East China's Jiangxi Province has set aside 180 million yuan (US$21.7 million) to expand a gene base for rare plants between now and 2020, the provincial government said.

The move aims to better protect rare subtropical botanical species along the lower and middle reaches of the Yangtze River, China's longest waterway.

The existing botanical gene base, a botanical garden in Jiujiang, was established in 1989. It covers 20 hectares and holds110 endangered botanical species, 22 percent of the country's total.

The base has used asexual propagation technologies to breed rare plants and has provided thousands of stems to botanical gardens and research institutes nationwide.

After the expansion, the base will cover 231 hectares and conserve at least 30,000 species, according to the general plan for the Jiujiang Preservation Base for Rare and Endangered Species of Flora, adopted by the provincial government on Saturday.

Jiangxi Province, which abounds in subtropical evergreen broad-leaved trees, has approximately 5,000 species of trees, 26 of which are listed among the nation's rarest wild plants.

The province is also home to clusters of rare quadrate bamboo, a variation of local mountain bamboo caused by special climatic factors.

(Xinhua News Agency April 11, 2005)