If you've ever climbed to the top of Mount Tarzan in autumn, you've seen this kind of tree studded with bright red fruit. But few people know this kind of tree, which blooms white in the spring and red fruit in the autumn, and it is a catalpa tree. To be honest, do you think of the catalpa as a peppercorn?
"Two young men under the hawthorn tree are looking forward to me.
Oh, that dense hawthorn tree, the white flowers are full of blossoms,
Why should our hawthorn trees be sad? ”
A former Soviet Song "Hawthorn Tree" (formerly known as "Ural's Catalpa Tree"), which was widely circulated in China, sang about this catalpa tree, not the hawthorn tree. The catalpa tree is cold tolerant and is very common in Russia, and if you look closely, the fruit of the catalpa tree and hawthorn is indeed more similar.
More precious than the catalpa is the unique variety of Taishan, the Taishan catalpa.
In October 1981, Li Fazeng, then a teacher at the Forestry School in Shandong Province, collected plant specimens on Mount Taishan and went to a ravine at an altitude of more than 1,400 meters to discover a new variety of catalpa and its number was rare. In April 1984, it was officially named Taishan Catalpa, which has important ecological and environmental value and scientific research value.
Tarzan catalpa and common catalpa belong to the same genus of Roseaceae, but unlike ordinary catalpa, the base of the two small leaves of the double leaf of The Catalpa tarragon grows 1-2 leaflets; there is no hair on the inflorescence stem, and the structure of the flower is composed of 5 flower pillars (the flower of the common catalpa is 3 flower pillars); the fruit is a small pear fruit with a depression at the top (the fruit of the ordinary catalpa is generally a small round fruit, and there is no depression at the top).
Tarzan catalpa seedlings
In 2016, only 1 plant remained in the wild Tarzan catalpa
According to the 2016 Shandong Province Forest Germplasm Resources Survey data, there is only one wild Taishan catalpa left, which has been included in the list of rare and endangered plants in Shandong Province, which can be called a "national treasure".
What is the reason for the gradual decrease in the number of Tarzan flowers? According to Li Wenqing, director of the Provincial Forest Germplasm Resource Center, in recent years, they have entered the mountains every year to check the growth of Taishan catalpa. However, it was found that its naturally dropped seeds did not produce new shoots, and its kind was not found around. "The first person to find Taishan catalpa", Li Fa once said: "If the seed fell and did not emit new shoots, it may be that the seed does not have the ability to reproduce, or the surrounding environment is no longer suitable for the germination of the seed of the species." In addition, because the Taishan catalpa grows in a ravine at an altitude of more than 1400 meters, where the terrain is steep and sparsely populated, it is not a normal tourist mountaineering route, so the possibility of human destruction is small, and it may be caused by natural reasons such as rain washing. ”
The use value of Taishan catalpa
The fruit of Taishan catalpa can be used in medicine, which has the effect of clearing the lungs and relieving cough, replenishing the spleen and rejuvenating, but the health care effect is not large. Because the flowers and fruits of the Tarzan catalpa are particularly beautiful, the orange-red fruit hangs on the branches in winter and does not fall, so it is now generally cultivated as an ornamental plant.
Unremitting efforts! The "national treasure" Tarzan catalpa has gone from being endangered to being gradually lifted from endangered!
In order to expand the population of Taishan catalpa and gradually remove its endangered status, the technicians of Taishan Forest Farm collect seeds in the wild and overcome the problems of sterile seeds at room temperature and the extremely low survival of seedlings in the laboratory.
According to the narration of Guo Huiling, a senior local engineer, the native land of Taishan catalpa is above 1,000 meters, which belongs to high-altitude tree species. Because its seeds cannot germinate naturally into seedlings, it cannot solve its endangered extinction situation by growing in situ alone. After it reached the low altitude area, because of the high temperature and strong light, the Taishan catalpa could not adapt to the environment in the low altitude area, so its seed breeding process was particularly difficult.
After years of unremitting efforts, at present, a total of 122 trees of Taishan jacaranda have been bred, and 17 plants have been transplanted in the wild, which has effectively promoted the breeding and protection of this rare and endangered plant species, and has gradually lifted the endangered state!
Among rare and endangered tree species,
Tarzan is just the tip of the iceberg,
There are also many "national treasure" tree species worth paying attention to...
Edit: Wen Jie