Pine leaf fern Xinhua news (Lin Chuyan photo)
Shenzhen, March 7 (Xinhuanet) -- Xinhuanet Guangdong Channel recently learned from the Shenzhen Municipal Wildlife Conservation and Management Office that wild species in a wasteland in the Nanshan area that netizens have recently paid attention to have made new discoveries. An expedition team composed of Liao Wenbo, a professor of botany at Shenzhen Wildlife Conservation and Management Office and Sun Yat-sen University, and his students, discovered the ancient terrestrial plant "Pine Leaf Fern", which is about 400 million years old, and found two other wild plants, suspected "Jindiluo" and "Bottle Grass".
Jindi Luo Xinhua News (Photo by Lin Chuyan)
According to Liao Wenbo, the first person to discover this wild plant wasteland was Liu Lei, a teacher at a middle school in Shenzhen. Liu Lei often went to a wasteland in nanshan to play, and she found that there was a rare plant variety in that wasteland, and after her preliminary judgment, she thought that it was the "Jindi Luo" of the maozhi family. Recently, when she went to this wasteland again, she found that some real estate developers began to develop and reclaim the wasteland. Therefore, Liu Lei called on everyone in the WeChat group to find a way to protect. Since March 1, many of Mr. Liu's friends (mostly plant lovers) have forwarded it and actively contacted people who can help protect these plants.
Bottle Er Xiaocao Xinhua Net (Photo by Lin Chuyan)
After the spread of the Internet, on March 2, Liao Wenbo, a professor of botany at Sun Yat-sen University, rushed to the local area for an inspection. As of March 4, two ancient terrestrial plants, the Pine Leaf Fern, had been identified. Two other suspected plants are Drosera burmanni Vahl and "bottle grass".
Popular science knowledge:
【Pine leaf fern】
Pine leaf fern family, Pine leaf fern genus. Also known as pine leaf orchid. It is a perennial herb that epiphytes on tree trunks or rocks. There are creeping underground stems, 2-pronged branches, only hairy absorption structure and false roots; aboveground stems are erect or drooping, 15–80 cm tall, green, the lower part is about 2–3 mm thick, the upper part is more than 2 forks branched, the twigs are triangular; the leaves are degenerate, very small; the spore leaves are broadly ovate, bifurcated, spore sacs spherical, capsule-shaped, born in the leaf axils, tricysic longitudinal fissures, spores are homomorphic. It is distributed in Taiwan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, Jiangsu and Zhejiang in China; it is also distributed in other subtropical regions. Epiphytic in native forests at an altitude of 200–2000 m. Propagation in separate plants. It is commonly cultivated in tropical areas under shade shelters and in greenhouses in temperate regions. Sexually prefers warm, humid and semi-shaded environments. Planted with moss, fern roots, and bark blocks on porous pots or rafts. In winter, it can be slightly dried in the greenhouse, but it still requires higher air humidity; the overwintering temperature is not less than 15 °C. Pine leaf fern branches are slender. Whole plant for medicinal purposes. It is a relict species of ancient times.
【Jindiluo】
(Drosera burmanni) is a genus of Droseraceae in the family Droseraceae, herbaceous, with short stems and no bulbs. The leaves are dense, wedge-shaped or inverted ovate spoon-shaped, 0.6–1.5 cm long, tapering at the base, nearly sessile or short stalk, green or reddish to purple-red, leaf margin head-like mucous gland hairs are long and thick, often purple-red, the leaf glandular hairs are thin and short, the back of the leaf is soft or hairless, the leaf membranous, about 4 mm long, the base is synth with the petiole, the upper part is detached, 5-7 deep fissures or 2-3 deep lobes and each lobe is made 1-3 lobes. Inflorescences are leaf-shaped, 1-3, with flowers 2-19, 6-22 cm long, glabrous or with white glandular spots, red or purple-red; bracts covered with short glandular hairs, 3 or 5 lobes, halberd-shaped, centered 1 fissure, long, linear, short, diamond-shaped or triangular lobes on both sides; pedunculate 1-7 mm long, glandular or hairless; calyx bell-shaped, 5 lobes up to the base, light green, red or purple-red, on the back covered with short glandular hairs and white glandular spots, the ventral surface of the calyx is densely packed with black dots or no spots; petals 5, inverted ovate, about 4 mm long, White or pale red to purple-red; stamens 5; ovary nearly spherical, glabrous, collateral membrane placenta 5, thin 6, peduncle 5, thin 6, inner curl, apical cleft. Capsule fruit, fruit fruit 5, dilute 6; most seeds, brownish black, with regular veins. The flowering period is all year round.
【Bottle Grass】
It belongs to the family Ophioglossaceae (Latin Ophioglossum vulgatum L.), an ancient fern and a relict species, one of the oldest terrestrial vascular plants of origin, which has been included in the new edition of the Red List of Species of Chinese, its main features are: the rhizome is short and erect, with a cluster of fleshy thick roots, transverse, giving birth to new plants. The leaves are often solitary, with a total petiole length of 6-9 cm, deeply buried in the soil, the lower half is grayish white and coarse; the sterile leaves are ovate oblong or narrowly ovate, 4-6 cm long and 1.5-2.4 cm wide, round blunt or pointed, the base is suddenly narrowed and slightly extended, sessile, slightly fleshy or grassy, full margin, reticulated leaf veins are obvious. The spore leaves are 9–18 cm long or longer, growing from the base of sterile leaves, and the sporangia panicles are 2.5–3.5 cm long and about 2 mm wide, tapering and pointed, above the sterile leaves.