China has succeeded in growing Taiwania flousiana, a 110-million-year-old rare tree, in Yunnan Province.
A forest comprising over 10,000 fully grown flousiana trees has been created at the Weibaoshan National Forest Zone in Weishan County at an elevation of 1,700 to 2,400 meters.
According to local horticulturists, the trees are growing well in Kunming, with an average height of seven meters.
The county area, which is suitable for flousiana, began to plant the tree in 1987. The survival rate of the 12,000 saplings planted is 85 percent.
“The earliest flousiana found in the province dates back 1,200 years,” said a local botanist, the species are valuable sample materials for studying the origin and evolution of living things and the climate and geography of ancient times.
The trees only grow in Myanmar, and Taiwan, Guizhou and Yunnan in China. The tallest flousiana trees can top 75 meters.
(www.eastday.com 05/10/2001)
