did anyone else in the US see the nova episode tonight, about the paleobotanical research into the first flowering plants? ok, that particular topic wasn't that interesting to me, but i loved getting a glimpse of the Hengduan mountains in western china and the amazing diversity of plants there. they showed prof. Yin Kaipu, of the Chengdu botanical institute (?), leading Dan Hinkley, formerly of the heronswood nursery, into a small patch of weeds near the road, and in that tiny patch, dan goes bananas with the diversity of plants found there (something ridiculous like 30 genera). i couldn't identify most of the plants, but just the shots of the Lilium lophophorum (?) and Cypripedium tibeticum were worth watching the whole thing, and enduring the segment about the Archaeofructus, DNA, cladistics, and Amborella... those shots of western china were sooo cool... made me want to become a plant explorer... ========= tsuh yang __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com/