WUHAN, June 17 (Xinhua) -- A top plant science conference began Monday in Wuhan, the capital city of central China's Hubei Province.

More than 1,000 scientists from more than 30 countries and regions took part in the 30th International Conference on Arabidopsis Research (ICAR).

Arabidopsis is a small flowering plant native to Eurasia and Africa. It is a member of the mustard family and one of the model organisms widely used for studying plant biology.

In 2016, Arabidopsis and rice were grown on China's Tiangong-2 space lab for scientific research.

The conference will see many renowned scholars from home and abroad present reports.

The ICAR is an important academic annual conference in the world's plant science community. It was held in Beijing in 2007 when plant research first took off in China.

This year, the four-day conference will showcase the research achievements of Chinese plant science and promote exchanges and cooperation between China and other countries.