The Zhongshan Nature Reserve Management and Protection Center recently discovered about 20 Psilotum nudum plants, known as "the most primitive vascular plant", in downtown Zhongshan. This species has not been previously recorded in Zhongshan.

Psilotum nudum, or whisk fern, is a small fernlike plant. It is named for its pine-leaf shaped scale leaves. Its name "Psilotum nudum" means "bare naked" in Latin.

Psilotum nudum is described as a "living fossil" in the plant kingdom. It is generally believed to have first appeared in the Devonian period about 300 million years ago and is the most primitive species of vascular plants.