New goblet-shaped plant species found in south China

GUANGZHOU, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) — Chinese researchers have recently named a new plant species “Thismia jinzun,” which resembles a golden goblet mentioned in a masterpiece of renowned poet Li Bai (701-762).
The rare plant was discovered in Jianfengling national nature reserve, south China’s Hainan Province, and belongs to the Thismia genus.
This genus has extremely stringent environmental requirements and is predominantly found in tropical regions, with a minority distributed in subtropical and warm temperate zones, according to Xu Han, a researcher from the Research Institute of Tropical Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry.
The island province of Hainan has a unique ecological environment that provides an excellent habitat for the new species and serves as a biodiversity hotspot for Thismia genus plants in China. There are 107 known species of Thismia genus plants worldwide, and so far nine of them have been spotted in China.
The discovery of the species confirms that efforts to conserve Hainan’s tropical montane rainforests over the years have enriched the diversity of local plant species and expanded the genetic resources of wild plants, said Yang Haijun, a researcher from South China Agricultural University and the author of the research paper published in the international academic journal Phytotaxa. ■