A team of botanists has revealed that a previously unknown species of lily was discovered in the Shenxianju Scenic Area in Xianju county, Taizhou, Zhejiang province.

The groundbreaking finding was announced by Xu Yueliang, a researcher at the Zhejiang Museum of Natural History, in collaboration with research teams from Zhejiang A&F University and Zhejiang University in their recent academic paper.

The paper introduces the world to the "Shenxianju Lily", a rare species thriving on steep cliffs at an altitude of approximately 780 meters, emphasizing the urgent need for its protection.

The journey that ended with the discovery began in May 2018 when Xu and Ding Bingyang, a professor from Wenzhou University, initiated a botanical diversity survey to compile the Flora of Zhejiang.

During their exploration, the team stumbled upon a mysterious plant species suspected to be a new type of lily. At the time, lacking blossoms, the experts relied solely on morphological characteristics to identify it as a potential new species.

It wasn't until June 2019 that the team managed to collect flowering specimens of the plant in the Shenxianju Scenic Area. Subsequent morphological and molecular biological analyses confirmed their initial suspicions, leading to the formal classification of the plant as a new subgroup within the lily genus, which they named "Shenxianju Lily".