The Indochina Oak Project

    During my first visit to northern Vietnam in 1999, I passed a street vendor on the ‘thoroughfare’ of Sa Pa, tending his wares in this once undiscovered outpost.  His renditions of  carved bamboo-root Buddhas and other tourist-oriented chotchkas were well executed.   Among his skillfully crafted pieces, none of which I found appealing in the sense of authentic terroir, I made note of a one-off dragonfly and the sensitivity in which it had been crafted.
    In the following days, during our trek up Fan Xi Phan (the highest peak in Vietnam at nearly 11,000’) to examine the fantastic, underexplored flora of this region, we were enveloped each night in a virtual Munchian scream of cicada’s in our base camp. I returned to Sa Pa the following week carrying the coddled remains of an adult cicada that had, like hundreds of thousands of it brethren, descended deceased from the crowns of trees above.  I passed the homopteran cadaver over to the street artist the next day.
     I took this opportunity to introduce myself to the carver, Uoc Fan Xua, a youthful and handsome man and his wife, Hua,  and recently born child.  When I asked him if he would consider my commision- a re-creation in wood of this highly vocal insect that inhabited his local forests-  I could see an artist’s sparkle wishing to rise to the challenge.  Within 3 months, I had received from Uoc  ten exact taxonomic duplicates of  Pomponia imperatorial, as per my wishes at 10X actual size, now embellishing a wall in our kitchen. In a degree of astute observation and a precise taxonomic rendering, these pieces are nothing short of remarkable.
    Prompted by this successful interaction, during my next visit to Vietnam the following year, I considered candidates of natural objet d’ar that I hoped that Uoc would consider carving - a meaningful souvenir of my time spent in the country.    The answer came when picking from the forest floor the obscenely large flattened acorn, of Lithocarpus pachylepsis, the same species I had encountered on previous trips but had bypassed collecting.
    It should be said that importing oaks into the U.S. is extraordinarily difficult, and for good reason.  An acorn is a single seed,  an expanse of endosperm in which insects can insert their eggs and larvae can come to maturity undetected.  Thusly, all acorns of all members of the  Fagaceae must be fumigated upon entry which equates to euthanasia of the embryo. For this reason, I have generally bypassed the opportunity to collect these noble trees and shrubs, many of which are at peril in their own habitat.  This is especially true throughout Indochina.
    In mid December of that year upon my arrival home, I received a call from the USDA in Seatlle inquiring of a package from Vietnam they had just opened with seeds but no import permit attached. Uoc had written ‘Acerns’(sic)  on the custom declaration.  His articulation in  wood had fooled the inspection agents of the Agricultural Inspection Station.  And we all know how clever they are.  
    During the subsequent four trips to Sa Pa, I have provided an additional 8 taxa of the Vietnamese oaks and their relatives for replication in wood.   It is now my intention to ultimately find, collect and have reproduced by Uoc all members of the family known to occur in the Indochina Peninsula. I am interested in doing this for three reasons.
    One is to support a local artist and his family in a economically depressed part of Vietnam. Secondly, the collection will ultimately have lasting taxonomic value as a hallmark of the taxa of Fagaceae that occur or have occurred in the fast diminishing forests of this region.  Lastly, I believe that this work will prove to hold the lasting value of Harvard’s glass flowers, the celebrated magnum opus of the father/son team of Leonold and Rudolf Blaschka.  The entire collection will be bequethed to the University of Washington’s Elizableth C. Miller horticultural library. 
    I am seeking patrons who wish to participate in and support this endeavor.   If you have questions or comments, do not hesitate to contact me. In any case, enjoy the mastery of his work in wood.
   

Daniel J Hinkley

p.s. I am currently off to Japan for two weeks to explore the nurseries and a few hikes in the mountains of central Honshu.