After the South China Botanical Garden is upgraded to "national level", more rare and endangered plants will return to nature
Yangcheng Evening News all-media reporter Li Gang
The most endangered plants, thanks to the efforts of scientists, are in re-bloom.
Allowing them to be protected, bred and returned to the wild, the South China National Botanical Garden is responsible for saving lives.
On July 11, the South China National Botanical Garden was unveiled in Guangzhou, echoing the National Botanical Garden of Beijing. In the world's largest Tropical Botanical Garden of South Asia, the crown jewels of the plant kingdom are treasured, as well as stories about salvation.
Biological cloning, saving primrose moss
The discovery and protection of primrose moss is a process that has lasted for hundreds of years.
In 1881, an American named Henry found a beautiful and mysterious unknown flower on the stone wall of the Lianjiang River Basin in northern Guangdong. In 1883, the British botanist Hans published a related paper that attracted the attention of the scientific community.
However, for more than a hundred years, no one saw the small flower, and it was once considered extinct.
It was not until the 1990s that it was rediscovered in Lianzhou, Guangdong Province. At the time, primrose moss had only three strains and was classified as critically endangered according to IUCN standards.
In 2002, the researchers of the South China Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences began to study the ex situ conservation of primrose moss. Since primrose moss grew on the cliffs at the mouth of limestone caves, with high carbon dioxide concentrations and no bees to undertake pollination work, how the species survived and produced offspring was a puzzle in the minds of scientists at the time. Researchers have found that when the petals of primrose moss fall, it triggers a collision between the stamens and pistils and produces seeds as a result. After that, they used a fixed method to keep the petals from falling off, and found that primrose moss was indeed unable to produce offspring, thus confirming this wonderful pollination mechanism.
Based on this discovery, the researchers changed the traditional thinking, from 2003 to try to use biological cloning technology to cultivate primrose moss, abandoning the traditional seed cultivation method and selecting leaf cultivation, successfully mastered the key technology of rapid reproduction and wild return of primrose moss. In 2007, this endangered species was successfully returned to the wild. In 2021, primrose moss was adjusted from national first-level protection to national second-level protection.
"Huaiji Primrose Moss" is a relative of Primrose Moss. With the efforts of researchers at the South China Botanical Garden, it will also return to nature after it has become extinct in the wild.
Endangered orchid, back in the wild
A graceful swaying orchid grows brilliantly in the flower beds of the South China National Botanical Garden.
The orchid, named because of its pocket-shaped lip flap, has a high ornamental value due to its unique shape, brilliant colors, and long-lasting ornamental flowering period. However, due to the destruction of the ecological environment and human over-mining, The Orchid has now become one of the most endangered plant species in the world, and all wild species of the Orchid are listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and are prohibited from trading.
Over the years, the South China Botanical Garden has collected 27 species of domestic Lycopods and most of the native species abroad, with a total of 79 species (accounting for 72% of the world), and established the Lycosan Germplasm Resources Garden, becoming one of the units with the largest collection of Lycodon germplasm resources in the world.
Not only that, the South China Botanical Garden has also carried out germplasm resource surveys, seedling propagation and large-scale production on the systems of Caiyun Orchid, Apricot Yellow Orchid and White Flag Orchid, and carried out wild return to Caiyun Orchid.
The salvation of species depends on meticulous study. Led by the South China Botanical Garden, the "Key Technology of Orchid Conservation and Germplasm Innovation and Industrialization with Chinese Characteristics" won the second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, and the "Key Technology of The Creation and Industrialization of New Varieties of Large Flower Orchid and Orchid Orchid" won the first prize of Guangdong Science and Technology and was selected as one of the top ten landmark achievements of Guangdong Agricultural Science and Technology in the "13th Five-Year Plan".
The treasure of the town garden, witness history
The plant treasures that have been rescued are not only rare flowers, but also national famous trees.
Hainan Huanghuali is a precious tree species that has been extinct in the wild, known as the "national treasure of the mahogany world", a national second-level key protected plant, also known as descending yellow sandalwood, published by Mr. Chen Dezhao, a leguminous plant taxonomist of South China Botanical Garden, in 1963.
As early as 1957, the South China Botanical Garden, which attaches great importance to the research and conservation of economic plants, introduced and cultivated a batch of yellow pears in the early stage of the establishment of the garden, and successfully realized the ex situ conservation of the genetic diversity of the species.
The small saplings that were once slender have now grown into towering trees. The largest of these trees is located in the fern garden, with a chest diameter of 69 cm. According to the market price, its value has reached hundreds of millions of yuan, and it is a veritable "treasure of the town garden" in the South China National Botanical Garden.
Another precious "treasure of the town garden" is the Wangtian Tree.
In 1975, the Wangtian tree was discovered in Xishuangbanna, a mainland China. There are 15 species in this genus, but it is expected that the celestial tree is a rare tree species that grows in the tropical rain forest of Yunnan, which is of great significance for the study of tropical flora in the mainland and is now a national key protected wild plant.
Researchers from the South China Botanical Garden collected seedlings and branches of this precious tree species from Yunnan as early as 1975, and in 1976, two seedlings were introduced from Yunnan again, one of which was planted in the living plant herbarium of the Rare and Endangered Plant Breeding Center in 1981 and has now grown into a towering tree. The trunk is straight, up to 20 to 30 meters high, chest diameter of 45 cm, even if it is hidden deep in the herbarium, it can not hide its beautiful and upright posture, is the representative plant of the successful ex situ protection of rare and endangered plants in the South China Botanical Garden, and witnesses the history of the ex situ protection of rare and endangered plants in the South China Botanical Garden.
Plant protection, do not look at "value"
In the South China National Botanical Garden, there are many stories about plant rescue and the return of the wild.
At present, there are 643 species of rare and endangered plants under ex situ protection in the South China National Botanical Garden, and 337 species of wild plants under national key protection, including 52 species of wild plants under national key protection, such as Wangtianshu, Tokyo Diplodocus and Polei; There are 285 species of wild plants under national secondary key protection, such as primrose moss, tiger face flower, and Guangdong hanxiao.
The Rare and Endangered Plant Breeding Center of the South China National Botanical Garden covers an area of 20 hectares and collects more than 230 rare and endangered plants, making it one of the largest germplasm gene banks of rare and endangered plants in mainland China. In the construction goal, the South China National Botanical Garden proposes not only to effectively protect 95% of the rare and endangered plants in South China, but also to achieve the return of 20 rare and endangered plants in the wild.
"The protection of each plant is not because it has any value, often you don't know whether it has some important value, but there are very few individuals in the wild, we should protect it, otherwise if a species is gone, it will never be possible to have it again." Ning Zulin, deputy director and senior engineer of the Horticultural Center of South China Botanical Garden, said.
Editor: Wu Jiahong
Source: Golden Sheep Network