Ancient Trees in the Wild Thriving on Sacred Ground

Buddhist temples in China are home to trees from dozens of endangered species, a new study shows. Some of them are almost 2,000 years old.

- JACEY FORTIN

The Putuo hornbeam, a hardy tree that thrives in the damp air by the East China Sea, could be easily overlooked by visitors to the Huiji Temple on an island in the Zhejiang Province.

The tree has an unremarkable appearance: spotty bark, small stature, and serrated leaves with veins as neatly spaced as notebook lines. But its status is singular. As far as conservationists can tell, no other mature specimen of its species is alive in the wild.

The holdout on the island, Mount Putuo, has been there for about two centuries. And according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Current Biology, its setting may have been its salvation.

The study found that religious sites in eastern China have become refuges for old, ancient, and endangered trees. Since the early years of the Common Era, Buddhist and Taoist temples have sheltered plants that otherwise struggled to find a foothold, including at least eight species that now exist nowhere else on earth.

"This form of biodiversity conservation, rooted in cultural and traditional practices, has proven to be remarkably resilient, persisting even in the face of modern civilization and rapid economic development," said Zhiyao Tang, a professor of ecology at Peking University and one of the study's authors.

The trees survived at religious sites in part because they were planted and cultivated there. The report noted that Buddhism and Taoism emphasize spiritual association with plants and the temples tended to be left undisturbed, shielding the areas from deforestation.