Yunshan Provincial Nature Reserve
2022-07-19
The Yunshan Mountain is not very high and is shrouded in clouds and mist all year round. It is named after the clouds. In ancient times, the Yunshan Mountain, Mount Heng, Mount Yuelu and the Jiuyi Mountain were regarded as the four famous mountains in Hunan Province.
You can enjoy lush forests, spectacular sea of clouds, tranquil valleys, lucid springs, grotesque peaks and stones as well as numerous relics in the Yunshan Mountain. Heinrich Handel-Mazzetti, a famous Austrian botanist, discovered more than 80 new plant species here in 1921, and more than 20 species were named after the Yunshan Mountain. One of them is the Yunshan bretschneidera sinensis.
Bretschneidera sinensis is not only a kind of unique tertiary relict plant in China but also a type of endangered national first-class protected wild plant. In the rare plant section of Hunan Botanical Garden, the bretschneidera sinensis blossoms every spring. The precious seeds were collected from the Yunshan Mountain in 1989 and then planted in Hunan Botanical Garden in 1990. Now about 10 plants are preserved in Hunan Botanical Garden and they began to blossom six years ago.
There is also a “king of the tree”, namely the famous zelkova schneideriana in the Yunshan Mountain. Zelkova schneideriana is hard, elastic and corrosion resistant with beautiful grain, which is the finest wood for furniture. Measuring 21.3 meters high and 5.5 meters wide, this tree is about 1,000 years old.
Besides, the Yunshan Mountain is a paradise for foodies. There is a large area of morus wittiorums and chestnut trees. Like mulberries, morus wittiorum’s fruit is edible. Every May and June, there are many red and green fruits growing on the roadside branches. In autumn, a great number of delicious chestnuts fall on the fields.
