A "sanctuary" for endangered plants on a snowy plateau

In the middle of summer, the Napa Sea, the deep blue sky, pure white and colorful clouds reflect in the calm lake. The green grass, the dotted yaks, the calves and herders, and the tourists constitute a beautiful picture of the harmonious harmony between man and nature.

At 3,400 meters above sea level, Shangri-La Alpine Botanical Garden in Diqing Prefecture is the best viewing point of napa Sea. Fang Zhendong, the head of the botanical garden, has no intention of loving the scenery, but only moves more and more endangered alpine plant varieties into the botanical garden for shelter year after year.

Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture is located in the hinterland of Hengduan Mountain in the southeast foothills of the Himalayas, where the waters of the Jinsha, Lancang and Nu rivers flow side by side but do not intersect, forming a peculiar natural geographical landscape of "three rivers flowing together". These valleys and alpine groups connect the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in the hinterland of Asia to the north and the tropical regions of southern Asia in the south, becoming the north-south diffusion channel of plants and the intersection of east and west. Therefore, there are not only many kinds of plants here, but also a high proportion of endemic species.

"Most of Diqing's alpine plant species grow in specific regional environments, and with the intensification and extension of human activities, rare and endemic species are facing threats such as habitat loss and habitat change." Fang Zhendong said that since graduating from Yunnan University, he has been engaged in the research of alpine plants, establishing a shelter for Diqing alpine plants, providing a platform for Scientific research at home and abroad, and establishing a base for popularizing plant protection knowledge, which has always been Fang Zhendong's dream.

Twenty years ago, Fang Zhendong chose to build the world's first alpine botanical garden at a low-latitude, high-altitude area on a hill near napa Sea in Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province. This land, the Tea Horse Ancient Road once passed through here; in 1950, in order to peacefully liberate Tibet, the Chinese People's Liberation Army, which adhered to the glorious traditions of the Red Army, also passed through here; and the Yunnan-Tibet Highway paved to support tibet construction also passed around the foot of the mountain.

"This is called Zhongdian ThornBerry, a unique plant of Shangri-La and the city flower of Shangri-La." Inside the botanical garden, Fang Zhendong pointed to a plant and told reporters, "This is what we rescued and transplanted from a reservoir submerged area." ”

After years of efforts, the botanical garden now collects and shelters more than 30 species of ferns, more than 1,000 kinds of seed plants, and a large number of plant species grow and multiply here, forming a rare species gene pool.

Today, there are already thousands of plants in the botanical garden, but Fang Zhendong always wants to continue to attract new plants... He recently led a team deep in Pudatso National Park to start sampling wild rhododendrons. "The plants here face a variety of threats, and our conservation philosophy is to achieve protection through breeding and utilization through breeding."

Not long ago, a themed exhibition on the biodiversity of Diqing images was held at the Shangri-La Alpine Botanical Garden. Fang Zhendong specially invited his friend Peng Jiansheng, an ecological photographer, to explain these works to the visitors.

Like Fang Zhendong, in the past 20 years, Peng Jiansheng has shuttled through mountains, canyons, forests and meadows, recording the moving moments of countless kinds of biological plants with the lens, and recording the evolution of biodiversity in Diqing with cameras. "We in Diqing and even in China are so rich in biological diversity, so we want to present the natural beauty of China to our public, let the public know that there are so many species in China, and then take the initiative to protect them."

Fang Zhendong told reporters that today, the forest coverage rate in Diqing is 76.58%, and 90% of the typical ecosystems and 85% of important species are effectively protected. "This is the common home of 'we' and 'them', and it is a community of life in which man and nature coexist in prosperity and symbiosis.

Column Editor-in-Chief: Gu Wanquan Zhang Wu Text Editor: Song Yanlin

Source: Author: China News Network