Rare grass species discovered in SW China

Photo shows the Spodiopogon sagittifolius Rendle. (Photo/Liu Zhenwen)

A group of wild Spodiopogon sagittifolius Rendle, a rare grass species, was spotted in Yimen county, southwest China’s Yunnan province in August, according to the Yunnan Academy of Forestry and Grassland.

Researchers from the institute found about 300 individual plants of the species during a recent field survey. The species, endemic to China, is under second-class state protection in the country. Researchers will enhance in-situ conservation of the plants and carry out artificial breeding to expand their population.

The plant is rarely seen in the wild and had previously been discovered in only a handful of counties and cities in Yunnan, including Fumin, Luquan, Huize, Kunming and Mengzi, as well as Panzhihua city in southwest China’s Sichuan province.

In the late 19th century, British plant collector Augustine Henry collected a specimen of the plant in Mengzi, which was then named Spodiopogon sagittifolius Rendle by the English botanist Alfred Barton Rendle in 1904.