According to the Huaping National Nature Reserve in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Southern China, a recent joint field survey conducted by the reserve and the plant diversity research team of the Guangxi Institute of Botany confirmed the wild growth of two rare orchid species. One of them was Himeshirahigeran, confirmed for the first time in Guangxi, and the other was Oberonia sinica, confirmed for the first time in 20 years.

【その他の写真】

There are 11 species of the genus Nervilia in China. Two of them are endemic to China, and Himeshirahigeran is one of them. The distribution of this orchid had previously only been recorded in Guangdong Province and Taiwan in China, but with the discovery of a population in the Huaping National Nature Reserve in Guangxi, a new species has been added to Guangxi's orchid flora, and its distribution range has been confirmed to extend westward to the Yuechengling Mountains in northern Guangxi. A total of 6 Himeshirahigeran plants were found in this survey, showing good growth conditions under the trees in a pristine evergreen broad-leaved forest.

Oberonia sinica is a plant endemic to China, requiring very strict conditions for its growing environment, and is known to grow wild only on tall trees or cliff walls in areas above 1000 meters in elevation.

Thanks to this special survey, with the confirmation of the wild growth of Himeshirahigeran and Oberonia sinica, information regarding Guangxi's orchid flora has been further enriched, the gap in Himeshirahigeran's distribution in the Nanling Mountains has been filled, and it was also confirmed that the primitiveness and completeness of the Huaping National Nature Reserve's ecosystem continue to improve. (Provided by/CGTN Japanese)