County-level distribution and conservation status of national key protected wild plants in Inner Mongolia

In order to clarify the county-level distribution of national key protected plants in Inner Mongolia, their threatened degree and the current status of protection based on field surveys, specimen collections, and literature review of herbarium specimens from the Inner Mongolia University(HIMC), Chinese Virtual Herbarium(CVH). The compiled county-level distribution data of key protected wild plants in Inner Mongolia were evaluated and analyzed. The results were as follows:(1)There were 48 key protected wild plants in Inner Mongolia, including 1 species with data deficiency(DD), 10 species in endangered(EN), 19 species in vulnerable(VU), 10 species in near threatened(NT)and 8 species as least concern(LC). Among them, there were 3 lower plants and 45 higher plants. The key protected higher plants account for 1.4%(45/3 205)of the higher plants in Inner Mongolia, with moss plants accounting for 0.2%(1/586), gymnosperms accounting for 4.0%(1/25), and angiosperms accounting for 1.6%(43/2 619).(2)In terms of county-level distribution, Alxa Left Banner had the most species(15 species), followed by Oroqen Autonomous Banner(13 species), Yakeshi City(12 species), Hexigten Banner(11 species), Alxa Right Banner(10 species)and Erguna City(10 species). The number of national protected plants distributed in other counties was less than 10 species.(3)A total of 44 species of national key protected wild plants were protected in existing nature reserves; among them, 12 species were only distributed in national nature reserves, 4 species were only distributed in autonomous region level nature reserves, and 28 species were distributed in both national reserves and autonomous region level reserves; 4 species were not protected by nature reserves. Based on the above results, we have put forward strategies and recommendations for the future monitoring and protection of the national key protected plant species in Inner Mongolia.