This flower in Qinling Mountains has been playing hide-and-seek with humans for 100 years

This spring, Zhang Ying, a senior laboratory technician at the Xi'an Botanical Garden in Shaanxi Province, originally planned to go to the southern foothills of the Qinling Mountains for an inspection, but gave up the plan because of another wave of the epidemic.

"I heard that a population of Shaanxi featherleaf primrose was discovered in Xunyang, southern Shaanxi, and I have been thinking about finding an opportunity to go and see it," he said.

The rare and endangered plant that Zhang Ying mentioned, the Shaanxi feathery-leaved primrose, a species endemic to China, has bloomed all over the laboratory, greenhouse and nursery where he works over the years, even to the point where "the flowers are so numerous that they are dazzling." However, he still wants to go to the Qinling Mountains in person to see how this small pink and purple flower with feather-like flowing leaves and heart-shaped petals that neatly converge toward the pistil grows in the wild.

In the Qinling Mountains, which is known as the "gene bank of biodiversity", finding this wild plant that has disappeared for a hundred years is as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack, but it is also a practical example of "the journey is long but the destination is within reach". Behind the rediscovery, protection and utilization of the Shaanxi featherleaf primrose is the deep sentiment of plant researchers and protectors who value beauty and pursue their mission.

A glimpse of a dream is hard to interpret

Primula is a perennial herbaceous plant of the Primulaceae family. Among the more than 500 species in the genus, 293 are found in my country, mainly distributed in the mountains of the southwest and northwest regions. Among them, the feather-leaved primrose is named for its feather-like lobed leaves on the leaf margins. It is widely distributed around the world and is not a rare species, but the Shaanxi feather-leaved primrose is an exception.

"Shaanxi featherleaf primrose blooms earlier than forsythia." Zhang Ying said that Shaanxi featherleaf primrose blooms in December every year and gradually withers after Qingming Festival the following year.

Of course, the main reason why Shaanxi Featherleaf Primrose has become the "white moonlight" in the hearts of many botanists is that after being caught a glimpse by humans, it has "disappeared" for more than 100 years.

On February 28, 1904, German Wilhelm Filchner and his family were on their way from Ankang, Shaanxi to Xi'an when they discovered a patch of flowering herbs on the southern foot of the Qinling Mountains. They collected some specimens and took them away.

Qinling Mountains, the geographical dividing line between north and south China, has a unique climate and rich species, and has always been the area with the most concentrated biodiversity on Earth. This specimen, which was accidentally collected on the road, was brought back to Germany by Filchner. After identification, Reinhard Knut, a famous taxonomist at the Berlin Botanical Garden, named this new species Primula filchnerae according to the popular "Linnaean binomial nomenclature" and the Latin transcription of Filchner's surname. This is the earliest related record recognized by the botanical community.

The Qing dynasty was in turmoil at the time and naturally had no power to organize a scientific expedition to obtain more information about the Qinling wild animals and plants. The unique specimen of Primula foetida in Shaanxi, lying quietly in Berlin, was destroyed in the bombing of World War II in 1943, leaving only a black-and-white photo and a hand-drawn line drawing.

For a long time afterwards, people never saw this plant again, so it was naturally impossible to collect new specimens and re-designate the type.

Botanists at home and abroad generally believe that the Shaanxi feather-leaved primrose has long been extinct in the wild. Zhang Ying recalled that a professional article she read when she first started working mentioned that the Shaanxi feather-leaved primrose, like the South China tiger, was one of the ten extinct wild species that made the domestic academic community sigh.

Zhang Ying checks the condition of Shaanxi featherleaf primrose seeds in the laboratory. Photo by Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporter Zheng Xin

“No more worrying about it going extinct”

In the past 30 years, Zhang Ying has been working hard to build a rare plant seed bank and protect wild plants. His encounter with Shaanxi feather-leaved primrose was an inevitable coincidence.

"For many years, Shaanxi featherleaf primrose has been a concern in the hearts of our local plant researchers. The story of its disappearance abroad and then for a hundred years has always made us feel regretful," said Zhang Ying.

In 2004, Xi'an Botanical Garden listed Shaanxi Featherleaf Primula as a key research target when participating in the ex situ conservation of rare and endangered plants in the Qinba Mountains. However, after several months of traveling to almost all counties and districts in the southern foothills of the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi Province, Zhang Ying and other researchers still failed to find the whereabouts of this "spring spirit".

The experts did not lose heart, and every time they went to the Qinling Mountains, they would ask the villagers or go there themselves to see if they could "miraculously" come across the Shaanxi featherleaf primrose.

The turning point came in 2006. Mr. Gan Qiliang, a domestic folk botanist, collected three Primulaceae plants with pinnate-lobed leaves in the deep mountains of southern Zhuxi County, Hubei Province, on the southern slope of the Qinling Mountains. He sent the specimens to the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and after identification, the species was found to be the Shaanxi Featherleaf Primula, which was thought to be extinct.

"Since it still exists, it cannot be in Shaanxi." Zhang Ying said, "Since the word 'Shaanxi' is in its name, we must find it in Shaanxi."

The following decade was a process of "guessing and searching". After the discovery in Zhuxi, the Shaanxi feather-leaved primrose could no longer be found in the country. Zhang Ying deployed "spies" at animal protection stations and street offices across Shaanxi, and set up "antennas" with other wild plant experts and enthusiasts, setting up QQ groups and WeChat groups to inform each other of new discoveries.

In 2015, a paper titled "Rare and Endangered Plant Primula shaanxiensis Rediscovered in Shaanxi" shocked the botanical community. This stems from a detailed investigation of the species by Ren Yi and Zhang Jianqiang, experts from the School of Life Sciences of Shaanxi Normal University, in Wengzigou, Yang County, Shaanxi. Dang Gaodi, a senior engineer at the Shaanxi Foping National Nature Reserve Administration, recalled that he had seen wild populations of Primula shaanxiensis in Wengzigou as early as 2009.

"I found it on the roadside when I was taking the Tongcun bus. At first I thought it was a Tibetan primrose, so I took it back to the management bureau, uploaded the photo to the Internet and put it away. Some time later, an expert in Beijing reminded me that it might be a 'close relative' of the Tibetan primrose - the Shaanxi featherleaf primrose." Dang Gaodi said that he and his colleagues consulted atlases and literature and determined that this was indeed very likely the Shaanxi featherleaf primrose. After that, they made an appointment with experts from Shaanxi Normal University to go to Wengzigou for a detailed investigation. Finally, through a paper, it was scientifically confirmed that the Shaanxi featherleaf primrose was rediscovered in its type origin, Shaanxi.

After learning that the plant had reappeared in the main range of the Qinling Mountains, Zhang Ying and her team were delighted and followed the map to collect two wild plants in March 2017.

"The earliest discovered locations have all been washed away by floods, and the Shaanxi featherleaf primrose may disappear again." Zhang Ying said that they risked landslides to retrieve the plants, but the Shaanxi featherleaf primrose does not like high temperatures and is not tolerant to transplanting. Due to insufficient understanding of this species, the first introduction failed.

Not long after, Zhang Ying, unwilling to give up, went deep into the Qinling Mountains again, and used tweezers to pick out the remaining dozens of millet-sized seeds from two withered buds of Shaanxi feather-leaved primrose, and brought them back to the Xi'an Botanical Garden for sowing.

This time, he placed the seeds in batches in a light incubator and conducted experiments simulating the environment of the discovery site. In December of that year, the Shaanxi feather-leaved primrose in the laboratory bloomed. He then collected seeds, announcing the success of this ex situ conservation.

Now, looking at the several kilograms of Shaanxi feathery primrose seeds in the seed resource bank, Zhang Ying said proudly: "I am no longer worried about it becoming extinct."

Zhang Ying observes the growth of artificially cultivated Shaanxi featherleaf primrose in the nursery. Photo by Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporter Zheng Xin

“Studying wild species is studying humans themselves”

Although Zhang Ying's trip to the south to look for flowers did not take place, good news came from the southern foothills of the Qinling Mountains. On April 8, Hanzhong City, Shaanxi Province announced that a wild population of Shaanxi feathery-leaved primrose was found in Qizimei Village, Xinpu Town, Mian County.

"There are several clusters of them in the ravine, and the largest single flower is as big as a bucket (used by farmers)," said the discoverer, Peng Hailong, secretary of the Xinpu Town Party Committee.

Peng Hailong, who graduated from an agricultural school and has worked at the grassroots level for decades with the Qinling Mountains behind him, has always paid attention to observing wild species. During a trip to the countryside in March this year, he discovered a cluster of pink and purple flowers beside a mountain road that he had never seen before.

"I asked a fellow villager and he said that this flower has been blooming in the village for many years. Everyone calls it 'hen-holding flower' and doesn't pay much attention to it." Peng Hailong was still confused, so he opened the camera recognition app on his phone and scanned it -

“Shaanxi Featherleaf Primrose!”

He had never heard of this species before, but his eyes lit up after reading the introduction that followed.

"I was afraid that there might be errors in identification, so I quickly took photos of the flower from top to bottom and left to right, and sent them to my acquaintances at the Hanzhong Wildlife and Plant Protection Management Station and the Shaanxi Forestry Bureau," he said. "More than half a month later, the provincial government confirmed that this was the Shaanxi feathery primrose."

"This plant has high requirements for the living environment. Doesn't the fact that it can grow here just show the improvement of the local ecology in recent years?" Thinking of this, Peng Hailong became even more excited and quickly changed his WeChat profile picture to a blooming Shaanxi feather-leaved primrose. After the Qingming holiday, he accompanied the experts to Qizimei Village again and observed the roots and fruits of the flowers in detail.

"This is another major discovery of Shaanxi Featherleaf Primula." Zhang Ying said after learning the news that he had never heard of Shaanxi Featherleaf Primula in Mian County before. This is more southwest than other counties where Shaanxi Featherleaf Primula wild populations have been found, which undoubtedly expands the known growth range of the species. At the same time, Qizimei Village is only 600 meters above sea level, which is also one of the lowest altitudes for wild populations.

"Almost all primroses are distributed in mountains above 1,000 meters above sea level, but the Shaanxi featherleaf primrose is lower in comparison. In natural history, did all the species except the Shaanxi featherleaf primrose 'climb' up, or did the Shaanxi featherleaf primrose be the first to 'walk' down? This topic may not only serve as evidence of ecological and climate change in the Qinling Mountains, but also hide the code of wild plant evolution." Zhang Ying said that they will further uncover the mystery of the Shaanxi featherleaf primrose.

"People often say 'there is no idle grass in the Qinling Mountains', which is praising the ecological inclusiveness of the Qinling Mountains. It is undoubtedly a paradise for wild animals and plants to grow." In Zhang Ying's view, "Studying wild animals and plants is studying humans ourselves, and protecting them is also protecting us."

"Opening a car on the street or in a school is the greatest protection"

Although the Shaanxi featherleaf primrose has been successfully introduced in Shaanxi, Hubei and other places and has been artificially cultivated outdoors on a certain scale, it is still listed as endangered on the official website of the World Conservation Union (IUCN).

"In my opinion, the best way to protect a plant is to make the best use of it." Zhang Ying said that they should be allowed to avoid human intervention as much as possible and grow naturally, so that they can gradually restore their natural state and expand their population.

In the spring of 2021, Xi'an Botanical Garden held its first flower show in history with thousands of cultivated primroses, which attracted a lot of attention and made researchers more confident in pushing this species back to the wild space. Soon, Zhang Ying went to the Qinling Base of Xi'an Botanical Garden in Yangxian County, Shaanxi Province, and planted nearly 50 strong and non-mutated primroses in different environments for a wild reintroduction experiment.

A year later, three plants survived on the abandoned land, and several others that were replanted in the autumn also completed the process of flowering and fruiting.

If wilding is possible, can Shaanxi Featherleaf Primrose be promoted and made more familiar to people? This has attracted the attention of experts.

Last September, on the playground of Yuandong Experimental Primary School in Lianhu District, Xi'an, children sowed seeds of Shaanxi feathery primrose in a planting box 1 meter long and 0.5 meters wide. This little flower, once hidden deep in the Qinling Mountains and unknown to anyone, has walked out of the greenhouse and laboratory and into the vast world, explaining the mysteries of nature and the magic of life with its tenacious vitality behind its delicate flowers.

Students from Yuandong Experimental Primary School in Lianhu District, Xi'an are observing the Shaanxi featherleaf primrose on campus. Photo by Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporter Zheng Xin

The students showed great enthusiasm for this flower that they had never seen before. Zhu Sha, the school's team counselor, told reporters that each class from grades 4 to 6 adopted a planting box and set up an interest group to learn how to plant flowers and understand the different conditions of each stage of plant growth and development under the guidance of plant experts and science teachers.

"After a whole season of blooming flowers, the children's environmental awareness and hands-on ability have improved. They have realized how difficult it is for researchers to protect the Qinling Mountains and will cherish the green ecology more," said Zhu Sha.

Zhang Ying and Dang Gaodi both believe that this is a key step for Shaanxi Feather Primrose to enter the public eye. "I think that Shaanxi Feather Primrose can be planted on the streets and in schools in the future, which is the greatest protection for this endangered species," said Zhang Ying.

Source: Xinhua Daily Telegraph, July 8

Author: Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporters Zheng Xin and Zhang Chenjun