Hong Kong Trees: Species with Stories to Tell

Hong Kong possesses an impressively diverse tree flora with 390 native species. To celebrate the incredible beauty, biology and history of the territory’s tree species.

Richard Saunders, professor of the School of Biological Sciences, will use selected species to tease out a diversity of associated narratives, ranging from stories of global exploration and scientific discoveries, the ecology and biology of each species, the various ways in which they have been utilized by mankind, and their different cultural associations.

The book “Portraits of Trees of Kong Kong and Southern China" is a collaboration with a botanical artist, Sally Grace Bunker, highlighting over 100 important species that are individually illustrated in exquisitely detailed watercolor paintings. Selected illustrations from the book will be exhibited in the upcoming exhibition To See the Forest and the Trees.

Richard Saunders is a Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at The University of Hong Kong, where he has been working since 1992. Prof. Saunders’ research focuses on the taxonomic diversity of the Asian flora: in addition to describing species that are new to science, he reconstructs the evolutionary ‘Tree of Life’ and uses these evolutionary trees to draw inferences about evolutionary processes.