Amongst the heavily impacted flora which suffered from the historical extensive deforestation in Hong Kong, Fagaceae (i.e. oaks, stone oaks and chinquapin) are one of the most seriously affected family of plants. The slow growth rates and local extinction of their mammalian dispersers  from Hong Kong have limited their regeneration and dispersal in degraded landscapes. These plants who once dominated the forest in Hong Kong have now become some of the most threatened plants.

With regards to the pessimistic future of the Fagaceae of Hong Kong, we are attempting to quantify the habitat association of the rare Fagaceae through systematic surveys. Apart from obtaining the soil properties, habitat characteristics and climatic data we need for building the habitat association of each species, systematic surveys allow us to discover hidden localities of these rare species. Our results will form the ecological bases for future translocation projects to save these localized giants.