Rare cliff cypress given new lease on life
Seed breeding program enables ancient tree to thrive in Chongqing nature reserve
"Seed propagation results in healthier trees with lower disease rates and costs just one-tenth of what propagation through cuttings would," Huang noted, adding that if these seeds are fertile, the farm could harvest about 100 kilograms of them by October.
For the past two decades, collaborative efforts between Kaizhou's nature reserve, local forest farms, the Chinese Academy of Forestry and the Chongqing Institute of Medicinal Plant Cultivation have turned Kaizhou into a hub of cliff cypress conservation. Local authorities report that significant progress has been made in preserving this valuable species.
Investigations have been initiated to catalog and register the approximately 7,800 wild cliff cypress trees within the reserve, leading to the establishment of the country's first regional cliff cypress resource bank.
As of 2025, four breeding bases and 18 intelligent seedling greenhouses had been established, cultivating over 2.7 million seedlings and reintroducing more than 750,000 trees into the wild.
Yang Liuyan, deputy director of the Kaizhou forest bureau, said at a recent news conference that an additional 700,000 cypress trees could be planted in the wild this year over a 460-hectare area.
