In a recent development, staff members from the Xi'an Botanical Garden (Shaanxi Institute of Botany) have initiated the reintroduction of over 300 artificially propagated specimens of the nationally endangered species, Shaanxi Featherleaf Corydalis, into the wild. This endeavor took place within the jurisdiction of the Maoping and Huayang management stations in the Changqing National Nature Reserve, as well as the Zhuji National Nature Reserve Garden management station. With this effort, the plant, often hailed as the "winter elf vanished for a century," is now embarking on population survival and ecological restoration in its original habitat on the southern slope of the Qinling Mountains.
Shaaxi Featherleaf Corydalis. Photo by Zhang Xingyong.
Endangered plant Primula filchnerae is returning to its native habitat on the southern slopes of the Qinling Mountains. Xi'an Botanical Garden provides images.
Primula filchnerae, a species endemic to China and a locally protected wild plant in Shaanxi Province, is classified as endangered (EN) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Once considered possibly extinct in the wild, the known wild populations in the Qinling Mountains are currently very small, with a significant risk of extinction still looming. In 2017, researchers at Xi'an Botanical Garden collected seeds of Primula filchnerae and initiated cultivation experiments. After successful propagation, efforts have been made in recent years to explore the path of reintroducing Primula filchnerae to the wild.
The reintroduction of plants to the wild involves introducing them into their original natural or semi-natural habitats through artificial propagation, based on ex situ conservation, to establish new populations with sufficient genetic diversity capable of adapting to evolutionary changes, naturally sustaining, and renewing themselves.
According to experts from Xi'an Botanical Garden, this reintroduction effort marks just the beginning of rebuilding wild populations of Primula filchnerae in Shaanxi. In the future, population monitoring, management, and research on rebuilding population genetic diversity will be carried out.
