Nurseries and home gardens around the world are packed with Asian plants, thanks to plant-collecting explorers who began coming to the region centuries ago.

Camellia (Camellia japonica): A favorite in spring gardens, this Japan native has been recently collected in South Korea and China, where established specimens have developed more cold tolerance, a trait much valued by plant breeders.

Chinese dogwood (Cornus kousa): A tried and proven landscape plant introduced to the United States by collector Ernest Wilson more than a century ago, plants that were in the US were descended from a very small gene pool. This tends to produce weaklings and idiots, and US scientists who came to China in 1980 were delighted to gather specimens from a wide area in their native country for plant breeders at home.

Yunnan magnolia (Magnolia yunnanensis): The sexiest of a large group of Chinese magnolias with long, curvaceous flower petals, the tree has become a rare and threatened species.

Fringe flower (Loropetalum chinense): Nothing rare about this one, thanks to aggressive cloning for the US landscape market. The flowers make a spring splash, but the deep-purple leaves provide garden color year-round.

Daylily (Hemerocallis species): Native to China, Korea and Japan, these brilliantly colored bulb plants are often called "the perfect perennial" because they tolerate drought and require little maintenance. The flowers are edible and popular in Chinese cuisine. They're sold fresh or dried as "golden needles" (jin zhen) for hot-and-sour soup, daylily soup and Buddha's delight, among other dishes.

Chinese pistache (Pistacia chinensis): Prized for its brilliant fall color, the pistache has separate male and female trees, like the gingko.

(China Daily 07/06/2014 page3)