Three exotic trees each reckoned to be a thousand years old have been found in Youtian Town of Ji'an County in Jiangxi Province, Xinhua, China's official news agency, has reported recently. These remarkable discoveries were made by the local forestry department.

One has turned out to be the oldest white cassia-bark tree (artocarpus hypargyrea hance) in China. The other two are a camphor tree (cinnamomum camphora) and a podocarpus tree (podocarpus macrophyllus).

The white cassia-bark tree is a particularly precious find. The species is very rare in China and has been listed as endangered. This ancient tree has a girth of 4.6 meters and a height of 21 meters. Black and brown wild glossy ganodermas have been found growing by its roots.

The thousand-year-old camphor tree is 11 meters in girth. Its foliage extends to shade an area of no less than 3,900 square metres. It is the largest of its kind in Jiangxi Province, quite filling the field it grows in. It has a symmetry that gives it the appearance of a giant mushroom when viewed from a distance.

The ancient podocarpus has a girth of 3.4 metres and is 10 meters high. According to the local forestry department, this podocarpus has reached an age seldom found in China.

(china.org.cn translated by Zhang Tingting, August 29, 2002)