The work on cultivation and protection of rare plants of the Yangtze River Basin in the area of the Baihetan Hydropower Station in Southwest China's Sichuan and Yunnan provinces has made progress.
Whenever Yunnan is referred to, people tend to think of the rainforest in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, and the sea of flowers in the ancient towns of Dali and Kunming where spring stays all year round. However, the area where the Baihetan Hydropower Station is located has complicated climate features, which makes it difficult for plants to grow and keeps forest coverage at less than 5 percent.
Adhering to the principle of protecting even while developing, China Three Gorges Corporation (CTG) has carried out rare plant cultivation in the Yangtze River Basin for the past few years, and has planted several rare species for ecological restoration in the Three Gorges Dam area.
In order to promote biodiversity in the Baihetan Hydropower Station area, improve the ecology of the reservoir and expand the living space of rare plants, CTG adopted the experience and achievements in the Three Gorges Dam area and launched cultivation technology research on rare plants of the Yangtze River Basin in a botanical garden at the Baihetan Hydropower Station.
To ensure healthy growth of rare plants in an area with a complicated climate, staff members of CTG collected the 100 million cubic meters of soil dug during construction of the station for cultivation and used the deadwood to make fertilizer.
A view of the seedling of Cycas panzhihuaensis [Photo provided to sasac.gov.cn]
In 2021, the rare plant cultivation research started with introduction of 18 species. Cycas panzhihuaensis, a top level national protected plant recognized as endangered by the World Conservation Union, was one of them.
The plant so far is only found in China and has a history of 300 million years. It is one of the "three treasures in Sichuan" together with pandas and dinosaur fossils.
The Kunming Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences helped CTG apply for cultivation research of the plant species and provided 10 Cycas panzhihuaensi plants to the company when it obtained the approval.
From the day the Cycas panzhihuaensi were planted, detailed information such as growth of the plants, when the leaves fall off and the growing temperature and humidity were recorded, which laid a solid foundation for scientific research.
A view of the Shangcun area near the Baihetan Hydropower Station under reforestation of CTG [Photo provided to sasac.gov.cn]
As of December 2022, CTG has protected and bred 319 specimens of 18 species of rare plants in the Shangcun area near the Baihetan Hydropower Station, with a survival rate of over 99 percent.
Next, CTG plans to build a rare plant garden near the Baihetan Hydropower Station to strengthen research on plant germplasm resources in the Jinsha River Basin and promote the ecological restoration of the Yangtze River Basin.
A Cycas panzhihuaensis [Photo provided to sasac.gov.cn]
(Executive editor: Xie Yunxiao)
