3. Chengkou arborvitae 城口崖柏

Chengkou Arborvitae. (Picture provided by Chongqing Urban Planning Bureau, and released by CQNEWS)

The Arborvitae is a rare and valuable plant that can only be found in Daba Mountain Nature Reserve now 城口的大巴山自然保护区境内, so it is honored as “the panda of plants”. It grows on cliffs, and so is also named “cliff Arborvitae”.

The first record of an Arborvitae specimen in China was collected by the French missionary Farges in 1892. Arborvitae grows very slowly in mountains with elevations between 800m and 2,100m. Now the tree is critically endangered. It is of great scientific, ornamental and medicinal value.