Critically endangered orchid lost for over 25 years rediscovered in SW China's Yunnan

The Cypripedium elegans (Photo/Jiang Hong)

The Cypripedium elegans, a rare species of orchid, has recently been discovered for the first time in 25 years in Shangri-La, southwest China's Yunnan Province. The most recent specimen record on the flower in China traces back to 1996.

The plant species has an extremely small population and is listed as critically endangered in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.

Researchers from the Yunnan Academy of Forestry and Grassland found wild populations of the Cypripedium elegans during an investigative trip to the Haba Snow Mountain in Shangri-La.

Specimens of the species were first collected in 1879 in southwest China's Tibet autonomous region, the only other place home to the plant nationwide.