the qinling mountains, a natural boundary between the country's north and south, have made prominent achievement in wildlife protection in recent years.
the qinling mountains, mainly in northwest china's shaanxi province, cover more than 50,000 square kilometers and are dubbed as china's "gene bank" of wild biology as it houses a huge variety of plants and wild animals.
data from the local forestry bureau show the mountain range is home to about 3,800 kinds of seed plants and 587 wild animal species.
taxus chinensis, also known as chinese yew, is under china's first-class protection.
it's also listed on the international union for conservation of nature's red list of threatened species as an endangered species.
it has existed for 2.5 million years.
chinese dove tree (davidia involucrata baill), a sort of deciduous arbor, is regarded as living fossil in flora world with a history of 10 million years.
when it blooms, its flowers look like flying doves.
it is native to china and has been included in the list of plants under state primary protection in china.
most species of dove trees have extinguished gradually.
taibai mountain is the tallest mountain in the qinling mountains.
taibai mountain national forest park is a natural gene bank with a wide variety of species and ancient origins. it is known as "asia natural botanical garden" and "china natural zoo".
kingdonia uniflora, a species of perennial herbs, is also under china's first-class protection.
it has an extremely narrow distribution, mostly in taibai mountain.
as a taibai mountain endemic species, taibai redwood belongs to the second class national protection plants.
they are distributed at an altitude of about 2,800 meters to 3,300 meters above sea level, covering an area of over 5,300 hectares.
