>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 > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/