Heading for the upper Irrawaddy River in northern Burma in 2009, Professor Xinfen Gao, candidate Ph.D Zhiqiang Fang and others from Chengdu Institute of Biology, CAS joined the field joint expedition for the Irrawaddy River of Burma led by Professor Nianhe Xia from South China Botanical Garden, CAS, who worked together with native specialists.

It is so amazing how well protected are the vegetation in Burma and abundant in plant resources (Figure 1 and 2)! Through a long difficult trekking on foot, the expedition collected more than 6000 plant specimens. More than 4500 specimen copies were added into Chengdu Institute of Botany, CAS, most of which are new collections of the Herbarium.

Since the expansion of Chengdu Institute of Biology Herbarium was finished, Curator/Professor Xinfen Gao has led her team to make several filed investigations into plant resources of Panzhihua City, Sichuan Province, flora of Mount Jiuding and the biodiversity of southern Tibet, and collected a large quantity of plant pictures and accumulated to new additions of over 40,000 plant specimens.

Figure 1 A drawbridge over the Dulong River at the upper Irrawaddy River of Burma

Figure 2 An expedition for the upper Irrawaddy River of Burma