Annual work conference 2018 of the botanical gardens work committee of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) was held in Kunming Institute of Botany on December 5-6. An academic forum was concurrently held. Prof. Chen Jin, Prof. Hu Huabin, together with directors or vice directors of other 12 CAS botanical gardens, attended the meeting.

Directors of the 13 member gardens respectively made work summary over the past year.

19 researchers from 15 botanical gardens presented their research progress at the academic forum, concerning the topics of plant physiology and mechanism, biodiversity conservation, plant ecology, plant systematics and taxonomy, plant resources and utilization.

This year, the presentations at the academic forum are very attractive and competitive.

Dr. Chen Zhanqi of Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanica Garden (XTBG) presented his latest study on jumping spider published in journal Science, with a title of breeding behavior and female recessive characters.

Dr. Ye Jianfei from Beijing Botanic Garden presented his study on evolutionary history of the angiosperm flora of China, which has been published in journal Nature.

Prof. Ye Qing from South China Botanic Garden (SCBG) talked about functional traits of tree species. His presentation focused on the paper entitled “Are functional traits a good predictor of global change impacts on tree species abundance dynamics in a subtropical forest?” published in Ecology Letters.

The three researchers won the first to third prizes respecitvely. Other presentations were also very interesting.

“The botanical gardens work committee of CAS has become a platform for academic exchanges. It is also a window to showcase work and research progress of botanical gardens. Communication among researchers is expected to be enhanced at this platform”, said Prof. Chen Jin, chairman of CAS Botanical Gardens Work Committee and director of XTBG.