The only 'prehistoric messenger' in the world in Bidoup forest

The ancient plant species named after two flat leaves is said to be "prehistoric messengers", living at the same time as dinosaurs, still present in Bidoup forest.

The world is unique in Vietnam, right in Bidoup Nui Ba National Park (H.Luong Duong, Lam Dong) and the surrounding area, ancient plant species named two flattened leaves are said to be 'fashion messengers'. Prehistory ' , living at the same time as dinosaurs is still present.

Pine tree with two flat leaves of less than 1,000 years old in Bidoup Nui Ba National Park.(Photo: GB).

Tracing ancient plants through two flat leaves

Listening to many of the ancient flora of these two flattened leaves, we decided to choose a beautiful day to go to Bidoup Nui Ba forest for the market. Must choose a beautiful day, because the area is mostly covered by fog all year round and it is normal to be in the rain so if you hit it when it rains, then walking in the forest will be more difficult.

However, when we hit the road in TP. Da Lat is beautiful and the road is over 60km long to Hon Giao ranger station, belonging to Bidoup Nui Ba National Park - adjacent to Khanh Hoa province, it rains. We stopped at the station to pick up Mr. Nguyen Duc Cuong - a park ranger here to ask for 'Scouting'. Seeing us seem anxious, Mr. Cuong reassured us : 'What little rain does it eat, many days of heavy rain, then the fog doesn't see anything, like this goes well'. Journey to find the two flat leaves begins.

A pine tree with two flat leaves regenerates naturally.

Saying is tracing, but in fact, only we do not know, but the forest rangers here and the brothers in the National Park have shown this species. Having just left the station, there was a section on QL27C (connecting Da Lat City - Nha Trang City), Mr. Le Van Son, Deputy Director of the Forest Research Center, Bidoup Nui Ba National Park pointed his finger in the distance, saying: , the pine tree has two flat leaves'. We were happy, thought very close, but when looking at Mr. Son's hand pointing and introducing the identification characteristics of the two-leaf pine tree in the forest, it was far from known. Looking at the direction of Mr. Son's guidance, many of the fan-shaped trees of these two flat-leafed pine trees rise quite a high compared to the normal forest canopy. Knowing that, we were also excited in our hearts. In addition to the main road, we turned into the forest following a small trail and went deep into the primeval forest (in sub-area 89, Da Chais commune, H.Luong Duong). In order to instruct Mr. Cuong to mark the road so that he could not get lost in the way, he took us to the location of two pine-tree pine trees. In the story along the road, Mr. Son said the area is a mixed broadleaf forest and coniferous tree with a litter of about 50cm thick.

After nearly 1 hour wading the forest, showing up before our eyes is a large pine tree with more than 4 hugs, about 2 m in diameter. There are also many pine trees with two other flat leaves but smaller, even if there are naturally dead trees and a seedling of less than 10 cm in diameter, someone has protected them. Also according to Mr. Son, the reason is called two flattened leaves because this leaf is flat and looks like a blade, unlike other ordinary pine leaves.

Only in Vietnam

According to the documents left behind, two flattened leaves were discovered by German botanist M.Krempfii at the end of the 19th century in Lam Dong. This incident shocked the local and foreign scientific community at that time. Later, many other scientists came to the study, and by the 1920s, American scientists thought that this was the Ducanpopinus - the living fossil of an ancient plant of the same time as the dinosaurs. What is special and so far is still a mystery, because any species grows and evolves over time, but pine flattened leaves can live for millions of years without any change. about genes .

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Hoang Nghia, former Director of the Vietnam Academy of Forestry Science, said that pine trees are ancient pine species, only in Vietnam. This species is endemic to Vietnam, discovered in Lam Dong and the surrounding area. The two flat leaf patches meet at an altitude of 1,000-2,000 m, but usually grow most concentrated on altitudes of 1,200 - 1,800 m. The flattened pine leaves grow very slowly, the growth in diameter is only about 1mm / year, if the tree has a diameter of about 2m, the tree age can reach thousands of years.

The leaves of the pine tree are small.

Meanwhile, MA Le Canh Nam, a researcher of the South Central Forest Science Institute and Central Highlands (Vietnam Academy of Forestry Science), said that two flat leaves are a rare and precious species of tree. from dinosaur period. Results of the survey so far show that there are about 1,000 trees; In which, the number of trees concentrated in the large diameter class of about 40 cm or more is very much, and the trees with the diameter of 10 - 15 cm of the intermediate generation are very few.

'Information of two flat leaves is very valuable in science, because it is rare and only available in Vietnam, so it is of interest of many domestic and foreign scientists. Recently, climate change researchers, through the fifth round of forest trees, have focused on this plant to study to establish, understand the regional climate history several hundred years ago , ' Information MSc.

The root of the tree that emerges on the ground is also very 'terrible'.

Risk of high threat, need conservation

According to the Vietnam Red Data Book, the clearance of two flat leaves classified as level 5 - will be endangered (possibly threatened with extinction), while according to IUCN standards, this species is classified as EN - endangered. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Hoang Nghia said that this is a highly valuable species in terms of science, a unique source of coniferous trees only in Vietnam and currently facing the threat of natural forest failure. regrowth, some pine trees with two flat leaves lose their optimal habitat, die out; too many old trees also break down themselves. In addition, populations of two flat-leafed pine trees are small in size with a low number of mature individuals (less than 100 trees / population), distributed very scattered and divided by high mountain terrain, thus diverse. Genetics of some populations is low.

Old fruits and leaves of two flattened pine leaves.

In the same view, Mr. Le Canh Nam also said that the risk of extinction of this species is huge.'So far there have been a few researches on conservation, but the topics implemented are very small. There has been a study of coniferous trees in Bidoup Nui Ba National Park and the National Park has built a model of conservation of internal microbes in an area of ​​1 ha. The survival rate after planting for 1 month is quite high, with over 95%; However, after 1 year, the survival rate decreased to just over 51%, which shows that there is still a lot of research to maintain , ' said Mr. Nam.

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Hoang Nghia said that the conservation of this species in situ is the most effective measure because it maintains the ecosystem in accordance with the current living conditions of the species. Besides, due to the difficulties of continuous natural regeneration in primeval old forests, ex situ conservation also plays a significant role. In addition, it is necessary to conduct basic genetic studies for all distribution zones to determine precisely the areas that need to be planned for conservation of this rare species.