Plants

    Ancient trees are "living relics". The ancient and famed trees here are characterized by five words, "old, big, rare grotesque and abundant". At Shentang gulf and heicongnao the primitive subforests are well preserved. In Zhangjiajie there is a towering ginkgo tree (crinkgo biloba), 50 m tall with a trunk diameter of 159 cm, known as a "living fossil", of all these plants in Zhangjiajie , the Wuling pine is most common in distribution and in number, hence they say: "in Zhangjiajie stand thousands of peaks, among peaks tower millions of pines." All these prototype genetic resources are of great scientific value.

    According to studies of the area, 1'300 species of plants can be discovered by discriminating the specimens collected, among which 600 species of xylophyta of 252 genuses in Zhangjiajie belong to 94 families. Species under first-class protection, include Davidia involucrate;11 species under second-class protection,including Bretschneidera sinensis, Pseudolaxus chienii, Cercis chinensis, Emmemopterys henryi, Diperonia sinensis, Eucommia ulmoides, Liriodendron Chinese; 16 species are under third-class protection, including Pseudotsuga gaussenii, Sassafras tsumu, Pterostyrax psilophyllus, Cercis chinensis, Pteroceltis tatarinowii, Tapiscia sinensis and Decaisnea fargesii. There are more than 200 species of marketable trees including Phoebe nanmu, Cinnamomum camphora, Cinnamomun bodiaeri, sassafras tsumu, Pinus massoniana, Cunninghamia lanceolate, Palbergia hupeana, Alniphyllum fortunei, Nyssa sinensis, Kalopanax septemlobus, Liquidanmbar formosana, Betula luminfera, Quercus glauca, Liquidambar formosana, Betula luminfera, Quercus glauca, Lithocarpus elasanifolia Quercus variabilis, Choerospondias axillaries, Emmemopterys henryi, and Tilia amurensis. There are more than 700 species of medical plants, the most important of which include Gastrodia elata, Coptis Chinensis, Paeonia lactiflora, Subglobu larflower, Panaxjaponicus, and Eucommia ulmoides. In addition there are more than 400 species of ornamental plants. Forested areas constitute 85%of the total and vegetation-covered areas account for 99%.