Nature conservation includes conservation of plant species, particularly those which are rare and precious. However, documentation on these invaluable natural resources is often limited. Rare and Precious Plants of Hong Kong introduces some of these lesser-known but precious plants of Hong Kong. For easy reference, every plant in this book is fully described and photographed whenever possible. With this publication, we hope to increase the awareness of the general public about flora conservation and stimulate greater interest of academics and researchers in further studying these precious plants.
We would like to acknowledge the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust for its kind support and sponsorship for the project. We are also grateful to Profs. HU Qi-ming, XIA Nian-he, WU De-lin, XING Fu-wu and Mr. LI Ze-xian of the South China Institute of Botany, and Messrs. Patrick C. C. LAI, LAM Ying-wai and Dr. YIP Kwok-leung of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department who have contributed to the successful production of this book. Thanks are also due to Mrs. G. Barretto mbe, Dr. Richard Corlett and Dr. Ng Sai-chit who have provided useful comments to the earlier draft of this publication.
Thomas Chan Chun-yuen, J.P.
Director of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation,
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
Prof. Peng Shao-lin
Director, South China Institute of Botany,
Chinese Academy of Sciences
June 2003