Endangered plant rediscovered in China

0

A critically endangered plant, known as Euonymus aquifolium, has been rediscovered in China, more than 110 years after it was first found in the country.

A team of Chinese scientists led by Hu Jun found the plant in a canyon during the country’s second scientific expedition to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in 2021.

In 1908, British botanist, Ernest Henry Wilson, first collected three specimens of the rare plant in southwestern China’s Sichuan Province.

Since then, though, no one had ever spotted it again until August 2021, when Hu and his team found about 15 suspected plants of Euonymus aquifolium on the cliff of a canyon near Mount Gongga.

ALSO READ  Blasts rock Russian base in Crimea, Ukraine exults

“I was very lucky. Some experts have been looking for it for more than a decade but to no avail,” said Hu.

Hu is an assistant researcher at the Chengdu Institute of Biology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Upon finding the plant, the researchers made careful observation of its key features, such as the sepals, petals and stamens, and drew scientific drawings.

Back at the lab, they conducted molecular experiments on the samples, before confirming that it was the Euonymus aquifolium plant.

The findings have been published in PhytoKeys, an international botanic journal.

The plant was listed as a critically endangered species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species.

ALSO READ  Afghanistan: Taliban vows to impose Islamic law worldwide

“Every species is a magical creation of nature,” Hu said.

He added that his current task was to collect more seeds of the plant for the seed bank and artificial cultivation. (Xinhua/NAN) 

What are your thoughts?

Discover more from Odogwu Blog

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading