Forests in China

Abstract

The land mass of China extends from the boreal Siberian forests of Heilongjiang in the north, to the moist tropical forests on the banks of the Mekong river in the south. The climate is generally humid on the eastern coast, with decreasing precipitation towards the interior and almost no measurable rainfall in the arid wastes of the Central Asian deserts such as the Taklamakan.¹ The country contains an unusual diversity of phytogeographic regions, vegetation types, and endemic species which have attracted Western botanists since they first had the opportunity to travel inland during the nineteenth century.²