Rhododendrons: Rhodo from the Sturdevant Expedition

Discussion in 'Ericaceae (rhododendrons, arbutus, etc.)' started by dunning, May 20, 2009.

  1. dunning

    dunning Member

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    There are a few rhododendrons in various gardens that are labeled as "collected wild" on the Sturdevant expedition to Nepal. The ones we know about (five so far) all originally came from Jim Caperci via Lynn Watts. They have been sold as hodgsonii, kesangiae, or otherwise but they match none of those species. I have two questions:

    (1) Does anyone have any information about the Sturdevant expedition to Nepal?

    (2) Do you have any of these plants?

    Initial genetic testing seems to indicate that these plants are not a hybrid (they are homozygous) and that the one intron sequenced is not a known configuration for any species that has been sequenced. Lynn Watts does not have any more information than I have given you.

    The plants have eight petaled flowers with sixteen stamens, blooming about the same time as sutchuenense. Flowers are bright pink or red fading to white or pale pink. There is no calyx. There is a rose to purple speckled thumb print with a maroon deep upper throat. The petiole is slightly winged. Leaves are indumented on the underside, fawn color, compacted or fuzzy. Upper leaf surface is slightly rugose with well defined veins, often convex, widening away from the petiole then rounding off and coming to a tiny point.
     

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  2. chimera

    chimera Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    Kind of looks like a pink form of R. calophytum, but i suppose the pedicels should be red. Would you know when the expedition took place approximately, maybe the RSF, RHS, or ARS would have a seed list or records ?
     
    Last edited: May 21, 2009
  3. dunning

    dunning Member

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    There are no specifics about the expedition available. I grilled Lynn Watts and got no further information. He never discussed the expedition with Jim Caperci. I have done some background searches and discovered that Nepal only started allowing visits in 1950. Some of the tags say Nepal on them so that suggests the plants date from the second half of the twentieth century. I could find out when Watts bought out Caperci to get a latest possible date. Some of the plants are quite large, so that suggests no later than the eighties.

    Who would I contact at the ARS? We have asked questions at the RSF but maybe we asked the wrong questions. There is nothing like these plants in the RSF collection.
     
  4. dunning

    dunning Member

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    Not sure why this never came up before:

    http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JARS/v33n2/v33n2-caperci.htm

    The spelling is different, so that explains why some web searches were not working. The expedition was in 1973. Mr. And Mrs. J.S. Sturtevant. There seems to have been later treks (and seeds) by the Sturtevants. Other Internet searches suggest that it was J. M. Sturtevant. (not J.S.)

    Julian Sturtevant died August 12, 2005, at the age of 97. He was born in New Jersey in 1908 and received his BA in 1927 from Columbia, where his father, Edgar, served as Professor of Classics and Linguistics.
    Professor Sturtevant received his PhD from Yale in 1931 and immediately assumed a faculty position at Yale at the age of 23. From 1959 to 1962 he served as chairman in the difficult period following the death of his predecessor, John Kirkwood. He was the first of the modern chairs serving rotating terms in the office.
    His research concerned the use of calorimetry to measure the thermochemistry first of organic systems and then of biochemical ones. He won numerous awards, including the Huffman Award and from Yale, the Wilbur Cross Medal
    and the William Clyde DeVane Award. He was elected to the National Academy of Science in 1973. He retired in 1977 but continued to do research until he was well into his eighties.
    Sturtevant was renowned as an athlete and dancer. Friend and colleague Henry Wasserman recalled that besides chemistry, Sturtevants consuming passion was ballroom dancing. He was a particular devotee of the Charleston, remembers Wasserman, and never missed the opportunity to attend a faculty dance or a Yale event where there was a chance to show his mastery of the vigorous, staccato steps of the famous dance of the 1920s. Of great pride to him was the occasion of his participation in a ballroom dancing contest at Vassar College where, with his daughter Ann, he was awarded the prize of The Charleston King of Vassar. Everyone in the Chemistry Department shared his pleasure on that special occasion.
    Sturtevant was also an avid mountain-climber. He and his wife Elizabeth celebrated her 75th birthday by climbing to the base camp on Mount Everest.


    The daughter in Seattle is Ann Ormsby.
     
  5. dunning

    dunning Member

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  6. chimera

    chimera Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    Guess the seed exchange chairman for the ARS, www.rhododendron.org/seedexchange2.htm , may have access to seed lists from around that time period that might shed some light on the species, if seed went through the exchange. Maybe a check with some long time members of the Seattle Rhodo Chapter would help or possibly a request to members in their newsletter for information. Otherwise a request in the ARS Journal, with reference to the 1979 spring article, may turn up something. Were you able to check with Steve Hootman at the RSF ?
     
    Last edited: May 23, 2009

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