Located in Longjing Town, Qingxin District, Qingyuan City, the Guangdong Liangtian South Medicine Botanical Garden covers an area of 3,000 mu (approximately 200 hectares). It has been officially recognized as Qingyuan's first entry in Guangdong's inaugural list of indigenous botanical gardens.
This botanical garden serves not only as a living gene bank safeguarding 1,215 national first-class and 1,430 national second-class protected wild plants, but also as an "ecological kingdom" integrating protection, research, education, and industry.
The ex-situ conservation core zone in this botanical garden functions as a three-dimensional encyclopedia of Lingnan herbal medicines, preserving over 500 varieties of germplasm of South Medicine.
Leveraging Engineering Technology Research Centers at both provincial and municipal levels, the garden has independently developed a smart forestry system that integrates IoT, AI, and remote-sensing technologies, assigning each plant an "electronic ID card" for precise monitoring throughout its entire growth cycle.
In a sterile culture medium preparation room, researchers are meticulously renewing the cultivation substrates for Cibotium barometz, a national second-class protected plant that naturally grows beneath mountain forests. It is now being artificially propagated in an intelligent greenhouse, achieving elite breeding in batches of one million plants at a time.
Conservation does not end with simple transplantation. The botanical garden is scientifically organized into specialized gardens, nurseries, and collection zones. The specialized gardens precisely replicate native habitats; the nurseries, equipped with greenhouses, shade sheds, and advanced facilities, focus on propagating endangered and rare species; and the collection zones facilitate resource exchange with universities and research institutes while nurturing South China's characteristic germplasm, such as Fritillaria, Polygala fallax, Angiopteris evecta, Ardisia mamillata, Cremastra appendiculata, and Anoectochilus roxburghii, among others.
Qingxin District's unique subtropical climate, high forest coverage rate, and over 700 wild South Medicine species across 66,000 mu (approximately 4,400 hectares) of wild resources provide the botanical garden with an invaluable natural treasure trove and a solid foundation.
As the leading body of a provincial modern agricultural industrial park, the garden collaborates closely with more than ten top institutions, including the South China Botanical Garden, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine. The jointly established tissue culture and rapid propagation center and germplasm evaluation laboratory have become engines for innovation, effectively driving research results from the laboratory to the fields and workshops by converting 48 patents and developing 28 enterprise standards.
With a core emphasis on natural education, the garden has crafted diverse indoor and outdoor teaching spaces such as a traditional Chinese medicine popularization garden, a polygonatum resource zone, a rapid propagation zone, and an introduction zone, vividly showcasing plant characteristics, ecological environments, and biodiversity.
A myriad of distinct functional zones, featuring planting trials, understory planting, study tours, outdoor activities, technology propagation, agricultural experiences, herbal medicines, and endangered species conservation, collectively form a platform for immersive learning and experiences.
Photo: Zeng Liangchao
Editor: Zheng Yiling (intern), Li Lan (intern), Wei Shen, James Campion, Shen He
