Beijing Municipal Bureau of Landscape and Forestry has banned the collection of 80 plants in a bid to protect the city's endangered plants, a notice on its website said.

The plants on the list for protection include the baikal skullcap root, balloon flower root and North China larch. Most are species of Pinaceae, Campanulaceae, Liliaceae and Pyrolaceae.

"The enlisted plants are scarce in resources compared with previous years due to human activities, rising global temperature and less water nutrients," a clerk from the bureau's wild animal and plants protection section, who only identified himself as Qu, said.

"But these plants are not going to become extinct as long as appropriate protection measures are taken," he said.

"The selection of the plants was based on a year's research jointly carried out by the bureau and the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Agriculture. The name list was finalized by a panel of experts."

Those found collecting and chopping down the enlisted plants face being fined. Picking samples for scientific research should be approved by the bureau.

Qu said the specific punishment measures were still under discussion.

Beijing covers 16 districts and two counties. With an area of 16,410 square kilometers, the municipality has 10,072 km of mountainous area, which accounts for 61.4 percent of its total land. The downtown area is about 90 square km, according to the city's website.

(Xinhua News Agency March 19, 2008)