Rare and Valuable Plants

In accordance with the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act
 
On August 22, 1988, 11 plant species were announced
On September 27, 2001, Taiwan Quilwort, Taitung cycas, and Pazopo were removed from the protected list.
On January 14, 2002, Red-Spotted Rhododendron, Rhododendron kanehirai Wilson, and Bretschneidera sinensis were removed from the protected list.
 

Formosan Amentotaxus

Photographer: Lu Sheng-Yu

Formosan Amentotaxus is a kind of small evergreen tree of the Amentotaxus formosana family. It can grow up to 10 meters tall, with a diameter of 30 centimeters. The leaves, shaped like sickles, are 5 to 8.5 centimeters long. The leaves are dark green with luster. On the inside, there are two white blowholes. The leaf margins are curled up. The plant is dioecious. Male inflorescences are spike shaped. Three to five spikes grow on the top of the twigs. Female inflorescences grow from leaf axils. One bud creates four to six flowers. The seed is of drupe shape, axillary, skillet-like, oval-shaped, and dark purple.
 

Taiwan Keteleeria 
 

Photographer: Lu Sheng-Yu

Taiwan Keteleeria is a large evergreen pinaceae endemic to Taiwan. It can grow up to 35 meters tall, with a diameter of up to 1.5 meters. The trunk is of gray and brown, with irregular sulcus longitudinali and scaly flaking. The branches are whorled and opened. The leaves are flat, alternate on both sides and linear in shape. The tip is of blunt shape to round shape, or retuse head. The base is narrow, with protrusion on the costa. The leaf margins are slightly curled. The male cones are round, growing in clusters on the top of branches. The cones are solitary, with cylinder and long oval shapes, upright. The scales are round like eggs and the margin is slightly curled and broken. The bract is of lanceolate shape, its length about half of scales. The seeds are winged and in ovate shape. Seed length is about one centimeter.

Epilobium nankotaizanense

Epilobium nankotaizanense is a perennial herbal plant in the endemic onagraceae family. Its leaves are either opposite or alternate. The plant grows densely and is oval or round shaped. The petioles are clear. It grows acrogens purple red flowers, and the calyx is deep and four-split. The pattern is also four-split. Each flower has four petals. The flowers are slim with an inferior ovary. On top of the seed there is pubescence. 

Fagus hayatae Palib ex Hayata
 

Photographer: Lu Sheng-Yu

Fagus hayatae Palib ex Hayata is also known as beech. It is a deciduous tree in the Fagaceae family. The trunk is smooth with grayish white color. The back of the young leaves have golden fur, with oval to ovary shapes. The tips are sharp, the base is round or wedge shaped. Margin teeth are green. There are seven to ten pairs of lateral veins, parallel. The surface is hollow and the interior bulges. The flowers are unisexual with same strains. There are four to six petals for the male flowers. They are of umbel shape, with capitulum clustering up, auxiliary, drooped, bract linear shaped, with coat hair, shedding. Perianth is cyclindrical with golden coating and pubescence. There are five to twelve stamens. One to two petals of female flower grows on one peduncle, axillary, and perianth is cyclindrical. Fagaceae is ovary shaped. The surface contains soft spines. It is four-split when ripe. There are usually two nuts, with three wing-shaped carinas.
 

Juniperus Chinensis Taiwanensis 

Photographer: Lu Sheng-Yu

Juniperus Chinensis Taiwanensis is an evergreen prostrate plant, in the form of an erect shrub or small arbor. It has two types of leaves. The young leaves are linear, of an opposite or ternate arrangement. The head is sharp, the surface is hollow and there is a ridge underneath. The grown leaves have a scale shape, of a cross opposite arrangement. The cones are ball-shaped, each with three seeds that are triangular oval shaped.