Turpan Desert Ecological Plant Park
The 150-hm2 Garden was established in 1976 and is affiliated with XIEG of CAS. It is located at 89o11'E and 42o51'N, 10 km to the southeast of the center of Turpan county. The altitude ranges -95 m to -76 m below sea level, the second lowest place on earth. It has a continental arid desert climate of the warm temperate zone. Its main landform is the improved shifting sand land in the hinterland of the Turpan Basin which has been called the ‘Wind Pool’ and ‘Flaming Land’. Its annual average temperature is 13.9°C with an extreme minimum of -28.0°C and an extreme maximum of 47.6°C. The maximum temperature of sand surface in summer is over 80°C. The annual average precipitation is only 16.4 mm while the annual evaporation is 3,000 mm, and the average relative humidity is 41.0%.
The purpose for the Garden’s establishment was to broadly collect various arid desert plants, so as to show the characteristics of desert flora. More than 600 species of eremophytes have been collected and 10 special gardens have been established, which includes:
1) Eremophytes systematic garden
2) Tamarisk collection garden
3) Calligonum collection garden
4) Ethnic medicinal herbs garden
5) Arid rare and endangered plants ex-situ protection districts
6) Grape germplasm collection
7) Desert fruit tree collection
8) Desert ornamental plants garden
9) Halophytes garden
10) Junggar desert landscape exhibition area
Given the titles ‘National Educational Base’ in 1999, ‘3A Scenery Spot’ in 2006 and ‘National Wild Germplasm Conservation Base’ in 2008, the garden is a nationally popular education base and an ideal place for scientific research on eremophytes.
