Discovering Yunnan's eight best-known beautiful flowers: Magnolia (4)

Photo shows a magnolia flower in Shidian county, southwest China's Yunnan province. (Photo/Du Haisheng)

With its generous sunshine and abundant rainfall, southwest China's Yunnan Province is endowed with rich varieties of precious flowers and plants, being home to more than 2,100 decorative plants, among which at least 1,500 are flowering plants. Camellia, magnolia, lily, azalea, fairy primrose, orchid, herba meconopsis, and radix gentianae are eight of the best-known flowers in Yunnan.

On Oct. 11 this year, the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) is scheduled to take place in Kunming, capital city of Yunnan. To better display the beauty of the flowers, People's Daily Online would like to introduce you to the eight best-known flowers of Yunnan.

Magnolia is an ancient flowering plant species. Chinese people started to plant magnolia as early as the Spring and Autumn Period (1,100 BCE – 476 BCE). There are 120 magnolia varieties across China and more than 35 of them are endemic to Yunnan. Magnolia has been widely cultivated in gardens in the province for its beautiful flowers.