国家植物园今日正式揭牌，标志设计为何使用银杏+水杉？

今天（4月18日），国家植物园在北京正式揭牌。此次设立的国家植物园，是在中科院植物研究所和北京市植物园现有资源的基础上扩容增效，总规划面积近600公顷。

设立国家植物园，标志着国家植物园体系建设进入新阶段，代表了国家植物迁地保护的最高水平。

国家植物园标志由艺术家韩美林设计和创作，该方案选择了最能代表中国的两种特有珍稀植物银杏和水杉，标志设计包含了植物保护和生态生命理念。

China unveiled its first National Botanical Garden in Beijing on Monday and an eye-catching logo to represent the new endeavor caught a lot of attention. 

Designed by artist Han Meilin, UNESCO's Artist for Peace in 2015 and most known for his creation of the Fuwa dolls for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, the logo features two unique and rare plants – ginkgo and metasequoia. The logo highlights the importance of the balance and harmony of natural ecology and the construction of ecological civilization. 

Ginkgo and metasequoia are first-level protected plants inscribed on the List of Key Protected Plants of China. They are relict plants of the third and fourth glacial periods, and also known as the oldest extant tree species in the world and "living fossils" of the plant kingdom. China National Botanical Garden has a ginkgo conservation area in its northern section, where many ancient ginkgo trees, some of which more than 1,000 years old, can be seen.

Metasequoia trees were first discovered by Chinese botanists in Hubei Province in 1941 and were introduced to Beijing in the early 1970s. The garden has the largest metasequoia conservation forest in northern China. 

With a total planned area of about 600 hectares, China National Botanical Garden is set to help strengthen the ex-situ conservation of endangered plant species. Based on existing resources from the Institute of Botany under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Beijing Botanical Garden, China National Botanical Garden plans to establish cooperative relationships with botanical gardens and institutions in hundreds of countries.

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