Vietnamese tree to be bred in UK
16 March 2010
British scientists have stepped in to help save a critically endangered conifer in Vietnam after local efforts to preserve dwindling populations were hampered by lack of technology.
Xanthocyparis vietnamensis was discovered just over ten years ago growing in limestone mountains close to the Chinese border. Populations are threatened by logging and the encroachment of agriculture, and have now dwindled to just 169 known specimens in the wild.
The trees have been struggling to reproduce naturally as they produce very few viable seeds. Attempts to propagate from seed artificially have largely failed due to a lack of facilities for assessing viability before planting, so the project to conserve the tree, run by the Global Trees Campaign, has had to rely on taking cuttings. Since the resulting trees are clones, the genetic variability of the population is at risk.
Now forestry scientist Matt Parratt, a specialist in germinating the seed of exotic and rare conifers at the Forestry Commission's research centre at Alice Holt Lodge in Surrey, has brought back the first seed of X. vietnamensis to be grown in the UK .
He and his team are now x-raying the seeds to find out which are viable, so that he can identify any individual trees which produce better-quality seed than others. This invaluable information will be fed back to colleagues in Vietnam to improve their chances of raising new trees from seed. Any seed from the UK batches identified as viable will then be grown on and planted at the Commission's Bedgebury Pinetum in Kent, and also distributed to botanic gardens around the country.