Final Report - Asian Development Bank

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TA 4721-PRC: Preparing the Shaanxi-Qinling Mountains Integrated Ecosystem Management Project
Final Report Appendix 5
ANNEX 13: STATUS OF FLORA IN THE QINLING MOUNTAINS
The research history of Flora in Qinling Mountains
The scholars of China and foreign countries have paid close attention to the abundant flora, long
history of geological evolution and complicated natural environment in the Qinling Mountains.
According to the most recent research data (Zhang Qin-Wei 2002), approximately 3446 species, 1007
genera and 198 families of seed plant occur in the Qinling mountain range. The characteristics of the
native flora are outstanding. There are five endemic families, Ginkgoaceae, Sargentodoxaceae,
Eucommiaceae, Staphyleaceae and Kingdoniaceae, and 44 genera in China. The geographic
distributions of flora are complex and are related to other regions, and have evident temperate zone
characteristics as well as strong transitional character.
For around 100 years, the flora of the Qinling region has been the subject of close attention by
scholars in China and foreign countries. From the end of the 19 th century to the early 20 th century,
many western scholars traveled to China to engage in various projects of science, culture and religion
and these included plant resource investigation in China and Qinling region.
During the 149 years from 1800 to 1949, 232 persons of 14 western nations studied in 26 provinces,
cities or municipalities of China, collecting plant specimens and investigating plant resources (Bi Liejue,
1983). Of these scientists, 19 persons visited Gansu Province, 14 traveled to Hubei Province, 10
persons visited Shaanxi Province and 3 persons visited Henan Province. Most of the scientists that
visited Shaanxi Province for collection of specimens traveled to the Qinling region. The visiting
scholars represented various disciplines, including botanist, zoologist, geologist and geographer,
collector, doctor and priest. At the end of the 19 th century, J. Giraldii, an Italian priest, regarded his
missionary duties as secondary but collected a great number of plant specimens in the Qinling region.
He went deep into the Guangtoushan area and indiscriminately collected plant specimens for 11 years
from 1890 to 1990. The plant specimens were later taken to Italy and Germany. A majority of the
vascular plant specimens were identified and published by a German named L. Didls. The specimens
are now archived in many large botanical specimen museums in Europe, with the majority of
specimens housed in Berlin (Fu Kun-jun, 1983). A Russian, T. H. ������, also collected plant
specimens in the Qinling region on many occasions and the specimens are archived in Russia.
Since the 20 th century, an American named F. N. Meyer was dispatched by the USA Department of
Agriculture and he investigated agricultural plants in China from 1905 to 1908. He carefully
researched soybean, and arrived Qinling region and many places in Shaanxi and Gansu Province. He
came again later to Shaanxi Province and collected specimens in 1914. From 1914-1923 a
Frenchman named E. Licent collected plant specimens in the Qinling region and many places in
Gansu Province (Wang He-sheng 1997). These specimens were sent to every national specimen
museum or collection where they were identified by western botanists. For this reason many Qinling
plants were named by western botanists and much of the literature was first published overseas. This
causes great difficulty in researching botanical taxonomy and the flora of China for Chinese scholars.
Before the 1930s research on flora of the Qinling was limited to accumulating general information.
After this, additional research gradually began. A German named H. Handel Mazzetii (1931) first
divided China into 8 regions, not including Xinjiang and Xizang, and deal with plant flora in Qinling
region on the basis of plant species and genera.
Professor Hu Xian-Su (1933) divided Chinese plants into six parts in �World Plant Geography�, of
which the China north region included Shaanxi Province. The primary tree species of representative
upland is listed in the book, and compared with tree species in same latitude region of Eurasia, and
indicated the cold climate is a limiting factor of plant communities in north China where growth the
North Temperate Zone plant and plant communities is summer green broadleaf forest.
Prof Liu Shen-E made important contributions to plant flora research in north China. The Northwest
Botany investigating place of state-run Peiping Academy was established at Shaanxi Wugong (now
Yangling demonstration section) in first 30 years of the 20 th century. Here Prof Liu Shen-E, Prof Lin