Can the fruits of our work endure for a hundred years? Imagine a flower collected half a century ago; its delicate stamens and pollen grains are still clearly visible to this day. With a gentle tap on a phone screen, the three-dimensional microscopic structure of an endangered plant leaps into view. At the Shiu-Ying Hu Herbarium at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, a dedicated team works quietly behind the scenes, building a natural treasury for this city that is destined to leave a century-long legacy.
"Imagine this is a big picture within this puzzle; we are only a small piece of it, but that picture would always be incomplete without it," says Dr. David Lau, the Herbarium's Curator.
He opens a nearly 200-year-old botanical reference work, points to records left by earlier scholars, and explains how they preserved precious evidence of species for future generations. Today, his team carries on the lifelong work of the late botanical authority, Professor Shiu-Ying Hu—renowned as the "Mother of Hollies"—striving to complete this piece of Hong Kong's puzzle and pass it on to the future.
Capture what the camera misses
Despite its size, Hong Kong is home to over 3,300 plant species, more than 2,100 of which are native. Collecting samples through arduous mountain treks is only the first step in completing this puzzle; the subsequent work demands extreme patience and rigor.
At one corner of the office desk, a young assistant bends over a sheet of paper, sketching a plant's morphology with a technical pen. Even for a trained botanical illustrator, completing a single ink line drawing often takes an entire month. In today's age of advanced photography, why persist with this time-consuming and labor-intensive traditional craft?
"Because computers and cameras have no soul," explains Dr. Lau. While photographs can reproduce colors, they often fail to capture a plant's fine hairs or intricate vein patterns. With the aid of microscopic dissection, the illustrator uses the pen tip to control variations in line thickness, imbuing the drawing with the scientisprofounddeep understanding of the plant's structure.
Building world's first publicly shared 3D plant library
Step inside the climate-controlled room behind the office door, where nearly 40,000 plant specimens await careful preservation.
Dr. Lau notes, "The purpose of collecting specimens is to document that a plant existed at a particular time and place." Decades or even centuries later, when future generations examine them, they can glimpse Hong Kong's ecological changes. "Has a species disappeared from this location? Has its flowering period shifted?" These tiny clues can reconstruct the historical traces of climate warming, human development, or species competition and evolution.
To maximize the value of these precious samples, the team pushes the concept of "one specimen, multiple uses" to its fullest. DNA extracted from leaves is stored in Hong Kong's first DNA cryobank for native species; seemingly inconspicuous pollen, dried and metal-coated for permanent preservation, can still be magnified tens of thousands of times years later; and the most beautiful fruits and flowers are captured through hundreds of ultra-macro camera shots to create detailed 3D models.
"If you search for '3D plant models' on Google, almost all the results that come up are ours," says Dr. Lau.
This innovative 3D database allows the public to rotate and examine specimens 360 degrees on their phones or computers without needing to install any additional software. To date, the team has digitized approximately 400 species, with a future goal of covering 2,000.
Next year, the Herbarium will relocate to a larger new facility. At that time, more citizens will have the opportunity to personally step into this small-scale botanical world, learning to appreciate and cherish the green life that coexists alongside us.
(Reporter: Clara CHEN; Cameraperson & Editor: Anna Li)
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