South China Botanical Garden,Chinese Academy of Sciences

History: South China Institute of Botany, formerly known as Institute of Agriculture and Forestry, Sun Yatsen University, was established in 1929 and transferred to Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1954 when it was renamed as South China Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The South China Botanical Garden, subordinating to the institute, was founded in 1956.In 2002, the institute and the garden was adjusted the organizational structure as a whole. In 2003, South China Institute of Botany was renamed as the present name, South China Botanical Garden,CAS.

The garden is composed of three compartments: 1) a nursery and exhibition zone, viz. the botanical garden, occupying an area of 300 hectares. It was designed mainly for plant ex-situ conservation with over 11,000 plant taxa grown in over 30 specialized gardens, such as magnolias, palms, gingers and orchids; 2) a research and residential zone, covering an area of 38 hectares. It features a herbarium holding more than 1,000,000 plant specimens and a state of the art laboratory complex; and 3) the Dinghushan National Nature Reserve, established in 1956, is the only reserve of CAS. It is the first national nature reserve in China and has established one national field research station since 1999, namely National Research Station of Dinghushan Forest Ecosystems. The total area of the reserve is 1,133 hectares, where over 2,400 plant species are under in situ protection. In addition, SCBG runs two other field observation stations: National Field Research Station of Heshan Forest Ecosystem, and Xiaoliang Research Station for Restoration of Tropical Coastal Degraded Ecosystem, CAS.

2.Staff and Graduate Students

Presently there are about 295 staff members in SCBG, including 65 scientific researchers with senior rank. Postgraduate students are enrolled every year, and there are more than 260 postgraduates together. The doctorate degree is conferred in three fields (botany, ecology, and biochemistry and molecular biology), and master’s degree in four fields (botany, ecology, biochemistry and molecular biology, and ornamental plants and gardening), and there is a postdoctoral scientific research station for biology as well.

3. Set-Up and Main Research Interest

SCBG also sets up 6 research fields, which are: 1) Global change and ecosystem services; 2) Environmental degradation and ecological restoration; 3) Plant systemics and evolutionary biology; 4) Biodiversity conservation and sustainable utilization; 5) Agricultural food quality and safety and phytochemical resources; and 6) Sustainable use of plant and gene resources. There are 22 research teams included in the 6 fields.

4. Facilities

The garden is well equipped for botanical research. Principle facilities include Transmission Electron Microscope, Scanning Electronic Microscope, Gas Chromatograph, High Performance Liquid Chromatography, Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy, UV/VIS Spectrophotometers, Luminescence Spectrometer, Total Organic Carbon Analyzer (TOC), Portable Photosynthesis System, Laser Confocal Scanning Microscope, Preparative Ultracentrifuge, Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry etc.

5. Research Achievements

SCBG has an abundance of research resources and professionals in the fields of ecology, systematic and evolutionary botany, and plant resources and biotechnology. Since 1954, more than 4000 academic papers and 330 monographs, such as Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae,Flora Hainanica, Flora of Guangdong, Flora of Guangzhou, The Vegetation of Guangdong, Studies on the Tropical and Subtropical Degraded Ecosystem and Its Rehabilitation, have been issued. From 1978 through 2006, over 2300 papers were published in Chinese key journals (viz. CSCD papers) and 480 ones were published in international journals indexed in SCI. Among them there were two papers published in the two internationally authoritative journals, Nature, and Science. Since 1978, 353 research achievements have been obtained, of which 246 won prizes at various levels, including one second prize of the National Science and Technology Advance Awards. Fifty patents have been applied for, of which 30 have been licensed.

6. Scientific Journal

The Journal of Tropical and Subtropical Botany, sponsored by the garden and published bimonthly by Science Press, is one of the national key journals of natural sciences, and was elected “Excellent Scientific Journal of Guangdong Province” in 2001. The Library of the garden holds a collection of 200,000 volumes of books and periodicals. The library has also initiated the digital and internet management of information extraction.

7. Exchange and Cooperation

South China Botanical Garden has been attaching importance to the international cooperations and academic exchanges, such as the establishment of extensive collaborative research projects with more than 20 countries and regions including USA, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Switzerland, Australia, Vietnam, Russia, Japan, Philippine, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Columbia, Israel, as well as Hongkong, Macau and Taiwan etc. In addition, The International Symposium on Zingiberaceae and Magnoliaceae were successfully held at this garden in 1995 and 1998 respectively.
South China Botanical Garden has also signed a contract with San Jin Company of Guilin to make a preclinical study on new medicine. The garden-dominated company “Guangdong Zhongke Qilin Stock Co. LCD”, the first limited company in Guangzhou Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is a authorized company for city greening.

An agreement on the Reconstruction of SCBG was subscribed in December 2002, to which a total of RMB 300 million Yuan has been invested in the ratio of 1:1:1 by CAS, Guangdong provincial government and Guangzhou municipal government. Eight projects involved in the agreement were carried out with the idea of “scientific element, artistic landscape and cultural root” in order to satisfy the people, the experts, and the government. The great improvements in infrastructure, landscape and scientific components through the Reconstruction has laid a solid foundation for SCBG to be one of the top gardens in Asia or even in the world.