April 19, the State Forestry Administration of New Plant Variety Protection Office organized experts to progress the site investigation for four candidate new vatieties of Michelia which were nurtured and applied by Kunming Institute of Botany (KIB) and were proosed to be named 'Yunrui', 'Yunxia', 'Yunxin' and 'Yunxing'.

After hearing the report about the breeding process for the four new varieties’ and the DUS (distinctness, uniformity and stability) properties. And, by consulting the relevant technical documentation and field inspecting the morphological characteristics of flowering parental plants and candidate new varieties and their offspring, the expert group highly affirmed the candidate new varieties’ novelty and DUS properties. In appreciation for the high ornamental value and good prospects for promotion, they were unanimous in their agreement to approve the four new varieties’ application.

It was learned that new varieties of 'Yunxia', 'Yunxin' and 'Yunxing' were cultivated by way of artificial hybridization which took GONG Xun’s study group some 15 years of effort. 'Yunrui' was a hybrid match, which had the hybrids of Michelia yunnanensis♀×M. doltsopa♂ as the female parent, and the M. maudiae as the male parent ​.

Michelia 'Yunrui' (image by KIB)

Michelia 'Yunxia' (image by KIB)

Michelia 'Yunxin' (image by KIB)

Michelia 'Yunxing' (image by KIB)