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Researchers collect plant specimens in the Daxueshan Nature Reserve. This group of pictures is provided by the Daxueshan Conservation Bureau

A new species of Asteraceae - Nujiang Polygonum multiflorum.

Researchers are investigating and studying wild plants.

Yangtze Business Daily News●Li Jing, a public welfare reporter of Yangtze Business Daily, sent from Yongde

The mountains are covered with dense forests, towering ancient trees, lush greenery, and covering the sky, making it look like a paradise.

Walking into the primeval forest of Daxueshan National Nature Reserve in Yongde, Yunnan, you feel like you are stepping into a mysterious green treasure house. Birds are singing on the branches, green peacocks are dancing on the grass, two water deer are butting each other with their horns, the clear and high-pitched cries of monkeys can be heard in the distance, and all kinds of rare birds and animals are active in the canyons and mountains... Here, every plant, every creature, every day and night, the elves of the primeval forest are announcing to the world the powerful and harmonious vitality of "China's biodiversity".

Recently, staff from the Research and Monitoring Institute of the Yongde Daxueshan National Nature Reserve and Associate Professor Wang Zehuan of Guizhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine discovered a new species of Asteraceae, Ixeridium nujiangense, during a field survey in the Daxueshan Nature Reserve. The relevant research results have been published in the international plant taxonomy journal PhytoKeys.

A relevant person in charge of the Daxue Mountain Conservation Bureau said that the discovery of the new species provides an example of biodiversity, indicating that the Yunnan Yongde Daxue Mountain Nature Reserve and its surrounding areas have rich biodiversity, which deserves further systematic investigation and research.

The Yangtze Business Daily's public welfare reporter learned that in recent years, as the Yunnan Yongde Daxueshan National Nature Reserve has continuously increased its ecological protection efforts, the ecological environment has continued to improve and biodiversity has become richer. In fact, as one of the domestic reserves with a more obvious vertical climate, richer species, and more complete natural ecosystems, the Daxueshan Reserve has created a good habitat for wild animals that thrive here.

When Lei Zhen, director of the Daxue Mountain Conservation Bureau, informed Yao Haiying, founder of the Yangtze Business Daily Public Welfare Alliance of the good news, he expressed the hope that he could work together with more public welfare organizations and environmentalists in society who pay attention to ecology to protect the Daxue Mountain.

New plant species discovered near the village

On August 16, Li Yongliang led a team of experts from the South China Botanical Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences into the Daxueshan Nature Reserve to collect and study a wild plant he had recently discovered.

"It's rare for experts to come here, so we must seize this precious opportunity." Li Yongliang said enthusiastically to the public welfare reporter of the Yangtze Business Daily.

Li Yongliang is a researcher at the Scientific Research and Monitoring Institute of the Daxueshan National Nature Reserve in Yongde, Yunnan Province. He has been engaged in wild plant research for 17 years. Recently, a botanical expert visited the Daxueshan Nature Reserve, and he showed the expert a wild plant he had discovered that was suspected to be a new species, asking for advice and consultation.

Vast forests and vast mountains. For more than ten years, Li Yongliang has traveled through mountains and rivers, eating wind and drinking dew, and walking more than ten kilometers in the mountains and forests almost every day. Sometimes he looks up at the towering trees, sometimes he looks down at the wild flowers and grasses. When he encounters an unfamiliar plant, he quickly takes a photo or makes a specimen and returns to the station to study it. He knows the mountains, rivers, gullies, grass and trees in the Daxueshan Nature Reserve by heart. He can accurately tell the name, characteristics, efficacy and approximate distribution location of hundreds of wild plants by pointing at them with his finger.

Whenever experts in forest ecology and plants come to the Daxueshan Nature Reserve, Li Yongliang will take the initiative to act as a guide, taking them into the mountains to collect research samples, discussing academic issues together, and actively asking experts for advice. He also cherishes every training opportunity and tries his best to establish connections with experts so that he can seek help from them in a timely manner when he has any difficulties or confusions.

"I have a low level of education, but I cannot stop learning for a moment," Li Yongliang told the public welfare reporter of the Yangtze Business Daily.

Just two years ago, Li Yongliang passed by Xiaomengtong Town in Yongde County at the foot of the Great Snow Mountain. In a small village not far from the Great Snow Mountain Nature Reserve, he accidentally found some plants he had never seen before under a big tree by the water. With more than ten years of work experience and a love for wild plants, Li Yongliang quickly took out his mobile phone to take photos and study them. However, due to limited knowledge, he could hardly find relevant information in books or on the Internet, so he sent the photos to Wang Zehuan, an associate professor at Guizhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, who he had known for a long time, for consultation.

However, Professor Wang told him that it was impossible to determine the plant species based solely on the photos he took. He had to observe the plant for a long time and see the flowers bloom before he could conduct further research.

Since then, Li Yongliang has visited the village every month to take photos of the plant, sometimes several times a month, for fear of missing the flowering. His efforts paid off, and he finally took photos of the plant blooming this spring, and sent his observation notes for the past year to Professor Wang again.

This time, Professor Wang preliminarily judged that the plant was likely to be a new species based on the information sent by Li Yongliang. So at the end of April, Professor Wang led his research team to Yongde and conducted a field survey of the plant with Li Yongliang.

Finally, after scientific research by experts, it was confirmed that the plant discovered by Li Yongliang was a new species of Asteraceae - Nujiang Polygonum multiflorum.

Based on this research, the relevant research was successfully published in the international plant taxonomy journal PhytoKeys in July this year.

Biodiversity conservation in protected areas has reached a new level

Sophora flavescens, also known as rabbit vegetable and bitter vegetable, is a common wild plant belonging to the Asteraceae family. There are many species of Sophora flavescens, which often grow on roadsides, fields, wastelands, etc., and are named for their unique bitter taste.

According to Associate Professor Wang Zehuan, the basal leaves of this new species are often divided, rarely undivided, and the stem leaves are lanceolate to linear-lanceolate; the capitula has 6 to 7 yellow ligulate florets, and the corolla tube is about 1/5 of the corolla length; the achenes are light brown, 2.9 to 3.1 mm long, and the beak is about 1/3 of the achene length.

After the researchers conducted a large number of morphological observations and detailed records of the plant, as well as used microscopic observations and DNA testing, they clearly revealed its genetic relationship with other species, and finally confirmed that it was Nujiang small bittercress, a completely new species.

At present, according to the public welfare reporter of Yangtze Business Daily, Nujiang small bitter thorn is confirmed to be only found in Yongde County and Zhenkang County of Lincang City. It is a unique species that only grows on the banks of the Nujiang River exposed during the dry season. It prefers the special habitat that only appears when the Nujiang River dries up. Its roots can firmly take root on the exposed banks. These characteristics also make Nujiang small bitter thorn morphologically different from other known Asteraceae plants.

A relevant person in charge of the Scientific Research and Monitoring Institute of the Yongde Daxueshan Nature Reserve Management Bureau said that the discovery of the new species shows that the reserve and its surrounding areas have rich biodiversity, which is worthy of further systematic investigation and research, and has further enhanced people's understanding of the biodiversity resources in the region.

"The two oceans divide water here, and the sun turns here." It is understood that Yongde County is located at the crossroads of the Tropic of Cancer and the geographical watershed of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and is located between the Lancang River and the Nujiang River. As one of the main skeletons of the peaks of Yongde County, the Daxue Mountain has a unique geographical location that nourishes all living things here and also makes it a rare biological resource gene bank in southwest my country.

In 1986, the Daxueshan Nature Reserve was officially established and was promoted to a national nature reserve in 2006. The complex terrain and large elevation differences here have formed a rich variety of vegetation types and regional plant communities and communities. It is one of the rare areas in Yunnan and even in the country where the southern subtropical mid-mountain wet evergreen broad-leaved forest is best preserved and the most original. At present, in the reserve, there are not only 78 national key protected wild animals such as the western black-crested gibbon and the green peacock, but also 64 national key protected wild plants such as the Himalayan yew. Endangered animals and rare plants thrive here, which also gives the reserve the sacred responsibility of protecting nature.

"Why do we go to so much trouble to find and identify a plant?"

Li Yongliang emphasized to the public welfare reporter of Yangtze Business Daily: "Because each plant is unique, they are precious treasures on the earth. Every time we find a new plant, it is like discovering a new continent. They can help researchers better understand nature, protect the ecological environment of the Daxueshan Nature Reserve, and maintain the dynamic balance of biodiversity."

Regarding the future protection work of the Nujiang small kudzu, Li Yongliang told the public welfare reporter of the Yangtze Business Daily that "do not disturb" is the best protection for this species. "We will continue to work hard to discover more new species and further enrich the basic resources of biodiversity in the Great Snow Mountain, so that every animal and plant can reproduce and thrive here. This is to protect our nature and to guard our endless home."

Protect this biological species "gene bank"

The stories of all kinds of living things, the loveliness of all things, and the harmonious coexistence of humans and nature are constantly being played out in this fertile land that nurtures life.

A few days ago, when the staff of the Daxueshan Nature Reserve Management Bureau were sorting out infrared cameras, they discovered that the infrared cameras had captured scenes of many national second-class protected animals moving around in the forest.

According to the video footage provided by the Conservation Bureau to the public welfare reporter of Yangtze Business Daily, two sambar deer lowered their heads and butted each other with their horns, sometimes fighting hard and refusing to give in, and sometimes standing still at a leisurely pace, which was very vivid and interesting. In another video, a mother sambar deer was foraging for food at night with her baby deer. The baby deer walked around her mother. The mother deer lowered her head to eat grass while vigilantly observing the surroundings. The infrared camera also recorded the white-bellied pheasant and the yellow-throated marten, which looked around in front of the camera leisurely.

Shi Liujun, a staff member of the Resource Protection Section of the Daxueshan Nature Reserve, said that this is the second time that images of sambar deer have been found in the reserve. In recent years, with the continuous increase in protection efforts, the population of wild animals such as sambar deer, red muntjac, golden pheasant, white pheasant, yellow-throated marten, and black bear in the Daxueshan Nature Reserve has gradually stabilized and is showing a good development trend.

This year marks the 38th year that Shi Liujun has worked in the reserve. He told the Yangtze Business Daily that many wild animals had been “out of the game” in the Snow Mountain Reserve for 10 to 20 years. Over the years, the reserve has been based on biodiversity protection and research, continuously strengthening standardized management, increasing publicity and education for surrounding residents, and cracking down on all kinds of behaviors that damage the resources of the reserve, effectively promoting the development of biodiversity protection in the reserve.

Today, with the continuous improvement of the ecological environment and the gradual deepening of scientific investigation and research, the animals that once "disappeared" in the nature reserve have returned, and the biological resource "database" is constantly being updated.

In the past two years, the reserve has successfully photographed more and more first- and second-class protected animals through infrared cameras. It is worth mentioning that at the end of December 2023, after more than two months of repeated intensive monitoring by researchers, it was confirmed that a single western black-crested gibbon of the Yunnan subspecies had been added to the reserve.

As one of the 12 endangered flagship species in China, the total number of western black-crested gibbons in the world is only more than 1,000, of which the particularly precious Yunnanese species has only been confirmed in three groups and one lone monkey in the Daxueshan Nature Reserve. At present, the original and authentic habitat of the reserve remains intact, and the population is stable.

"When I first came into contact with them, when I first learned that there were only 15 of them, and when I was stunned by Professor Fan's story, I felt that the Yangtze Business Daily Public Welfare Alliance had the responsibility and obligation to participate in protecting this top endangered animal," said Yao Haiying.

In July 2023, after learning about the protection status of the western black-crested gibbon sub-species in the Daxueshan Reserve, Yao Haiying, Chairman of the Yangtze Business Daily and founder of the Charity Alliance, led a team to form a scientific expedition team with Professor Fan Pengfei, a doctoral supervisor of Sun Yat-sen University, and went deep into the Daxueshan Reserve for a 6-day scientific expedition. At the same time, the Yangtze Business Daily Charity Alliance launched a public welfare project for the protection of the western black-crested gibbon sub-species in the Daxueshan Reserve, and worked with listed companies to do their utmost to protect the western black-crested gibbon sub-species in the Daxueshan Reserve under the guidance of ESG governance.

"Yongde is a place that makes us rethink how to get close to and treat nature well," said Yao Haiying. "As a mainstream media that puts social benefits first, it is our duty for Yangtze Business Daily to work with listed companies and entrepreneurs with a sense of social responsibility to protect Yongde's endangered animals and plants."

Yao Haiying said, "To be honest, due to various reasons, our charity alliance team has not been fast enough in protecting gibbons. I always feel guilty about the Daxue Mountain. In the second half of 2024, we must overcome difficulties and speed up the pace to protect the western black-crested gibbon sub-species, and strive to make more contributions to maintaining the biodiversity in the Daxue Mountain area of ​​Yongde, Yunnan."