A Pak Lan or Michelia alba tree, located at Guoxing Road in Pingshan District, is the only one of its kind in Shenzhen.
It has almost reached the highest height (17 meters) recorded on Baidu Baike, China’s Wikipedia equivalent, according to Shenzhen Economic Daily.
The tree, estimated to be over 130 years old, is now 16.5 meters high, the Daily report said.
Among the city’s 1,577 ancient trees, only 30 of them are unique species with only one tree.
“The Pak Lan has a very long flowering season, from August till now,” an identified local resident was quoted as telling the Daily.
The tree is also known to bloom twice a year with good weather. It has immensely fragrant blossoms and can be smelled from a few hundred meters away, said the report.
The Pak Lan tree is located beside the ancient Tanxian Temple and the 14.5-meter banyan tree next to the temple. The banyan tree is estimated to be of the same age as the Pak Lan tree.
Under the city’s greenery regulation, the protection range of old precious trees is 5 meters beyond its crown’s vertical projection line.
To protect the precious Pak Lan tree, Pingshan District organized a special campaign to clean up waste piled up beside the tree and persuaded citizens not to burn incense for their ancestors beside the tree.
The district also placed fire extinguishers adjacent to the tree area and arranged regular patrols.