Southwest China’s Yunnan Province has succeeded in growing taiwania flousina, a rare species with a history of 110 million years, on large tracts of land.
Taiwania flousina is a kind of plant left over from the Tertiary Period. It is native only to Yunnan and Guizhou provinces in southwest China and northern Myanmar. The timber is good for house-building, furniture and indoor decoration.
To date, 39 million taiwania flousina have been planted on 17,300 hectares of mountain slopes in Tengchong County, which borders Myanmar. The tallest one is 36 meters high and has a diameter of 1.3 meters.
The State Council has listed it as a species under top protection. A nature preserve of taiwania flousina has been set up in Nujiang.
(Xinhua 01/18/2001)