poorly known that it’s yet to be officially named, so let’s give it the unpublished moniker, Ruscus x aculoglossum. As we continued further up the channel, more accessible plants appeared, allowing us to study them closer.
As the remaining daylight continued to dwindle, we turned around and hiked back toward the road, climbing over the massive, slippery boulders. As we did, even more amazing ferns appeared. One was an incredibly huge polypody fern, that we’re pretty sure is the natural hybrid, Polypodium x mantoniae, and other is Gymnocarpium robertianum, a fern that’s also native to North America. The North American material, however, isn’t heat tolerant, so these are the genetics we need for it to be growable here. Unfortunately, the fronds that I was carrying back to the car, were mistakenly laid down to take pictures, so this will need to be added to my lust list for the future. If we hadn’t had to get our collections cleaned and ready for the Agricultural Inspection office the next day, we would have spent much longer at this amazing site.
Part 8 coming tomorrow!