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Taichung County conservationist saves rare plant

A rare aquatic plant species, known as Hygrophila pogonocalyx Hayata (大安水蓑衣), which is unique to Taiwan has been successfully conserved.

The plant was first discovered in ditches in central Taiwan by Japanese wildlife conservationist Yaichi Shimada in 1917 and first written about as a new species by Japanese botanist Bunzo Hayata in 1920.

The rare plant was named after Hayata after he claimed in a research paper in 1920 that it was a new discovery and the only kind of its species.

It has now been saved from extinction thanks to the strenuous efforts over the past decade of Lin Chong-chien (林重建), a conservationist-official with the Taichung County Government.

Lin said his nurture center in Ta-an township -- supported by the county government -- renamed the plant the Ta-an Hygrophila pogonocalyx Hayata.

Lin began to conserve and nurture the plant in 1984 when he found that the species was on the verge of extinction, with only about 1,000 in existence in coastal areas in Ta-an and adjacent Chingshui and Lungching townships.

Lin and his research team have cultivated 10,000 of the plants over the past eight years.

The Ta-an Hayata is unique from other Hygrophila salicifolia species because it has square column stems. The other species ordinarily have round, tubular stems, Lin said.

The indigenous plant has beautiful pink and pale purple blossoms every autumn, Lin said.

It has to be planted in loose sand with salt water in an area near the sea, Lin said. He said people who can provide the kind of environment needed by the plant to ask for seedlings from his center to help replenish the endangered species.
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