◎Reporter Ye Qing
On July 11, the South China National Botanical Garden was officially unveiled in Guangzhou, which is the second national botanical garden established in my country.
The South China National Botanical Garden and the National Botanical Garden in Beijing, which was unveiled in April this year, have jointly formed a new pattern of "one south and one north" in my country's national botanical garden system.
China is one of the countries with the richest biodiversity in the world, with more than 37,000 species of higher plants known, accounting for about 1/10 of the world's total.
The establishment of a national botanical garden system to systematically collect and preserve wild plant groups will help maintain plant diversity.
In May this year, the State Council officially approved the establishment of the South China National Botanical Garden in Guangzhou, which is jointly established by the State Forestry and Grassland Administration, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangdong Province and the Guangzhou Municipal People's Government.
According to Ren Hai, director of the South China Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the South China National Botanical Garden was established on the basis of the South China Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The planned total area of the core functional areas is 319 hectares, including the Guangzhou Park and the Zhaoqing Dinghushan Park.
At present, the South China National Botanical Garden has 17,168 taxa, including 643 species of rare and endangered plants and 337 species of national key wild plants. The research and demonstration of the return of rare and endangered plants have been carried out, and the wild return of 36 rare and endangered plants in South China, such as Rhododendron red camellia and Primrose, has been successfully realized.
It is understood that in the future, the South China National Botanical Garden will participate in the global and Chinese plant diversity protection action plans, and achieve conservation of 20,000 species, and the collection and storage capacity of live plants will rank among the top in the world, including 6,000 species of economic plants, and 95% of Rare and endangered plants in South China will be effectively protected, providing source plant resources for green development.
At the same time, the South China National Botanical Garden will build a scientific research platform for ex situ conservation and utilization of plants to further enhance the level of scientific research capabilities.
"By building a scientific research platform, attracting international talents and young talents, and further consolidating research based on the collection of live plants, the research level will continue to be at the forefront of global botanical gardens." Improve the ability to develop and utilize plant resources.
It is understood that the South China National Botanical Garden will implement the "3E Plants 2-20-200-2000-20000 Plan", that is, the large-scale utilization of 2 species of rare and endangered plants, economic plants and endemic plants, the return of 20 species to the wild, and the systematic research of 200 species. Economic evaluation of 2,000 species, ex situ conservation of 20,000 species; and screening of more than 1,500 types of economic plants to Guangzhou for promotion and application to serve local economic and social development.
"In a short time, Guangzhou citizens will be able to eat goji berries, which are sweet and the size of cherry tomatoes. In addition to fruit-type goji berries, there will also be cloverleaf. These two economic plants will have the opportunity to be launched within this year." Ren Hai introduced , The improved fruit Lycium barbarum not only increases the fruit size, improves the taste, but also prolongs the storage, transportation and shelf life; and Sanyemutong increases the thickness of the meat after the improvement.
The goal of the South China National Botanical Garden is to build 4 of the existing 38 specialized gardens into world-class and 4 into domestic first-class, while improving the overall appearance and infrastructure level of the botanical garden.
Yang Zhongyi, a professor at the School of Life Sciences of Sun Yat-sen University, said that Guangdong attaches great importance to the construction of ecological civilization. Taking the construction of the South China National Botanical Garden as a new opportunity, new breakthroughs will be made in the protection and utilization of plants in ex situ, and the environmental science popularization and utilization of the South China region and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area will be created. A high-level platform for nature education.
The relevant person in charge of the State Forestry and Grassland Bureau said that the bureau, together with the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other relevant departments, is accelerating the preparation of the "National Botanical Garden System Construction Plan", which comprehensively considers the characteristics of my country's climate zones and typical vegetation zoning, and biodiversity. Hot spots, economic and social development status, comprehensive strength of botanical gardens and other factors, make overall planning and scientific layout, "mature one, establish one", and steadily promote the construction of a national botanical garden system with Chinese characteristics, world-class, and harmony of all things.