Twenty years ago, buyers from Holland came to Taiwan in droves to purchase umbrella tree seeds, and cross-bred them to make improved hybrids. "At that time Taiwan was just a hemp bag for seeds to be sold to others," wryly says Huang Juei-hsiang, who studied horticulture. "Today Taiwan imports tens of thousands of potted umbrella trees from abroad every year."
二十年前，荷蘭人大量來台收購鵝掌藤種子，利用不同變異性狀加以改良，「當時台灣一麻袋、一麻袋出售種子，」學園藝的亞泥花蓮管理處處長黃瑞祥心疼不已，「今天台灣每年反過來向國外進口幾萬盆鵝掌藤。」