Biodiversity in Taiwan
“In fact, Taiwanese are spoiled by Nature and take it for granted,” says Liang Chaoxun. “Because we live in an environment rich in plant life, we don’t feel that there is anything remarkable about this kind of diversity. But if we take a trip abroad and compare, we will discover that plant life in Taiwan is diverse and abundant.”
According to a survey by the Forestry Bureau, more than 59,000 species of living organisms have been identified on the island of Taiwan, with its limited land area.
Around the world, most of the regions that lie along the Tropic of Cancer are desert, but Taiwan is one of the few exceptions. The proximity of the ocean and the seasonal monsoons moderate the climate, bringing large quantities of rain and humidity that enable our small island to avoid desertification. This, combined with Taiwan’s diverse topography, means that the island nurtures a wide range of different ecosystems, creating habitats for a rich variety of species.
“The land of Taiwan is a veritable seed bank. Just go out into the countryside, grab a handful of topsoil, bring it home and sprinkle on a little water, and you will end up with all kinds of little flowers growing out of it that you don’t know the names of,” says Liang.
Many plants have become naturalized after arriving in Taiwan, where they grow robustly and vigorously. One example is the golden shower tree (Cassia fistula), which comes into blossom in early summer. In its native India, people break open the outer shell of the seeds to release a pungent, sticky liquid containing saponins, which they use as a cleanser. Because Taiwan has Chinese soapberry (Sapindus mukorossi) among its native species, here the golden shower tree is regarded as a purely ornamental plant. Royal poinciana (Delonix regia), the official tree of Tainan City, has made an even more impressive journey: An exotic species that has become naturalized in Taiwan, it came all the way from the distant island of Madagascar off the east coast of Africa.
Many of these pieces of knowledge seem to be things we once learned from our school textbooks, but at the seed museum the information is no longer fragmented, but is all linked together. By understanding the process of plant evolution through contact with the seeds in the museum, we build new links with Nature.
Many foreign travelers visit the seed museum, and Liang Chaoxun has gotten an especially strong impression from visitors from Hong Kong and Singapore. “Visitors from these two places are very conscious of the environment,” says Liang. For example, Singapore is kept excessively clean: even weeds growing out from cracks in walls are pulled out, and seeds that fall from trees are immediately swept away. There is little evidence of the natural, easygoing environment of Taiwan.