Science News-A new species of legumes, Zhaoqing Dezhao Teng, was discovered in Guangning County, China
Guangning released 2024-06-18 21:06 Guangdong, China
▲ Zhaoqing Dezhao Teng
Recently, the research team of the South China Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences officially announced that the team discovered a new species of Zhaoqing-specific plants in Guangning-Zhaoqing Dezhao Teng.
"The genus Dezhao Teng belongs to the legume family and contains about 15 species. In 2018, when I was studying plants of the genus Dezhao Teng, I found photos of specimen No. 1, which was collected in the Peking University Herbarium and the Herbarium of the Institute of Botany. This specimen was collected by Zhong Guanguang in Qixingyan, Zhaoqing in 1927." Tu Tieyao, an associate researcher at the South China Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told reporters. Later, he found two other specimens of the same species, which were collected by Shi Guoliang from Dinghu and Guangning in 1971 and 1983 respectively. In the nearly 40 years since then, no one has collected the plant, and no photos of it have been seen on various online databases.
The above specimens were once identified by different scholars as species such as the crown vine and Hubei Dezhao vine. However, through detailed morphological comparison with other known species of the genus Dezhao vine, Tu Tieyao and his team members basically determined that it was a new species that had not been described and published. Since then, Tu Tieyao and his team have visited Zhaoqing many times and embarked on a journey of exploration that lasted more than 4 years.
Initially, the team mainly went to Qixingyan and Dinghushan for field research, but because the location of the plant specimen collection record was relatively vague, and Qixingyan had been developed into a scenic spot, the original environment no longer existed, so the team's many surveys were unsuccessful.
Just when everyone thought that the species might have become extinct before it was known to the world, Tu Tieyao's team still did not give up the search. "There are still many well-preserved secondary forests in Zhaoqing, and there may be hope." Tu Tieyao told reporters that in order to achieve "finding a needle in a haystack", the team went deep into the slopes, ridges, valleys, and streams of various forest farms from time to time, "traveling through mountains and rivers, and being exposed to the sun and rain is a common thing."
Hard work pays off. In June 2022, team member Xie Zhi led a scientific expedition to Guangning, focusing on the edge of secondary forests, streams and other environments suitable for the growth of Dezhao vine plants. On the way to Zhouzi Town, suddenly, a cluster of vines with white flowers climbing on the bamboo forest along the stream caught the attention of Xie Zhi and others. From a distance, it looked very much like Dezhao vine plants.
Xie Zhi and others immediately collected plant specimens and conducted detailed morphological observations and feature comparisons on them. They preliminarily determined that the species was the same species as the specimens collected by Zhong Guanguang and Shi Guoliang. Then, they collected several fresh and tender leaves and extracted their DNA for molecular identification and phylogenetic analysis.
"Combined with its morphological characteristics and DNA evidence, we finally confirmed that it was a new species. Afterwards, we conducted multiple searches in Guangning, but no more individuals were found." Tu Tieyao revealed that since then, the team has visited Guangning many times to conduct detailed field observations and research on the species, and wrote a research paper, which was published in an international journal in May this year, officially announcing the new species of Zhaoqing Dezhao vine.
"We recommend that this new species be listed as a critically endangered species and be subject to emergency protection as a wild plant with an extremely small population in Guangdong Province. Last year, we performed layering on it, and at the beginning of this year we found that one of the branches had taken root. The rooted branch has now been transplanted to the South China National Botanical Garden for ex situ conservation." In Tu Tieyao's view, the official discovery of this new species of Zhaoqing Dezhao Teng not only adds a new unique species to Zhaoqing and Guangdong, but also has important significance for the study of species differentiation of the genus Dezhao Teng, the protection of Guangdong's biodiversity and the utilization of forest resources.