The Japan Hotspot Project - Week two: Chichibu Forest

This last week has been spent collecting and surveying in the University of Tokyo Chichibu Forest, Saitama Prefecture. This area falls within the Chichibu Geopark and comprises mixed deciduous and evergreen forests, mountains up to 2000m and some stunning scenery. During our stay the autumn colour was just developing, creating some magical hues.

Being further inland the forest is classified as temperate, containing a more familiar flora to that found in the warm-temperate coastal forests of the Boso Peninsular in Chiba Prefecture. A second typhoon prevented work on one day, but the remainder were jam packed; trekking through the forest collecting seed and conducting vegetation surveys.

Vegetation surveying

Collection highlights included Trochodendron aralioides, Tricyrtis hirta, Abies veitchii, Arisaema japonicum, Betula grossa and Hosta longipes. We also encountered Pteridophyllum racemosum, a monotypic endemic genus in the family Papaveraceace. Alas, we were 3-4 weeks too late for seed, so hopefully we will see it again on further trips. Fortunately the fauna was much tamer here, no sight of snakes, giant spiders or macaques.

Pteridophyllum racemosum

Our last day in the forest involved a one hour ascent aboard a (very small and precarious-looking) monorail. A great way to see the vegetation and a very unique experience indeed.

All aboard!

We are now in Tsukuba, north of Tokyo, for a few days working on the species rich Mt. Tsukuba. We head to Toyama for our final week of fieldwork on Thursday.

Week one collecting & surveying on the Boso Peninsula

After a slight delay due to the super typhoon whilst in Tokyo, we made it to the University of Tokyo Forest, Chiba. Despite losing a couple of days in the field, we have managed to make some good collections and complete two rapid botanic surveys; one on Mt. Sengen and the other in Godai forest. Some of the highlights from the collecting and surveying were Tricyrtis hirta, Dendropanax trifidus, Cardiandra alternifolia, Torreya nucifera, and Castanopsis sieboldii.

Tricyrtis hirta

In and amongst the collecting, we have also encountered a wide variety of wildlife; Wild boar, Macaques, deer, big spiders and infinite leeches. We have also been lucky enough to see (from a safe distance) a Tiger Keelback snake….

Tiger Keelback snake...

Hisamoto-san (Research Associate UTF Chiba Forest) & Dan Luscombe, Curator, The National Pinetum, Bedgebury 

Cut test to establish seed viability

Eupetelea polyandra voucher 

Today has been spent making a few last collections, with the main part of the day sorting herbarium vouchers, cleaning seed and labelling images. Everything needs to be packed up and loaded into our (not as big as we were hoping) car!! Tomorrow we leave the Boso peninsula and have a five hour drive, heading back up past Tokyo and onto Chichibu. 

The Japan Hotspot

We have arrived in Japan for the second of our seed collection trips as part of the Japan Hotspot Project. Over the course of the next four weeks we will travel across central Honshu, visiting the University of Tokyo Forests of Chiba and Chichibu, Mount Tsukuba in Ibaraki Prefecture and finally collection sites in Toyama Prefecture.

Once again we shall be conducting Rapid Botanical Surveys to support ongoing Biodiversity Hotspot research at the Department of Plant Sciences Oxford, collecting seed for ex situ conservation in collaboration with partners in both Japan and the UK and collecting supporting herbarium vouchers to be accessioned into the University of Oxford Herbaria.

We will update the blog each week, but you can also follow our progress on Facebook or via Twitter.

Tom Price (Gardens Curator) & Ben Jones (Arboretum Curator).