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Manglietia ventii blooms for the first time in Kunming Botanical Garden

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2024

Lingyun Tang
Affiliation:
Kunming Botanical Garden, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yunnan, China
Lei Cai
Affiliation:
Yunnan Key Laboratory for Integrative Conservation of Plant Species with Extremely Small Populations, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yunnan, China
Weibang Sun*
Affiliation:
Kunming Botanical Garden, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yunnan, China Yunnan Key Laboratory for Integrative Conservation of Plant Species with Extremely Small Populations, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yunnan, China

Abstract

Type
Conservation News
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence CC BY 4.0.
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International

The evergreen tree Manglietia ventii (with the synonyms Manglietia hebecarpa, Magnolia hebecarpa and Magnolia ventii) of the family Magnoliaceae was described in 1980 and is endemic to Yunnan, China. It was categorized as Endangered on the IUCN Red List in 2012 and the China Red List of Biodiversity–Higher Plants in 2020, and listed as a second-ranked National Key Protected Wild Plant of China in 1999 and 2021, and by the Yunnan provincial government as a Plant Species with Extremely Small Populations in 2009. On 6 September 2023, in Kunming Botanical Garden in Yunnan, the ex situ population of 28 individuals, planted in 2015, bloomed for the first time.

The seedlings of M. ventii used to establish this ex situ population were propagated from wild-collected seeds. In 2015, the diameter of the planted seedlings at ground level was 1.2–1.4 cm. In 2019, average plant height was 3.8 m and average ground diameter 7.3 cm, and in 2023 these measurements were 8.3 m and 15.0 cm, respectively. Although the seedlings experienced frost damage, M. ventii has grown well and has adapted to the Botanical Garden's weather conditions. In situ conservation of M. ventii has included reinforcement and reintroduction of populations and establishment of mini-reserves, and as a result of these integrated conservation efforts M. ventii was not included in the 2021 list of Yunnan protected Plant Species with Extremely Small Populations.

Manglietia ventii blooming in Kunming Botanical Garden.

In the wild, M. ventii blooms during April–May. This blooming in Kunming Botanical Garden in September suggests that studies of the species’ conservation genomics and ex situ conservation biology are required.