MISSOURI

* BOTANICAL | RESEARCH: CHINA GARDEN

4 Gongga Shan (Mt. Gongga; Minya Gonkar), located in western Sichuan (7,556 m), is the highest peak in the Hengduan Mountains of the eastern Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau. The horizontal distance is only about 30 km from its peak to the river valley while the vertical distance is about 6,500 m. There

are about 3,000 species of vascular plants including about 2,600 species of seed plants and 400 species of ferns and lycophytes in Gongga Shan. The mountain has long served as the east-west divide of the Sino-Himalayan Floristic Region.

The Hengduan Mountains’ long geological history, their north-south aligned mountain ranges and rivers, and their great altitudinal diversity make them one of the regions with the richest temperate biodiversity in the Northern Hemisphere.

4 Larix potaninii forest. Occurring at elevations of 3,000 m to 4,200 m in western Sichuan and Gansu provinces, Larix potaninii forms one of the highest forest vegetation types in western China. Larix potaninii has golden yellow leaves in fall and is highly valued for its ornamental properties. °

4 Monotropastrum humile . This odd member of the heather family, the Ericaceae, is a holomycotroph, a plant that lacks green chlorophyll and that obtains all its nutrition

from organic substances provided by fungi symbiotically associated with

its roots (called a mycorrhiza). Such plants are often incorrectly referred

to as “saprophytes,” whereas a true saprophyte derives its nutrition from decaying organic matter. Fungi are true saprophytes.

4) Davidia involucrata. First discovered in Baoxing (Mupin) County in western Sichuan, Davidia involucrata, known as dove tree or handkerchief tree, is famous for its large white bracts. It is a medium- sized deciduous tree and naturally occurs in Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan, and Yunnan. It is a favorite

tree in horticulture. 4 China has the richest flora of any country in the northern temperate zone. > Rosa moyesii. Discovered and 4 Emei Shan (Mt. Omei). One of Such high diversity is due to the dissected topography and unique vegetational named by the famous botanist and the densely forested valleys running continuity, which ranges from tropical and subtropical, through temperate, explorer Ernest H. Wilson, Rosa off this famous holy mountain in to boreal forests. China has nearly 31,500 species of vascular plants, the third moyesii occurs in scrub and on slopes, Sichuan province. The trees include largest national flora (after Brazil and Colombia). This compares with about at elevations of 2,700 m to 3,800 m, species in the Lauraceae, a family 20,000 species in the United States and Canada combined and 11,500-13,600 in Shaanxi, Sichuan, and Yunnan with ca. 450 species in China and species in Europe. With an estimated 366,000 species of vascular plants in the provinces. Its flowers are beautiful, widely represented in the evergreen world, China has about 9% of the world’s total. The Missouri Botanical Garden and its fruits and leaves contain large broad-leaved forests of the temperate is the coordinating center of the Flora of China project, which began in 1988 amounts of flavonoids, which are to tropical areas. The moist, shady and will finish in 2013. The main products are a 47-volume flora and website beneficial for human health. forest floor and rock faces support a that will catalog and describe in detail all 31,500 species and illustrate about a) rich flora, including species of Begonia, two-thirds of them. ; ; oo i Impatiens (balsam), Gesneriaceae, . - Zingiberaceae (ginger), and ferns. 4 Meconopsis horridula. Doggedly Evergreen broad-leaved forest 4

growing in grassy slopes, scree, at Jinguang Si (“Golden Light

rock ledges, and stabilized moraines Temple”) in western Yunnan. This

at 3,600 m to 5,400 m in western forest contains many old-looking,

Gansu, Qinghai, western Sichuan, gnarled trees and is probably

and Xizang in China, andin Bhutan, | primary vegetation that has so far

northeast India, northern Myanmar, escaped logging. The trees are rich

and Nepal, Meconopsis horridula has in epiphytes, e.g., several species of

striking blue flowers that blossomin | ferns and an Aeschynanthus, a dwarf-

the cold plateau. shrubby, red-flowered member of the

family Gesneriaceae.

Subtropical evergreen broad- leaved forests. Dominated by species of Castanopsis (Fagaceae), Machilus (Lauraceae), Schima (Theaceae),

etc., the subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forests occur mainly

in central and southwestern China. The biodiversity found in them is very rich.

> Cypripedium tibeticum. This orchid grows in sparse forests, forest margins, scrubby slopes, grassy slopes, and stony places at 2,300 m to 4,200 m in Gansu, Guizhou, Sichuan, Xizang, and Yunnan in China and in Bhutan and India (Sikkim). Cypripedium tibeticum is short and robust, with a blackish- purple lip and staminode. It is a beautiful ornamental plant.

& Buddleja davidii. This species is

a wild ancestor of the butterfly bush commonly cultivated in the West.

It is probably endemic to southern China, where it is quite widespread; records from Japan probably refer to introduced plants. China is the world’s richest origin of cultivated plant species, with thousands of wild species having been introduced into gardens over the last few centuries, e.g., bamboos, camellias, orchids, primulas, rhododendrons, and roses.

€) Rhododendron lutescens. Distributed in southwestern China, at elevations of 1,700 m to 2,800 m, Rhododendron lutescens has terminal or axillary flowers, a yellowish corolla, and long stamens. Rhododendron is the largest genus in China, with 571 species included in the Flora of China in 2005. Since then, several new species have been discovered and described as new to science.

4 Pinus yunnanensis, Yunnan

pine. It is unusual to encounter such large trees of this species, which is more often seen forming secondary forests. These trees are by a temple, where it is likely that they have been protected. Such “sacred areas” are very important for plant conservation because they often contain relics

of the primary vegetation in areas otherwise radically modified by human activities.

& Briggsia longifolia. A member of the widespread and mostly tropical family Gesneriaceae, this species grows on rocks and as an epiphyte on trees

in southwestern China and northém Myanmar. The genus Briggsia has a little over 20 species distributed in the Sino-Himalayan region. In China the Gesneriaceae have around 500 species and rising; several new species are being discovered and described each year.

4 Traditional Tibetan village. On July 5, 1908, Ernest H. Wilson stayed a night at a farmer’s house at this Tibetan village in Danba County, Sichuan, and called the house “my apartment.” After more than 100 years, the farmer’s descendants live in another house in the same location in this village.

& Magnolia wilsonii. Named; after Ernest H. Wilson, Magnolia wilsonii occurs in forests in Guizhou, central and western Sichuan, and northern Yunnan,

at elevations between 1,500 m

and 3,000 m. Wilson discovered

it in Kangding County, Sichuan, in 1906. There are more than 100 species of Magnolia in China, with about 60% of them endemic.

> Rheum alexandrae. Growing in 4 Dr. Libing Zhang (left) and > Karst cave. Inside view of

alpine meadows at elevations between Nicholas Turland pressing a herbarium Ganjiao, a karst cave in southern 3,000 m and 4,600 m in southwestern specimen of a fern, Polystichum Guizhou where a single-cave- China on the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) discretum, collected in western Yunnan. endemic Polystichum speluncicola Plateau, Rheum alexandrae has stems China is the world’s richest country in (Dryopteridaceae) was discovered that are rich in vitamin C and is a pteridophytes (ferns and lycophytes), in 2008 by Libing Zhang and Hai locally loved vegetable. with some 2,400 species, of which He. Only one population with

just over 200 belong to Polystichum, around 20 individuals was found,

the largest fern genus in China. Field which makes it one of the most

work to gather primary data, including endangered species in the world.

collecting herbarium specimens and

DNA samples, is an important element of

the Garden’s research program in China.

q Omphalogramma vinciflorum. The genus Omphalogramma (Primulaceae) contains approximately 13 species, confined to the eastern Himalayas, western China, and northern Myanmar. Nine species

are native to China. Its flowering rosette has a solitary large flower, which differs from Primula in being zygomorphic. Omphalogramma vinciflorum has a purple corolla and occurs in Gansu, Sichuan, Xizang, and Yunnan, at 2,200 m to 4,600 m.

4 Primula sonchifolia. Growing in meadows or forest margins at 2,300 m to 4,600 m in southwestern China and northern Myanmar, Primula sonchifolia has a lavender-blue to purplish blue, rarely white, corolla. Like many species in the genus, it has a heterostylous breeding system, whereby some plants have a short style and long stamens and others have a long style and short stamens to facilitate cross-pollination.

Evergreen broad-leaved forest at Baihua Ling (literally “Hundred Flower Mountain Range”), in the southern part of the Gaoligong Shan range that separates Yunnan province from neighboring Myanmar. This is a rare example of a primary forest surviving at relatively low elevation (ca. 1,500 m). Nearly all areas at this elevation in the Gaoligong Shan have been logged, and most of the remaining primary forest is restricted to higher elevations, where the species composition is different.

q Polystichum fengshanense. This newly discovered cave fern, Polystichum fengshanense (Dryopteridaceae), is endemic to nine karst caves in northern Guangxi, China, and is considered to be Critically Endangered (CR) based on IUCN Red List criteria. Numerous new and critically endangered cave ferns from southern China have

been discovered by Libing Zhang, an Associate Curator at the Garden, and his collaborators.

MBG Asia/Pacific Region Researchers (authors of text): Science and Conservation at the Missouri Botanical Garden Text by Nicholas Turland, Associate Curator and Co-Director, Flora of China Project;

and Dr. Libing Zhang, Associate Curator With operations in over 35 countries around the globe, the Missouri Botanical —_ Individual Garden scientists are specialists in the plants of particular regions, in

Garden collaborates with local institutions wherever Garden botanists conduct _ the systematics and evaluation of major plant families, and in the interactions

Phot Mies Garand Canlens research and field work, providing technical expertise, assistance with fund between plants and people. a ee ree ah ee tas ats unlei Xiang, Kaipu Yin, raising, and better communication with the worldwide scientific community. ; Visit our website : and Dr. Libing Zhang The Garden serves as the headquarters for the Center for Plant Conservation

The research division consists of 46 Ph.D. botanists assisted by 144 support staff | and for several major collaborative publications, such as Flora of China and www.mob ot. org

and 20 graduate students. Studies concentrate on the plants of Meso- and South Flora Mesoamericana. America, sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar, China, Vietnam, and North America.