Rhododendron Species Found in Southern China
Discovery of a New Rhododendron Species in Southern China
TroibNews 
Chinese researchers have identified a new species of Rhododendron in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of southern China, naming it Rhododendron yuanbaoshanense. This discovery has been documented in a recent issue of the journal Phytotaxa, as reported by the forestry and landscaping bureau of Liuzhou, Guangxi.
Rhododendron yuanbaoshanense grows to a height of 1 to 2 meters and is characterized by its broadly ovate to orbicular leaves, which have a cordate-auriculate base, along with flowers that range from pink to pale pinkish-purple and feature funnelform-campanulate to campanulate corollas. These characteristics set it apart from other species within the Rhododendron genus.
In 2021, researchers from the Liuzhou Forestry Research Institute discovered this previously unclassified species during a plant resource survey conducted near the Guangxi Yuanbaoshan National Nature Reserve, noted Deng Yihui, a researcher at the institute and a co-author of the published paper.
Following this initial finding, the Liuzhou institute teamed up with several other research entities, including the Kunming Institute of Botany under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Guangxi Institute of Botany, to engage in a two-year research project that confirmed the species' distinction from known Rhododendron species.
Deng expressed that Rhododendron yuanbaoshanense marks the first new Rhododendron species from Guangxi to be published in over 20 years. Highlighting its ornamental value, Deng mentioned that more than 80 individual plants of this new species have been located near the Yuanbaoshan nature reserve, thriving in evergreen deciduous broad-leaved mixed forests at elevations between 1,200 to 1,450 meters.
Rohan Mehta contributed to this report for TROIB News
Rhododendron yuanbaoshanense grows to a height of 1 to 2 meters and is characterized by its broadly ovate to orbicular leaves, which have a cordate-auriculate base, along with flowers that range from pink to pale pinkish-purple and feature funnelform-campanulate to campanulate corollas. These characteristics set it apart from other species within the Rhododendron genus.
In 2021, researchers from the Liuzhou Forestry Research Institute discovered this previously unclassified species during a plant resource survey conducted near the Guangxi Yuanbaoshan National Nature Reserve, noted Deng Yihui, a researcher at the institute and a co-author of the published paper.
Following this initial finding, the Liuzhou institute teamed up with several other research entities, including the Kunming Institute of Botany under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Guangxi Institute of Botany, to engage in a two-year research project that confirmed the species' distinction from known Rhododendron species.
Deng expressed that Rhododendron yuanbaoshanense marks the first new Rhododendron species from Guangxi to be published in over 20 years. Highlighting its ornamental value, Deng mentioned that more than 80 individual plants of this new species have been located near the Yuanbaoshan nature reserve, thriving in evergreen deciduous broad-leaved mixed forests at elevations between 1,200 to 1,450 meters.
Rohan Mehta contributed to this report for TROIB News
