Scientists are looking for effective ways to preserve the region's rich resources.As the clock for action ticks ever faster, Chinese scientists have been ratcheting up efforts to promote biodiversity conservation in countries in the region that have inadequate protection capabilities.

In a study published online in New Phytologist, researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) showed that clonal integration had greater benefits than inter-specific facilitation for vascular epiphytes in forest canopies. Many vascular epiphytes in forest canopies depended less on inter-specific facilitation due to their clonal integration.

Among the newly described species, four new members of the African violet family were found from a subtropical forest in Yunnan province in southern China, discovered by researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, CAS and their collaborators. Half of them were found only from a sole population and require further botanical examinations to deploy the conservation priorities, remark the scientists.