provisional, not to be published!!
From: <KRae77777@aol.com>To: <paige@hillkeep.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2006 12:35 AM
Subject: peonies again
>
Dear Paige,
Think I managed to copy the pictures this time.
Please confirm you have now received the pictures as well.
best wishes
Kathryn
>
>
>
Protecting Georgian Peonies Kathryn Rae
I am an environmental expert not a botanist, a plant lover especially of peonies. The exquisite Chinese and Japanese paintings, the French still life of flowers all show the exotic beauty of this flower. Working in Georgia, I was given a rare opportunity to visit the four hundred year old, once royal botanical gardens in Tbilisi. Hidden in the next valley over, from the
city, you leave the brown pollution of Rustaveli and enter a hidden valley complete with waterfall and rushing mountain spring.
It was late spring the air already warm and the terraced gardens of the Institute of Botany field office were a riot of flowering Georgian peonies. It was an amazing site. On this first of what was to be many visits, I met three remarkable Georgian women botanists who are trying single-handedly with almost no resources except their energy and dedication to save and protect the Georgian and Caucasian endemic species of peonies. They are senior staff of N. Ketskhoveli Institute of Botany, which was established in 1933 in partnership with
the existing Georgian botanical gardens which were in turn part of the Academy of Sciences.
Before I talk about the project let me place Georgia for those readers whose geography is a little rusty. Its neighbours in the south are Armenia and Turkey, Azerbaijan in the East, the north Russia and west the Black Sea coastline. Geographically the Republic of Georgia is situated where Europe meets Asia. The northern Caucasus mountains form an extremely high over 5,500 metre natural barrier in the north, the Iori Plateau rises in the east of the country and then meets the Alazani Valley the natural watershed in the east to the plains of Azerbaijan. The lesser Caucasus mountains form a natural border with Armenia. However the whole climate is warmed from the west, the Black Sea and the humid western lowlands of Kolkheti Plain. Many mountain peaks are over 5,000 metres and together with a system of parallel plateaus and plains between these greater and lesser Caucasus mountain systems create a wide variety of topographic and climatic zones. The flora in the 69,700 square kilometers of the territory of Georgia is exceptionally rich and diverse and represents both European and Asian plant species.
The vast majority of medicinal plants in Georgia are collected from the wild which places great stress on wild plant populations and their survival.
Additional problems facing Georgian flora today are deforestation, poor wetland drainage, serious soil, air and water pollution. Today the peony plant and seed are over-collected in the wild in Georgia. Not just the seeds, often the entire plant is torn up. The payments for the seeds and plants are small but sometimes it is the only income for the people in the mountain
villages.
The
real money is made by the Turkish businessmen who sell it for huge
profits for
use in herbal and traditional medicines.
These three botanists are working very hard to implement a three
year
project to save endemic peonies from over collection in the wild in
Georgia. The
main aim of the project is to protect these endangered species. For
this
to be
successful, the local villagers must become truly involved; these
businesses
it is hoped will become sustainable long term and hopefully become a
pilot
for similar plant projects.
Aims of the project:-
1 Identify the target species, the peony plants natural habitats in
Georgia
using herbarium specimens and field work data.
2 Prepare an up-to-date map showing natural habitat, range and
distribution
of all species of peony in Georgia and the Caucasus region.
3 Obtain IUCN categorization of all target species of peony.
4 Evaluate the present condition of the natural populations of
these
target
species and define the transformation as well as current
modifications
resulting from the anthropogenic effect on the habitats of the
species
under
study.
5 Collect seeds of the target species and prepare herbarium
specimens.
6 Formation of a seed bank at the Institute of Botany of the
Georgian
Academy of Sciences, plant conservation department.
7 Using collected and preserved seeds and cuttings start a
propagation of
target species in situ and on the plots prepared by the villagers
in
the
selected project villages.
8 Select botanists will work with and train villagers over three
years on
how to grow from peony plants from seed and cuttings.
9 Preparation of educational materials by the Institute, to show
importance
of protecting the peonies and how by growing them in plots the
villagers
can
earn more money and establish long term a small business.
The seeds from these plants could then be sold with the proper
export
license. This would hopefully in time reduce the present
over-collection
of peony
plants and seeds from the wild in the Georgian Caucasus; provide a
valuable
source of income to the villagers; give the villagers training in
horticultural
skills and establish a sustainable low cost business for them.
Peonia species endemic to Georgia and the Caucasus.
Twelve species grow in the Caucasus, ten in Georgia, seven endemic
and
two
Caucasian.
Using the division of genus developed by Dekandol in 1824 . He
defined
two
sections within this genus and it is the Section Paeon with
perennial
species
from the mountainous countries of Eurasia, which is relevant for
Georgia
and
the Caucasus.
Paeoniaceae Rudolphi
Using the sections as defined in the Kemularia-Natadze (1961)
1 P. macrophylla
A large plant growing to a height of 150cm. Flower is large with
crown
petals back-ovate from yellow to white in colour; stamens are
yellow,
fibres
purple red; stigma is violet or pale red and slightly bent down.
Seed is round, coarse meshed and shrunken.
Habitat. Adjara slope from the river Chaqvi 800-1,000 ms above sea
level
in
the upper to the sub alpine forest belt in the timbered forests and
areas
with reach mellow as well as limestone soils. Endemic to Georgia
2 P. steveniana
A large plant growing to a height of more than 100 cms. Crown petals
are
yellow; stamens are yellow with the same colour fibres; stigma is
reddish-violet. Seed blue to black in colour. Habitat. Between
Kartli
and Akhaltsikhe
around the Atskuri forest area, in the upper forest belt, forest
outskirts and
shrubberies. Endemic to Georgia.
3 P. wittmanniana
Plant grows to a height of 80 to 100cm. Flowers are loose with crown
petals
from yellowish to white in coloration. Stigma purple red. Seeds
are
black,
Recorded in the agricultural society garden, Chiswick, London,
United
Kingdom according to live specimens raised from plant rootlet
gathered in
Abkhazia
by Wittmann. Plant grows in mid mountain belt, forest outskirts in
beechwoods
of Georgia and Abhazia. Endemic to Georgia, Abhazia.
4 P. mlokosewitschii
Plant grows to a height of 50 to 100 cm. Flowers not loose, the
crown
petals
are yellow; stamens and fibres are yellow as well and the stigma is
pink
and sometimes yellowish, almost symmetrical. Seed round blue to
black in
colour
coarse meshed, shrunken.
Recorded in live plants collection of the Tbilisi Botanical Gardens
according to plants raised from material sent by Mlokosewitsch from
Lagodekhi.
Plant grows from mid to upper mountainous belt in forests on stony
slopes.
Endemic to Georgia.
5 P. ruprechtiana
Plant grows to a height of 50 to 100 cm with its branched thick
rootlet.
Leaves are leathery and glossy green. Flower is widely loose and
pinkish-red
in colour. Stamens are yellow with the fibres are red; stigma is red
with
wide bottom and narrow tip curled one-sidedly.
Plant grows in the forests of mid mountainous belt as well as the
valleys.
Endemic to Georgia.
6 P. caucasica Schipcz.
Plant grows to a height of 50 to 100cm. Flower is widely loose and
purple
red in colour. Stamen husks are yellow and its fibres are purple.
Stigma
is
asymmetric, purple or light red. Ripe seed is coarse meshed and
shrunken.
It
is described in the Flora of the USSR as from western Georgia.
Plant
grows
in the mid and upper mountainous belts, hornbeam and oak forests, and
forest
edges. Endemic to Caucasus.
7 P. lagodechiana
Plant grows to a height of 50 to 100cms. Flowers are widely loose
and
pink
in colour. Stamens are ash-grey with purple fibres; node is
yellow;stigma
is
red almost symmetrical.
Specimen seeds preserved in the Tbilisi Botanical Gardens seed
collection.
Plant grows in the forests and mid mountainous belts.
Endemic to Caucasus.
The problem facing the future of this project is not people or
enthusiasm
but funding. The Institute like all former government funded
bodies has
suffered funding cuts under the new government and must rely now on
funding from
outside sources to continue their valuable work. The costs are not
enormous;
the equipment, the greenhouse, to be made from re-cycled materials
at the
Institute field grounds; gardening tools for the villagers, to start
this
three
year project. There will also be money required for the trainers and
the
preparation of the educational materials.
Currently, I am actively fund raising and have obtained some initial
funding
so the first survey work can be done; and then the villages can be
identified and a project proposal will be able to be prepared by the
Institute. In
November I received a collection of Georgian peony seeds from the
Institute and
have brought them with all the relevant official paperwork to the
United
Kingdom. If anyone would like to make a donation however small to
this
project, I
would be happy to send them some seeds, as a thank you.
Dr Kathryn Rae
33 Samels Court,
South Black Lion Lane,
London
W6 9TL
>