Chinese experts have discovered 2,007 kinds of plants in the Three Gorges Area along the medium Yangtze River valley , which covers Chongqing Municipality and part of central China's Hubei Province.
Yu Shunhui, an expert with the Chongqing Three Gorges Institute, said that these plants include 1,006 varieties of medicinal plants, more than 140 textile plants and many plants which contain rich pitch, balata and starch, and rare plant species.
Experts explained that the reason that the Three Gorges area has rich plant resources lies in its favorable climatic conditions and the region's escaping of the striking of Quaternary Period glacier.
Yu said, China has over 900 kinds of spice plants, and the Three Gorges area has 54. The region also has 14 percent of China' s endangered plant species such as the gingko tree, called the “living fossils”, silver fir, according to Yu.
At present, nine nature reserves have been established in the Three Gorges area.
(People's Daily 11/30/2000)
