The snow lotus, the only herbaceous plant living above 3,500 meters, is facing extinction as a result of global warming and rising demand for the plant from pharmacy and health products industries.

The growing area of snow lotus in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region had dropped from 50 million mu (3.33 million hectares) in 1960s to less than 10 million mu, said Rao Feng, president of the Snow Lotus Protection Association.

Rao, a nominee for the 2006 "Green Chinese" awards, said, "If the situation continues, it will be difficult to find the snow lotus in five years and the plant may be extinct in 20 years."

The alpine plant is highly valued in traditional Chinese medicine. Listed as an endangered species, it mainly grows in meadows near the snow line on the Tianshan and Altay Mountains in northwest China,

It usually blossoms at four to five years old and thus has a very low reproductive rate.

Its habitat has shrunk as snow lines have risen in the last ten years.

"We could find the snow lotus at 2,000 meters in 1999, but now they can only be found above 3,500 meters," Rao said.

Demand has risen too with more than 30 plants in Xinjiang producing more than 60 snow lotus products, consuming about 100 tons of the plant every year, said Rao.

Police arrested illegal collectors and purchasers on Tianshan in August. In one case, more than 10,000 snow lotuses were seized.

Some firms produced snow lotus souvenirs, a huge waste of the resource, Rao said.

(Xinhua News Agency December 23, 2006)