Baishan Fir: The Most Critically Endangered Conifer

Baishan Fir: The Most Critically Endangered Conifer.

• Abies beshanzuensis (Baishan Fir) is a species of conifer. 

• As you can see from the picture above there appears to be only 5 known individuals of the tree in the wild. 

• Recent reports suggests there maybe as few as three adults.

• This number would make the Baishan Fir the rarest conifer in the world and, arguably the most endangered.

LOCATION

•  Baishan Fir is located on the east side of the Zhejiang province in eastern China. Where it resides on one special mountain top, Mt. Baishan, at altitudes around 1,800m (meters).

 

THREATS

• Some of the major threats to the survival of the Baishan fir include but are not limited to; their small population size, deforestation for agriculture through human expansion, and climate change.

 

DEFORESTATION

• Deforestation is a huge threat since the conifer has such a small primary growth altitude window of 1600-1800m. Where it is temperate; cool and rainy. 
• Also, deforestation makes way for invasive species such as bamboo which is almost impossible to get rid of or grow on top of cause of how dominant of a species bamboo can be.

 

CLIMATE CHANGE

• Climate change is also a huge factor that could prevent the species from recovering. The small area of habitat they thrive in will change too rapidly for the conifer to adapt. And with such small population numbers size it's a bad combination. 
• Flooding and landslides have been prevalent in the area of their original habitat.
• The world's climate is rushing ahead and I don't know if the Baishan Fir will have the resiliency and speed to keep up. It obviously doesn't have the numbers.

CONSERVATION

•  Conservation efforts:
• Cultivation
• The species was taken to a forestry station and farm in Qingyuan. Where the plant was grafted onto roots.
• The remaining in the wild are under protection by conservation international and a project/program is underway to reintroduce the plant to it's natural habitat.

                                                  ( Grafting Baishan Fir farm below)

 On a final note I'd like to say that in 1987 two of the five total plants found in the wild were removed and transplanted to the Beijing Botanical Garden. Both of them died. Theories suggest they needed a high altitude climate. We need to seriously stop and think about something before we do it. Just because we can doesn't mean we should. We can't afford to make costly mistakes at this stage in the game especially when were dealing with a living organism that has less numbers then the amount of fingers on a single hand. Thank you for your time and god bless. You can help this plant by reducing climate change through lowering your carbon emissions but if you ever make it to Mt. Baishan in china appreciate this species while you still can. Even if it is just a plant, it's still a cool rare plant at that. And if by some miracle we do save this plant I think it would make an awesome Christmas tree.