In the early 1980's, the U.S. National Arboretum took the lead in working in cooperation with other botanical gardens and arboreta to further explore and collect plants from various parts of China. The North American China Plant Exploration Consortium (NACPEC) was born in the early 1990's to formalize this working relationship. Its main mission is to broaden the genetic diversity of Asian plants in our gardens. Many plants native to China and other East Asian countries were first introduced to the United States in the late 1800's, but the original collections did not represent the full range of natural genetic diversity found within a given species. There is a need to collect new specimens of these plants if improved ornamental characteristics, enhanced tolerance of heat, cold, and drought, and better resistance to pests and diseases are to be realized. Burgeoning development and habitat loss in Asia has made the need for this exploration even more urgent.