Researchers have officially named a species of daisy indigenous to Taiwan nearly 100 years after it was discovered and misidentified, the Council of Agriculture’s Forestry Research Institute said on Monday.
The Aster kanoi, an endangered species, grows natively along the northern half of the central mountain range at an altitude of about 3,000m above sea level, the institute said.
Japanese naturalist Tadao Kano in the summer of 1928 discovered the plant, describing it in a 1930 publication as similar to the marguerite daisy — commonly known as the Paris daisy.
Photo provided courtesy of Chung Shih-wen
The plant was misidentified as Aster morrisonensis, which also grows along the central mountain range, but is more common, the institute said.
Several years later it was misidentified again as Aster takasagomontanus, but it was not until last year when researchers discovered the mistake and Aster kanoi became a newly recognized species of daisy, the institute said.
In August last year, a research team followed Kano’s route along the mountain range and collected samples for study.
The team last month confirmed the new species and published their findings in this month’s issue of the Taiwania.
Chung Shih-wen (鐘詩文) — one of the researchers who participated in the study — said Aster kanoi is found at Nanhushan (南湖大山) in Taichung, at the central range peak near the border between Taichung and Hualien County, and along cliff faces at the edge of the forest in Taroko National Park.
In the past, it was often mistaken for Aster takasagomontanus, but that species grows at a higher altitude, he said.
Because Aster kanoi grows within a more confined area high in the mountains, it is vulnerable to environmental change, and should be classified as an endangered species, he added.
Researchers said they were cleaning samples at the institute and would send stems to Yilan County’s Fushan Botanical Garden, which would cultivate the plant.
Taiwan has no facilities for conserving plants grown at such high altitudes, but with the samples collected, researchers would be able to better understand the flower, Chung said.
Fushan Botanical Garden assistant researcher Lin Chien-jung (林建融) said that although Fushan is only 600m above sea level, he was able to grow high-altitude plants even without a temperature-controlled environment.
Institute director-general Chang Bin (張彬) said that although part of the institute’s job is to discover new species, of greater importance was ensuring that species do not go extinct.
The institute is in its second year of a project to collect and conserve samples of Taiwan’s indigenous plants, he said.
Artificial cultivation of species was also helping researchers better understand the plants’ unique characteristics, he added.
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