Recently, staff from the Agricultural Environmental Monitoring and Management Station of the Jixian County Bureau of Agriculture discovered more than 100 specimens of the nationally first‑level protected plant, Bulbophyllum bifarium, and over 20 specimens of the nationally second‑level protected plant, Cistanche deserticola, during an ecological survey within the Limutai Scenic Area. Both species have extremely stringent environmental requirements; compounded by human disturbance, their populations have declined sharply, rendering them endangered.
