A visit to the nature reserve home to the country’s largest eco-system of hsienmu trees

The Gulinqing Nature Reserve, located at an elevation of between 160 and 2,028.4 meters above sea level in Maguan county, southwest China’s Yunnan province, is home to China’s largest and best preserved eco-system of hsienmu trees.

Photo shows a 2000-year-old hsienmu tree with a trunk diameter of 3.5 meters at its breast height. (Photo/Yunnan Daily)

At the nature reserve, which covers an area of 7,107 hectares, one can find both tropical and subtropical plants. According to Yang Yuming, a professor from the Southwest Forestry University, the locality avoided being eroded during the Quaternary glacial period, and therefore basically all the ancient trees and plants living there survived and have lived there down to this day.

The hsienmu tree is the most representative species at the nature reserve. The trees can be found mainly in places where the elevation is below 1,000 meters, and they grow best in rocky soil. The oldest hsienmu tree ever discovered at the nature reserve is one with a history of more than 2,000 years and a trunk diameter of 3.5 meters at its breast height.

Furthermore, 2,256 vascular plant species, including the Parashorea cathayensis (or the “sky-watching tree”), a tropical tree once thought extinct, can also be found at the nature reserve. The largest sky-watching tree observed in the area was one with a trunk diameter of 2.4 meters at its breast height. In addition, 326 vertebrate animals are also under high-level protection at the nature reserve.