Seedling cultivation

At Colorful Stone Creek, also at the foot of Taishan, Cao Guiping and her team are cultivating the seedlings of the mountain's rarest species — the Taishan mountain ash, a tree species unique to the mountain.

Found 1,120 meters up the mountain's northwestern cliffs, this unassuming tree was first spotted in 1984 by Li Fazeng, a professor at Shandong Normal University, while he surveyed the botanical inventory of the mountain.

Its serrated leaves and ruby-hued berries distinguished it from common mountain ash, leading to its classification in 1986 as a species unique to the mountain, which was also the only one of this species in the world, Cao said.

"It's not easy for its seeds to sprout where they fall, so if we want to have more trees of this species, we need to nurture seeds into seedlings," she said. To rescue the species, the team collected its seeds and started to cultivate the seedlings.

"Every November, we ascend the mountain to collect seeds — the timing is critical, as even slight variations can significantly impact seed quality."