Disappeared for more than 70 years! Reappeared again!

The reporter learned from the Guangxi Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences that on May 22, the institute's plant diversity research team collected a tall plant of the genus Asparagaceae in the underground river basin area of ​​​​Disu Town, Du'an Yao Autonomous County, Guangxi. It was later confirmed to be a giant Asparagaceae that had disappeared for more than 70 years.

Anatomy of a giant aspidistra flower.

Giant Aspidistra is a new species published in 1988 based on Aspidistra plants cultivated in Guilin Botanical Garden. When the new species was published, no living plants were found in the wild. Its type specimen only recorded that the species was introduced from southwest Guangxi by researchers of the institute and planted in Guilin Botanical Garden in the 1950s. In the following decades, multiple teams conducted multiple field surveys in southwest Guangxi but failed to find the species. The botanical community once believed that it might have become extinct in the wild.

The giant spider egg has leaves that can be more than 1 meter long and has a special flower structure, which is a typical representative of large-flowered species. When it blooms, the corolla diameter can reach 15 cm, and the perianth lobes are long and up to 12.

According to this survey, the wild population of giant spider eggs was found in Disu Town, growing in a karst groove sinkhole at an altitude of 300-450 meters. The location is relatively hidden and not easy to be found. This survey only found 4-5 clusters of giant spider eggs, and the distribution area is very narrow.

Wild population of giant aspidist

The rediscovery of the wild population of Giant Aspidistra is of great value to the study of species diversity in karst areas and the origin and evolution of Aspidistra plants.

Source: Science and Technology Daily