Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) started to establish its Dipterocarp Plants Collection in 1981. Through 28 years’ development, it has become the largest of its kind in China in terms of number of species it holds.

 During the development of the garden, XTBG botanists have collected many individual plants from other regions of the country and foreign countries, including Thailand, Laos, Singapore, Viet Nam, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Covering an area of 7 hectares or so, the garden is now home to 34 species in 7 genera of Dipterocarp plants.

 Within the collection, Vatica diospyroides Sym. introduced from Thailand and Vatica odorata (Griff) Symington from Laos came into blossom in March 2009 for the first time.

 Dipterocarps has long been considered as slow-growing hardwood species. There is a need to conserve, regenerate, and properly manage dipterocarp forest to ensure a stable supply to timber.

 Dipterocarpaceae is a pantropical family, with 17 genera and approximately 500 species of mainly tropical lowland rainforest trees with two-winged fruits. 12 species in China in 5 genera are distributed in Yunnan, Guangxi, Hainan and Tibet. The family is consisted of 3 subfamilies.