Spring and Autumn of the Tropical Botanical Garden 
– a Garden of Sciences

A Biological Watching Tower in the Rain Forest

Storeroom of Seeds

Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden is a multi-purpose and comprehensive research institution integrating scientific research, plant seed storage, popular science education and technological development within one unit. The academic research orientation of the botanical garden is to get its foothold in Yunnan, facing Southwest China and Southeast Asian districts, based on biological communities and species, and carry out effective management, protection and sustainable research on tropical and sub-tropical rain forests and multiplication of plants and animals, and to make more contribution to the sustainable development of these districts. 

Inductive Coupling Plasma  Spectrophotometer (Short form：ICP)

The subjects under research in the botanical garden increase very quickly. The key subjects include the protection biology and forestry ecology, and secondary subjects include botany, zoology, agrology, meteorology, and horticulture etc. The botanical garden has established many laboratories, and they engage in studies on tropical and sub-tropical forest structures and biological processes, the tenets and methods for protection of plants in danger by transplanting, the mechanism and engineering study for sustainable development of tropical and sub-tropical mountain areas, the study on the crossing and cultivation of plants etc. Besides, these studies are all intersecting and comprehensive studies carried out based on different subject orientation and multiplied subjects. 

Original Specimen Hall

Based on the subject classification, the researchers of the botanical garden carried out many studies on specific subjects too; and the garden has established widespread relationship with both Chinese and foreign research institutions. Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden has made remarkable achievements in the biological and ecological fundamental study of rare plants and plants in danger by transplanting, the study on island effect of bitty rain forests, the changing rules of multiplication, the study on critical species of the rain forest, the study on reconstruction of degenerated rain forests, the study on the sustainable development of the rain forest, the study on tropical mountain area and mixed farming and forestry systems, the study on the impact of cultural environment on the multiplication of plants and animals in the Lanchang River valley, the study on protection of tropical plants seed resources and resource plants etc. We can say that the botanical garden is a brilliant pearl imbedded on the southwestern border of our motherland. 

The botanical garden also constructs many facilities for scientific researches: the large-sized specimen hall constructed in 1959 stores hundreds and thousands tropical plant specimens collected from South Yunnan, Southwest Yunnan, Southeast Yunnan, South Guangxi, Laos, Burma and Thailand; the specialized library has a collection of 50,000 volumes of books and is famous for its collection of books and materials in tropical botany and biological studies; the bio-chemistry lab is equipped with modern equipment and is also an important technical support system of the botanical garden; and the seed storeroom for rare species and species in danger also makes great contributions to the collection, storage and distribution of the special species and species in danger in China. 

The protection plant areas, specialized plant collection areas, and various experimental fields established after the establishment of the botanical garden are the research bases for studying the growing rules of tropical plants and their adaptation to new biotopes, as well as the base for changing wild plants into cultivated plants; the rain forest ecological system observation station and the fixed community dynamic sample fields undertake tasks such as protecting the tropical rain forests and comparative studies on them.

The rain forest ecological system observation station is a nice place for studying the structure of evergreen broad-leaved forests in sub-tropical mountain areas, the study of their function and for observation on them. Nowadays, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden is listed as one of the network sites of the “human beings and life form project” initiated by the Education, Science and Culture Organization of the United Nations.