Formed in 1995, Con Son Botanical Garden is home to tens of thousands of native floral individuals from all over the country.
Located adjacent to the special national relic site of Con Son (Hai Duong), but Con Son Botanical Garden is quite humble and closed. Without the words on the gate, many people must not know this interesting place. Opened out behind the gate is a floral world with hundreds of strange floral species that even foresters improbably know all their names. Therefore, the provincial Forest Management Unit had to assign Deputy Director Nguyen Thi Doc, a senior expert there, to show us around the garden.
The first trees in the garden introduced to us by Ms. Doc were more than 5m high with leaves as large as bamboo tape fans. Those were teaks, originating from Northwestern forests. Ms. Doc said the trees were planted in 1966. Teak wood is not bent, worm-eaten, or moldy and thus often used to make tables, chairs, cabinets, etc. Teak wood is also famous for being used as gunstocks. Currently, there remain seven teak species with 283 individuals in Con Son Botanical Garden.
Pointing at a slender tree with red flowers nearby, Doc said that was purple bauhinia, also coming from the Northwestern forests. Around the purple bauhinia, Ms. Doc called out in turn the name of dozens of other plants, such as dau dot tim (Dipterocarpus grandiflorus), dau song nang (Dipterocarpus dyeri), dau nuoc (Dipterocarpus alatus), and sao den (Hopea odorata) from the South; tram (Aquilaria crassna), cho chi (Parashorea chinensis), and vang tam (Manglietia fordiana) from the Central region; sua (Dalbergia tonkinensis) and lim (Erythrophleum fordii) from Northern forests and mountains, etc.
Notably, many floral species appearing on the Red List are in the garden. Taking us to a row of trees 15cm in diameter and 5m in height with symmetric, sparse, and sword-shaped leaves, Ms. Doc said they were kim giao (Nageia fleuryi), originating from Cat Ba forest (Hai Phong). This species is not only on the Red List but also handed down among the common people to be effective in toxic testing.
Adjacent to the kim giao row was a row of burly de huong (Cinnamomum parthenoxylon) 15m in height, around 20cm in diameter, and also on the Red List. This de huong row was taken from the Northwestern forests and is now 18 years old with fruits having been harvested. Knowing that this is a precious floral genus, neighboring people often enter to ask for its seeds to grow in their gardens.
Going up the mountain, we saw a lush sao den row full of vitality and shady. This is also a floral species on the Red List and originating from Southern forests. Despite its origin, sao den is very adaptable to Chi Linh land. Recently, sao den has been chosen for planting along the provincial town’s central streets.
According to statistics, more than 30 floral species in Con Son Botanical Garden are on the Red List, accounting for 10% of the tree species on Vietnam’s Red List. Of which, there are many particularly rare and precious floral species with high economic value, such as red sua with 150 trees, dinh huong (Fokienia hodginsii) with 80 trees, lim xanh with 2,732 trees, sen mat (Madhuca pasquieri) with 225 trees, mun (Diospyros mun) with 187 trees, sao den with 328 trees, dau song nang with 23 trees, kim giao with 29 trees, de huong with 177 trees, etc.
Along with Con Son, An Phu is another botanical garden in the province but has fewer floral species and individuals. According to statistics in 2006, there were over 28,000 floral individuals in both botanical gardens, nearly 15,000 of which were in Con Son one. To date, the number of floral individuals may have declined with no inventory for a long time. However, regarding diversity, abundance, and tree age, rare are botanical gardens which can reach Con Son Botanical Garden’s level. Con Son Botanical Garden has great scientific value and is the reserve of a genetic source of trees in Vietnam.
Potential still left open
Not only preserving the genetic source, Con Son Botanical Garden has also efficiently served production and life. The garden was established to plant trees for conservation and multiplication. Through the processes of trial planting and screening, many floral species well growing have been used for production and afforestation or planted as ornamentals or shade trees along streets.
In particular, the garden is having high potential of medicinal herbs. Breaking a dry twig picked up next to the foot of a 15m-high tree with rough bark, we smelt a pervasive odor. Mr. Bui Dinh Ka, Head of the Management Station of Con Son and Kiep Bac Forests, said: “This is a camphor tree, a precious medicinal material. At present, there are many medicinal plants in the garden, such as camphor, thuja, kim giao, bach benh (Eurycoma longifolia), etc.”
Located next to the special national historical and cultural relic site of Con Son, Con Son Botanical Garden opens up ecotourism potential. If the strength is brought into play by turning this place into a sightseeing destination for domestic and international visitors combined with Con Son relic site, revenues will be generated for conservation and development of the garden.
| Con Son Botanical Garden was formed in 1995 from the national program of creating and protecting protective and special-use forests undertaken by the provincial Forest Management Unit (formerly Chi Linh State-owned Forestry Enterprise). It initially covered 7ha with 80 floral species and 400 individuals, mostly native trees collected from the Northern, Central and Southern regions. Each floral species was planted in a row in sieve mesh form. With the significance of conserving the biodiversity of indigenous trees, the Environment and Tropical Silviculture Center (Vietnam Forestry Science and Technique Association) has proposed coordination to expand the scale of the botanical garden. After expansion phases, Con Son Botanical Garden is currently covering 30ha with about 450 species of native and exotic plants. |
NGOC HUNG
Đăng ký: VietNam News