Reintroduction of Camellia changii Ye (Theaceae), a Critically Endangered Plant Endemic to Southern China

Camellia changii Ye is an evergreen tall shrub or small tree with an extremely narrow distribution. There are only 1039 individuals in the field. The community characteristics, genetic diversity, and reproductive barriers of C. changii were studied. An ex situ living collection was established, which contained the entire wild genetic diversity by grafting techniques. Grafted plants were used to conduct augmentation and conservation introduction at two sites. All transplants grew successfully after 2 years at the two sites. We concluded that the out-of-range conservation introduction of C. changii did not reduce reproductive success compared with augmentation.