International Dendrology Society trip – day four

Raef Johnson was awarded a bursary to join a two week trip to Georgia with the International Dendrology Society. Dendrology is the study of the natural history of trees and woody plants.

The society aims to bring together dendrologists from around the world to promote the study and enjoyment of trees and to conserve rare and endangered plant species.

Babaneuri Nature Reserve on the Russian and Azerbaijan borders is our goal for today.

The roads on the way have begun to blend increasingly into farm yards and we are regularly slowed by anything from donkeys, dogs, horses, goats, cows or herded turkeys.

We make it through however to be greeted by a fantastic forest of pure Zelkova carpinifolia (Caucasian elm) and lower down the same valley through a spiny grove of Gleditisia we find Pterocarya fraxinifolia (Caucasian wingnut) in a typically marshy mosquito infested site.