Mission, Collections Policy

Collections Plan for the William Louis Culberson Asiatic Arboretum

(Working Draft)

Vision statement for the Arboretum

The vision of the William Louis Culberson Asiatic Arboretum is to create an environment conducive to contemplation and learning in which the beauty, value, and diversity of plants may be discovered.

Purpose of Collections

The Purpose of the Plant Collections of the Asiatic Arboretum is to promote a better understanding about the beauty and diversity of the flora of temperate Southeast Asia, and to demonstrate the relationship between the floras of eastern North America and Southeast Asia.

The Purpose is achieved in the following ways:

a. Through the display of a broad selection of Asian species, and hybrids or garden selections of Asian parentage, that are hardy out-of-doors in Piedmont North Carolina, and which are generally recognized as aesthetically desirable landscape plants; [Education and Aesthetics]

b. By representing all the Plant Families native to temperate Southeast Asia that are hardy in Piedmont NC; [Education]

c. By demonstrating the biogeographical relationships between the floras of southeastern Asia and eastern North America through the display of complimentary “disjunct” species; [Education]

d. By creating displays that demonstrate traditional interactions between Asian cultures and their biotic environment; [Education and Aesthetics]

e. By developing “Species/Hybrid” collections to serve as tools enabling educators to stimulate interest in plant diversity, plant systematics, and principles of horticulture; [Education and Aesthetics]

f. By serving as a trial garden for newly described and/or less well-known species and botanical varieties for which potential usefulness as landscape plants has yet to be established; [Education and Aesthetics]

g. By enhancing the pleasure of leisure time spent in the Gardens through the use of seasonal displays of extraordinary showy taxa. [Aesthetics]

Plant acquisitions are considered for both the Aesthetic and Educational value they will add to the collections, and it should be kept in mind that the collections serve both purposes. Thus, while the desire is always to increase the diversity of the collections, it may be that, for landscaping goals, multiples of a given taxa are used repeatedly.

The design of the landscape and the placement of plants within it is intended to be naturalistic, vs. formal, thereby enhancing the aesthetic qualities of contemplation, inspiration, peacefulness. With few exceptions, the desirable native plants naturally occurring on the site are conserved. Generally speaking, the Asiatic plant collections are incorporated among the native flora.

Thematic Areas: Purpose of Plant Collection

++Japanese Stroll Garden

The JSG is typical of such gardens as they exist in Japan. The landscape plants used in the JSG are based upon an index of landscape plants traditionally found in the 25 most prominent sacred Japanese gardens in Japan. Additionally, foundation plants for the Pavilion in the JSG will be selected from a list of species traditionally associated with Japanese tea houses.

++Chinese Woodland Garden

The CWG exemplifies the warm temperate montane flora of southern China, and some of the typical plant-related activities of the local minority cultures living in that montane environment. Plants selected for use in the CWG represent both Chinese natives and cultivated non-natives (e.g. culinary ginger, rice, corn).

Temperate Montane Flora of Southern China:

Having in excess of 6000 species, the temperate flora of China’s southern mountains is much too extensive to be fully displayed in the CWG. In selecting species for use in the Garden, the following preferences are used:

a. examples of disjunct species;

b. genera not well-represented in the Southeastern United States but which have landscape potential or botanical interest;

c. species included as a part of any “Species/Hybrid” thematic collection of the Arboretum;

d. species listed in Addendum I, “Selected Species List of Fanjingshan”, a typical southern Chinese mountain;

e. as available, species of documented wild origin will be given preference to undocumented plants.

Cultivated Non-natives:

Plants in cultivation, natives and non-native, will be used in the CWG to depict man’s interaction with the environment. Races (local selections) of crops long-cultivated in SW China, as allowed by the USDA, are preferred (e.g. culinary Gingers, Rice).

++Species/Hybrid Collections:

Expanded collections of select, showy perennials are created as educational tools. The displays demonstrate the changes and improvements possible through horticultural manipulation by contrasting examples of “wild-type” species with both early and recent examples of selections and hybrids. Example collections include the genera Hemerocallis, Hosta, Epimedium, and the species Iris ensata.

++Biogeographical Relationships Display:

The “Floras East and West” display demonstrates the biogeographical relationships between the floras of eastern North America and Southeast Asia. Examples of “disjunct” species, i.e. species of genera that naturally occur both and (typically) only in these continental regions, are displayed in close proximity to one another for comparison. Examples may include paired species, such as the North American Gymnocladus dioicus and the Asian Gymnocladus chinensis, or multiple species within a Genera found only in the two regions, such as Lindera spp.

Sources:

Sources for plant material are of two types:

a. sources which can provide data documenting a plants wild collection origin and provenance, and

b. sources of cultivated plants of garden origin, or a plant species but without wild documentation.

Discussion: the dual Purposes of Education and Aesthetics dictate that sources of plant material for the Arboretum will be of both types a. and b. Being thematic collections focused primarily on education, it is important that “wild-type” species form the core of the Chinese garden, the Species/Hybrid displays, and the Biogeographical Relationships display. For these collections, the preference is for examples of documented wild origin that have been legally collected and imported. It is understood, however, that this paper trail is not possible for some species necessary to complete a display. In some cases, it may be appropriate to replace non-documented accessions with documented accessions as they become available.

Correct identification is always an issue when many different sources are used. It will be the responsibility of the staff of the Sarah P. Duke Gardens to determine the correct name of a species or cultivar used in a Gardens’ display.