New wild plant species recorded in China's Yunnan

(ECNS) -- A climbing herb species known as Ceropegia kachinensis has been identified as a new species in China, according to a study published in the Plant Science Journal.

The species, native to the southern Himalayas and northern Myanmar, was previously documented only in Myanmar, northeastern India and Bangladesh.

In August 2024, a field survey team from the Yunnan Tongbiguan Provincial Nature Reserve collected a flowering specimen of the plant in Yingjiang County, Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture in southwest China's Yunnan Province. Morphological identification confirmed that the species has a natural distribution in China.

The specimen was collected from an evergreen broad-leaved forest at an elevation of about 1,160 meters and is now stored at the public herbarium of the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The discovery highlights the rich biodiversity of the border area in southern Dehong, which is part of the southern Hengduan Mountains. 

(By Tang Yuxian)