Abstract:

Ganshiling Nature Reserve, located on southern Hainan Island, contains a unique natural flora and preserves Hopea exalata—a species endemic to Hainan—within its large distribution area. In order to identify rare and endangered plants and learn their distribution and status in the reserve, we carried out extensive fieldwork during 2010-2012. A total of 106 species belonging to 92 genera and 49 families were recorded. Among them, 43 species were included in the List of Wild Plants Under State Protection (The First Batch and The Second Batch), 19 species in the China Plant Red Data Book, 29 species in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, 61 species in the China Species Red List, 34 species in the Appendices of CITES, and 76 species in the List of Wild Plants Under Hainan Provincial Protection. The percentage of rare and endangered plants was slightly lower than those of three neighboring national nature reserves, i.e. Wuzhishan, Yinggeling and Jianfengling. According to our assessment, the rare and endangered species in Ganshiling Mountain were divided into very rare species (3 species), rare species (15 species), occasional species (63 species) and common species (25 species). Among them, 13 species are endemic to China and 22 species are endemic to Hainan (including 2 species endemic to Ganshiling Mountain). Finally, we propose that 46 species should either receive upgraded protection level or be included in the protection list.

Key words: rare and endangered plants, distribution, endemism, protection assessment, protection level