(Check
the above map to see the notes)
1) Ti-tinh, is a small river in
the south. The type specimen of N. thorelii was
collected at “Guia-Toan, Lo-thieu, Ti-tinh” (1909). See the herbarium
specimens: pic1, pic2, and also here. Using an old map
I found this little river to be the only correspondence with that location’s
name (on the specimen you can read “marais de Titinh”, that means Titinh
swamp). During the war the area has been sprayed with herbicides (Schlosser,
pers. comm. 2006). Not much hope to find anything, but if you end up in the
area during your vacations…
2) Dalat, that’s the main
city. I must take this city as a point of reference, as it is rounded by all
those mountains which represent the southern tip of the Annam chain
(“anamensis”, synonym of N. smilesii, means “of the Annam mountains”), the main
location where N. smilesii has been found. Here is an image of the Dalat area from
Google map. And then also a couple of photos of the isotype: pic1, pic2.
North of Dalat we find the mount Lang Bian (1), at 1400-1500 mt, where
N. smilesii was found for the first time in Vietnam receiving the name “N. anamensis”
(1908).
South of Dalat we have mount Pinhatt (2), Eric Schlosser visited the
area and HERE we have his report with some photos.
The altitude is about 1200-1400 mt.
North-east of Dalat we have a location without name (3). On the web I
found the data of this place, where N. smilesii was found at 1300-1400 mt.
3) Vinhlinh, is a small city
in the central part of Vietnam. Eric Schlosser provided this old print where we read about some
plants coming from the “rung thong” (“pine forest”) near Dalat and from
Vinhlinh. The only correspondence was in Vinh Linh, which is at sea level. But
maybe “vinhlinh” is just a word that means something else. Does anybody speak
Vietnamese?
4) Dongnai (city), from another print provided by Eric
Schlosser we read about “N. thorelii” coming from this place. Dongnai is also
the name of the province, but I suppose that they refer to Dongnai city just
because the other names listed are Hatien and Dalat, and while there’s a Hatien
province, there’s no Dalat province, so they have to be all cities. Dongnai
city is better known as Bien Hoa, the main city in the province. The maximum
altitude in Dongnai city is about 60 mt.
5) Hatien (city), from that same print we read about “N.
thorelii” coming from this city in the south, at sea level.
6) Bach Ma, is a
national park. On the web I found a pdf document with the list of the medicinal
plants present in the park, and N. “anamensis” is among them. The highest peak
at Bach Ma is 1450 mt.
7) Ho Chi
Minh, ex Saigon, just a few kilometres north we have Thu
Duc (or Thu Luc?) where according to this
specimen we should find N. gracilis.
