On May 11, 2021, during the investigation of aquatic vascular plants and pericon algae in Lin'an District, Hangzhou, the national Grade I protected plant - "Jiangnan Eight Narcissus" lettuce and about 5,000 endangered aquatic ferns endemic to China in a large area - the "Giant Panda of the Plant Kingdom" Chinese leek were successively found.
Chen Yuchu is a science communication expert of the Chinese Landscape Architecture Society, a national forest and grass native expert, a flower expert of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Zhejiang Province, and a leading teacher of the investigation team, with many years of experience in aquatic plant investigation, and lin'an's survey can be described as a surprise. While investigating the roadside pond passing through Guangming Village in Qianzhen, Lin'an District, Mr. Chen noticed that there were a lot of floating plants like "water lilies" growing there, which Teacher Chen found unusual. Get off the car to check, it is actually a national level I key protected plant lettuce. Teacher Chen said, "Many people do not know lettuce and mistakenly think it is a water lily, but in fact, the most significant feature of lettuce is that the leaf back is often wrapped with a rich layer of colloid."
"Although I know that Pan'an, Jingning and Yongkang all have wild lettuce communities, the area of wild lettuce found in Lin'an this time may be the largest in Zhejiang Province so far." The area of this settlement is about 600 square meters, and the coverage is about 70%. Teacher Chen introduced that as early as the pre-Qin era, lettuce, which had been used as a vegetable for people to eat, was praised by the ancient Chinese literati as "Eight Water Daffodils in Jiangnan", which had been listed as a national level I key protected wild plant in 1999. Lettuce is a precious wild aquatic vegetable, containing acidic polysaccharides, proteins, amino acids, vitamins, histamine and trace elements, etc., and its application value is concentrated in medical value and edible value.
According to the characteristics of this pond, the investigators, led by Mr. Chen, selected four or five more survey points through satellite maps. Although the first point of "no grain harvest", but after a long journey, finally at the second point of the "serendipity", the investigators walked to the bottom of the pond, and when they were about to leave, they suddenly saw a bush of plants similar to leeks on the water's edge, and Teacher Chen shouted "Chinese leeks". The staff quickly searched the neighborhood and found 8 more plants, a total of 9 Chinese leeks!
Known as the "giant panda of the plant kingdom", the Chinese water leek is a plant of the leek family, a perennial moor, which is endemic to China and is an endangered aquatic fern that prefers mild and humid climates, and grows mainly on the inaccessible shallow pond swamps, pond edges and ravines silt soil. It is not only a living fossil that appeared hundreds of millions of years ago, but also one of the first batch of more than 50 kinds of first-class key protected wild plants published in China, which is a unique species in China and is a critically endangered relict plant with high academic research value.
Subsequent investigations also revealed a large community of Chinese leeks! Finally, it was measured that there are more than 400 square meters of Chinese leeks here, and about 5,000 plants!
Lin'an is the only district (county and city) in the Yangtze River Delta region that has two national nature reserves at the same time, and has a precious natural ecological heritage that has been well preserved for tens of billions of years, a gathering place for important biodiversity in China and a concentrated production area for endangered and rare species, and is known as the treasure house of species genes. Over the years, Lin'an has continuously strengthened the work of ecological environmental protection, committed to the harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and the ecological environment is constantly improving. Experts call on us to work harder to protect the environment, protect the country's rare animals and plants according to law, and create a beautiful home for animals and plants, so that "surprises" will be more and more.
Author: Liu Haibo Chen Huifen
Editor: Fu Xinxin