Only the toughest plants survive in the deserts of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and the Euphrates polar is the only arbor species among them.

A Euphrates poplar tree has been growing in Inner Mongolia's Ejina Banner for more than 800 years. The locals call it "sacred tree."

After dinosaurs got extinct around 65 million years ago, a new plant species emerged along the ancient Mediterranean Sea. It was the Euphrates poplar, or Populus Euphratica.

The tree can reach more than 20 meters in height, and its leaves are able to change shapes.

As a sapling, the leaves are shaped like willow leaves in order to reduce evaporation. When it grows taller and more energy is needed to support the trunk, its leaves become bigger, turning into a round shape.

The poplar loves water, but is also resistant to drought in the Gobi Desert. As long as the groundwater maintains at about four meters beneath the surface, the poplars grow comfortably.

An adult Euphrates poplar tree can discharge 10 kilograms of salt and alkali every year. Where there is a poplar forest in the desert, water and soil are well conserved.

Moreover, the trees block the wind, fix the sand and help improve the quality of the soil, thus protecting the ecological environment, especially that of the Ejina Banner.

To the south of the forest lies Badain Jaran, the third largest desert in China. Without this 260-square-kilometer poplar forest, the nearly 50,000-square-kilometer Badain Jaran Desert would spread northward, squeezing the living space of humans.

In autumn when the leaves turn yellow, these Euphrates poplars form a golden natural barrier, guarding the ecology of the region for millennia.

(Cover image a screenshot from the video.)

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