Hobbyists on mission to discover new and lost flora

Hike and hobby

Many plant hobbyists have adopted Mu's approach of seeking out various unique flowers while hiking in the mountains. They organize nature experience activities that focus on observing flowers in the mountains, allowing the local community to continue benefiting from a healthy ecological environment.

Xue Kai, 48, is one such hobbyist who has devoted much of his spare time to taking photos of flowers and wild grasses in the mountains for more than two decades.

In 2006, he established a website dedicated to recording plant species he found in Beijing, to let more individuals who are interested in exploring plants get to know the species and their growing conditions.

Till 2008, Xue said he had got to know more than 800 wild plants in Beijing and launched several events through an online forum for participation in outdoor activities to learn about plants.

"There was a sudden surge in finding new plant species by me in 2008," said Xue. "Since then due to a busy work schedule, I've had less time to go hiking and observe plants for over 10 years, and my plant identification skills didn't improve much."

"It was not until 2019 that I picked up my old habit of finding flowers in the mountains," he said.

With the aim of searching for tiny wild orchids in the capital city, in July 2019, he spent three days looking for traces of the flowers in the Yudu Mountains in Beijing's Yanqing district. He stumbled upon Monotropa hypopitys, translated as pine-shadow orchid in English, which despite its name, is not a true orchid but a member of the rhododendron family.

"It made a deep impression on me because I had never seen anything like it before," said Xue. "I discovered it completely by accident while searching for orchids in Yudu Mountains, crawling on the ground and examining every inch."

The pine-shadow orchid is a saprophytic plant, meaning it lives in symbiosis with fungi. After germinating underground, the plant relies on underground fungi to provide nutrients, and then it grows and flowers.

"Pine-shadow orchids typically grow under pine trees in damp soil, especially during the summer months. But not every suitable environment has these orchids," said Xue.

"Finding it also relies on luck," he said, adding that the chance of discovering this plant is greater in the city because of the overall good ecological conditions.

After discovering a new species, Xue said he checks on them often, observing the entire process of flowering, fruit bearing and germination.

"It's great to see it from blooming to fruiting and sprouting," he said. "It goes through these stages, and each visit reveals a new phase."

However, he could not locate the pine-shadow orchid later.

"It perhaps could be the environment change. Maybe it moved to another place, or maybe this place wasn't suitable so its seeds probably drifted to another place and sprouted there," he said.