The major factors influencing distribution of three species of Dendrobium: Analysis of potential ecologically suitable distributions

Abstract

As a well-known Chinese important medicine, Dendrobium resources are increasingly scarce. In order to avoid the quality problems caused by blind cultivation, we predicted the ecologically suitable areas for three species of important Dendrobium species. In this paper, using the maximum entropy model and ArcGIS, we used a database and literature search to collect the known distribution information of Dendrobium, combined with the relevant ecological factors such as climate, elevation and soil, to divide the geographical distribution of Dendrobium into categories, and find out the main ecological factors that affect the distribution of Dendrobium and thus the most suitable regions in China. The results showed that Dendrobium is mainly distributed south of the Yangtze River And the distribution of the most suitable regions was different for each of these three species of Dendrobium species. The potential suitable areas of Dendrobium nobile Lindl, Dendrobium officinale Kimura et Migo, Dendrobium moniliforme (L.) Sw. were approximately 134.19 × 104 km2 (accounting for 13.98 %), 229.08 × 104 km2 (accounting for 23.86 %) and 188.33 × 104 km2 (accounting for 19.62 %) of China’s land area, respectively. Based on our model, annual temperature annual range and annual precipitation are the main ecological variables controlling the distribution of the three species of Dendrobium species, but these three species also have slightly different characteristics. All in all, these species prefer a warm, stable and humid climate and loose soil that is sufficiently aerated and with appropriate moisture properties in order to grow. This will provide a reference for the subsequent introduction, cultivation and local adaptation.