China's most important trees are hiding in plain sight

Junglekeeper · Oct 30, 2020

China's most important trees are hiding in plain sight

In forests, the most common species can be essential to ecosystem structure and function, which crumble with the decline of these pivotal trees, known collectively as foundation species.

Their results, published today in the journal Ecology, point to maple trees—long appreciated for their autumn foliage and the syrup that graces our tables—as potential foundation species in both China and North America.

The study comes on the heels of the latest "Red List" published by Botanic Gardens Conservation International, which showed that 36 out of the 158 maples species worldwide—nearly a quarter of all maples—are at high risk of extinction in the near future in the wild. Fourteen of those high-risk species exist only in China.
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Related article: Maples Turning Red: one in five maple species are at high risk of extinction - UBC Botanical Garden.

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China's most important trees are hiding in plain sight

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