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A Capital Adventure
2006 ARS / ASA Joint Convention
Dr. Hartwig Schepker
Saturday Evening Speaker
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The Diversity of Rhododendron Habitats - A Journey to Natural Stands in Asia and North America
The talk takes the audience to some of the most fascinating rhododendron areas in mainland and southeast Asia
and in North America. The extreme diversity of rhododendron habitats is demonstrated by
examples from natural stands in Nepal, Yunnan, Borneo and in the Great Smoky Mountains
in Eastern US. Besides many different terrestrial and epiphytical growing rhododendron
species a wide range of natural companion plants are presented.
Biographical
Dr. Schepker is the scientific director of the Rhododendronpark Company in Bremen.
The 46 hectare (114 acre) Rhododendronpark in Northern Germany is hosting besides an
extensive rhododendron collection of species and hybrids also the municipal
Botanical Garden and Germany’s first Green Science Center, botanika.
botanika is the attempt to visualize the topic ‘biodiversity’ by using the
genus Rhododendron as its main example. Within two greenhouses and an
information center the visitors experience many different forms of biological, i.e. Rhododendron diversity.
Dr. Schepker’s first rhododendron journey in 1992 brought him to the slopes of the
Mt. Kinabalu on Borneo. Since then he has visited several countries in mainland and southeast
Asia as well as different places in North America to document the extreme variability
of the rhododendron habitats.
Dr. Schepker is a horticulturist with a PhD in plant ecology and a keen interest in the natural communities of Rhododendrons and their accompanying plants.
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