Another report from the Viet Nam trip

[mike in kurtistown]

I'd like to share some information and photos of the eight full days IPS'ers spent in Viet Nam.  These include palms and a few shots of the cities and countryside. The hotels were super, people friendly and helpful, and the streets swarmed with tourists, many probably Americans, Europeans, or Australians. Many shops in the streets had signs in English below the Vietnamese text - I'm told that English is taught in the schools.  The tour started in Hanoi and ended in Hoi An, sister city to Da Nang. Nights were spent is six separate cities.

I was told that it never freezes in Viet Nam, and this permits landscapers to use many palms. Everywhere, one of the most prominent was the royal palm (Roystonea regia). There were tremendous numbers pf betelnuts (Areca catechu). Another very common sight was the coconut (Cocos nucifera). I also saw a few plantings of the Manila or Christmas palm (Adonidia merrilli) and Chinese fans (Livistona chinensis). Overall, the selection for landscaping was pretty predictable and not highly interesting.

Hours of sitting by bus windows made possible many pictures of unique aspects of the environment. Here is a typical city street in Hanoi:

Here is a gathering of ladies at some sort of gathering. The long dresses are an anomaly, where women dress in traditional forms to celebrate a religious holiday. Normally, men and women dress just like we do.

Photo number 3 is either from Hanoi or Ninh Binh, and shows an aspect of city travel that is unlike the USA, where even the poorest person drives a car.  In Viet Nam motor scooters are much more common than motor vehicles and often used by young people of both genders.  Quite often, there is a passenger (friend, wife, girl friend, child) clinging to waist of the driver. Masks are more common than not - I am told (but not convinced) that it is due to air pollution in cities like Hanoi (estimated population 10 million).

Crossing the countryside, the lower elevation land devoted to rice paddies, usually with a country village in the background.

Occasionally, the villagers decide to sacrifice a little rice growing land to have a graveyard. These are usually filled with elaborate structures to mark the resting places that are products of the peoples real tradition and skill at monument making.

I was told that the lotus is considered to be a symbol of Viet Nam (I was also told that it was a heron, also a bull).But here is a city monument, probably in Ha Tinh. The hammer and sickle to the upper left are, of course, a symbol the the Vietnamese Communist party.

The government of Viet Nam has an explicit symbol in its flag, red with a yellow star.

The next pic is from our tour of the Forbidden City in Hue, showing one of many elaborate monuments from Viet Nams ancient past:

Now, let's turn our attention to palms.  Rain, slippery mud, huge rocks to climb over, laziness, and advancing age caused me to turn back or avoid several of the field excursions. Here's yours truly with a Lanonia species on the first day, in Cuc Phuong NP.

Most of my best photos are from Bach Ma NP, where we were transported to the top of a hill on a concrete road and left to walk down and look at palms in the vegetation on either side. when we had done all we wanted to we could flag down one of the minibuses going back down the hill. My first shot was of what may be Pinanga ammanensis or possibly a Nenga species - Bill Baker wasn't yet sure. His photo in Facebook several days ago is much better than mine, but the same palm.

My next photo is of a palm that I think is what Dr. Baker entered in Facebook as Licuala dakrongensis.

We saw many Plectocomia elongata, which I am told is the tallest rattan.

Everyone got a picture of this Caryota no (Bill Baker's is best).

Here are two pics of Calamus walkeri, which was highly abundant everywhere. the second vividly illustrates the thorns.

Finally, I will end with a shot of Da Nang, taken from a hillside in the Son Tra Nature Reserve.

Hope you enjoyed this, as I did in posting.

 

[LJG]

Thanks for posting these Mike. Good seeing you on the trip. 

[Hilo Jason]

Thank you Mike, look like it was a great trip! 

[donpachino1983]

Wow. Thank you for this informative awesome trip🤩

[Harry’s Palms]

Very nice photos and information. When my buddies returned from Viet Nam and Thailand during the early seventies , they told me how tropical it was . I had imagined dense jungles with high rainfall.

I met a botanist on Kuaii ( palm enthusiast) that spent many years in Viet Nam and he raved about the experience and diversity of plants. It sounds like a great trip. Harry

[realarch]

Hey Mike, thanks man for the post. You wear the ‘Energizer Bunny’ label well. 

Tim

[mike in kurtistown]

A palm colleague in the Eastern Seaboard raised a question about the palm I and others have been referring to as Caryota no. He says that his Caryota nos don't look anything like my photo. In addition, Caryota no wild populations are only found in Borneo, as suggested in Riffle/Craft/Zona. Looking at the Caryota species photos in R/C/N, one immediately seems to resemble what we were referring to as Caryota no. And that is Caryota maxima. According R/C/Z, C. maxima is native to many southeastern Asian notions, including Viet Nam. I wonder if any of our palm experts will deal with this issue?