In Guangdong Province, where subtropical forests and river valleys hold an astonishing diversity of flora, scientists have discovered two previously unknown species of the genus Ormosia. These plants, known in China as red beans, have now been officially recognized as national second-category protected objects and have immediately been included in the list of conservation priorities.
The discovery was the result of many years of work by a team of researchers from the South China Botanical Garden led by Chen Yousheng. While preparing the "Red Book of the Plants of Guangdong," the botanists noticed specimens resembling already known species but with noticeable differences in their flowers and fruits. After careful field observations, the collection of complete samples and molecular analysis, it was confirmed: before them were two separate species that had previously been mistakenly assigned to others.
One of them, provisionally named the Yangjiang Ormosia, survives in only three wild populations, where fewer than five hundred adult plants are counted. It grows mainly along riverbanks at low elevation, and floods often damage its root system, while logging exacerbates the problem. According to IUCN criteria, the species has been assigned to the category "endangered."
The Taishan Ormosia is even more vulnerable: only three populations and fewer than one hundred mature individuals. It has already been recommended for inclusion in the list of plants with extremely small numbers, since the risk of complete extinction in the wild is especially high here. Both species are now under protection, and their ex situ conservation is already under way at the botanical garden, as part of one of the richest collections of the genus Ormosia in the world.
The scientists emphasize the need for urgent measures: protection of natural habitats, regular monitoring of populations and study of natural regeneration. Such finds remind us how important it is to continue detailed inventories even in well-studied regions — for behind every new name stands a real, fragile part of living nature that requires attention and care.
