Threatened Magnolias and Conservation in China
WEIBANG SUN, Keynote Speaker
Yunnan Key Laboratory for Integrative Conservation of Plant Species with Extremely Small Populations, Kunming Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunnming 650204, Yunnan, China.
Based on the taxonomic system proposed by Law (Liu YH) in 2004, the family Magnoliaceae has some 300 species from 17 genera in the world, and some 160 species from 11 genera are distributed in China. Undoubtedly, China is one of the important distribution centers for Magnoliaceae, and it takes over 53.3% of the total global species and 64.7% of the world’s genera. According to the newest evaluation (Qin et al., 2017), 76 species of the China’s Magnoliaceae plant species are threatened (taking 47.5% of the total), which includes 10 species Critically Endangered (CR), 26 species are listed as Endangered (EN) and 40 species are Vulnerable (VU). And also, the 23 species of Magnoliaceae plant species were listed for the national protection of China in 1999, and 7 species have been recognized as PSESP (Plant Species with Extremely Small Populations) requiring an urgent rescuing action as the national level of China in 2012. China has done great efforts for conservation of Magnoliaceae plant species, and the 134 China’s native species (91.2%) have been cultivated ex situ in botanical gardens and arboreta. Meanwhile, some 5 species have been well integrated conserved (including the surveys, establishing the in situ micro-reserves, researches, creating both populations of ex situ conservation and reinforcement/reintroduction in the wild). This presentation attempts to give an overview of all of the China’s important Magnoliaceae species diversity, the threatened status and conservation outcomes, and conservation study cases.
