Golden silk hanging butterfly, scientific name Shaanxi Wei spear. Alias golden thread hanging butterfly, commonly known as the cash cow. Deciduous tree, 2 m tall. The twigs are greyish brown, cylindrical, smooth, wingless, and slightly droopy. It prefers light, is slightly shade-tolerant, drought-tolerant, and also resistant to water and moisture; it originates from the plant gene bank of the Qinling Mountains in Zhouzhi County, Shaanxi Province, and has a small amount of wild distribution in southern Gansu, Sichuan, Hubei, Guizhou and other places.
Golden silk hanging butterfly
Alias: Shaanxi Wei spear, golden thread hanging butterfly Distribution area: Origin Shaanxi Province
Morphological characteristics
A vine shrub that is several meters tall and has slightly grayish-red branches. The leaves are thin papery when flowering, papery or slightly thicker at fruit, lanceolate or narrowly ovate, 4–7 cm long and 1.5–2 cm wide, sharply pointed or short tapering at the apex, with ciliary teeth at the edges, broadly wedge-shaped at the base; the petiole is thin, 3–6 mm long. The inflorescence grows slender and delicate, most of them are concentrated at the top of the twigs, forming a multi-flowered shape, each polyumbeliss has a thin and long stem, 4-6 cm long, there are 5 branches at the tip of the peduncle, a central branch and a flower, about 2 cm long, an inner and outer pair of branches up to 4 cm long, and a small poly umbrella at the apex; the small peduncle is 1.5-2 cm long, the outermost pair of branches is generally only half the length of the inner branch, and the small flower stem of the poly umbrella is also slightly shorter; the flowers are 4 numbers, yellow-green; the petals are often slightly red, about 7 mm in diameter. The capsules are square or oblate round, about 1 cm in diameter, 4 wings are long, rectangular, the base is nearly the same height as the apex, or slightly narrower, the wings are shorter; only 1 seed per chamber matures, the seeds are black or brown, all surrounded by orange false seed coat.
Growing environment
Light-loving, slightly shade tolerant, drought tolerant, and also water-wet tolerant. The soil requirements are not strict, like fertile, moist and well-drained soil, easy to cultivate, is an excellent fruit plant species.
Distribution range
It is produced in Shaanxi, southern Gansu, Sichuan, Hubei and Guizhou.
Propagation methods
Sowing The seeds are harvested after ripening in the autumn, and the seeds are collected after the skin is cracked in the sun and dried and stored. In January of the following year, the seeds were soaked in warm water at 30 °C for 24 hours, and then stored in the shade of wet sand. In mid-March, move to the leeward sun and maintain a temperature of 20-25 ° C to germinate, and sow seeds after the radicle appears. Strip sowing, row spacing 35cm, plant spacing 3-5cm, cover thickness 2-3cm, sowing amount l0kg/mu.
The grafting can be made of silk cotton wood as rootstock, and can be grafted when the rootstock is budding in mid-to-late March. The use of splitting and cutting methods is higher than grafting to cultivate bonsai, which has high ornamental value.
Key value
The garden can be used as a courtyard ornamental tree species, isolated planting or making stump bonsai, which has high ornamental value.
Regarding whether the golden silk hanging butterfly and the Shaanxi Wei spear are the same variety, some people have proposed that the golden wire hanging butterfly fruit is large and the fruit wings are longer, the diameter of the single fruit can reach about 5 cm, the length of the weeping silk (fruit stem) can reach about 20 cm, and the autumn red color is more vivid, so it is believed that there is a difference with the Shaanxi Wei spear, the author believes that the Shaanxi Wei spear wild variety flower stalk is short, the golden wire hanging butterfly is artificially maintained, therefore, the fruit is long, in fact, it is still a variety, but the wild environment is bad, and the artificial cultivation, more elaborate, Fertilizer nutrients can be supplied in time, so the fruit is large and long, but the morphology has not changed much, so it should not be considered another variety.
Golden silk hanging butterflies like light, should be placed in the sunshine, air circulation, summer to be properly shaded. Protects from hot sun exposure. Autumn in the light is conducive to early redning of leaf color. In winter, you can overwinter outdoors and bury the pot in the sunward soil.
Watering: Bonsai usually keep wet, not dry and not watered, rather dry, not wet. During the spring and summer growth period, it should be properly watered to facilitate growth and flowering. In autumn, when the leaves are red, water should be buckled, and the potting soil should be slightly dried. During the winter dormant period, water every 5 to 7 days.
Fertilization: Good fertilizer, apply a thin and decomposed cake water every two weeks during the growing period. It is mainly based on phosphorus and potassium fertilizers. Apply less nitrogen fertilizer so as not to grow in vain. After the fall of leaves in late autumn, it is advisable to apply less fertilizer diligently or without fertilization. In winter, put some rotten cake chips in the pot as a base fertilizer.
Pruning: When new branches and leaves are harvested in the spring, they should be cut short appropriately to keep the canopy thick and not scattered. Plastic pruning is performed after the leaves fall in autumn. Cut off germinating branches, long branches, and cross overlapping branches to maintain a certain shape of the tree.
Turning pots: You can turn the pots every 2 to 3 years, it is advisable to pluck and release leaves in February to March in the spring, and it is also possible in autumn. When turning the pot, combine the pruning of the overly long root system to remove part of the old soil, replace it with a fertile and loose culture soil, and mix with an appropriate amount of cake fat and bran ash. If the culture is raised, the plant can be gradually lifted up, revealing the base main root.
Pest control: It is common to have leaf-eating insects such as boxwood ruler moth and boxwood spotted moth as pests, and the control method uses 1500 times of dichlorvos or dichlorvos during the larval activity period from April to May.
In order to make the autumn leaves turn red early, the golden silk hanging butterfly can be placed in the semi-shade in summer so that the leaf quality will not thicken. In autumn, it can be placed in a sunny place, and it is easy to form beautiful autumn leaves. In the Mid-Autumn Festival, the fruit is red after ripening, the fruit stem is drooping, the fruit shape is peculiar, and it looks like a flock of butterflies hanging from a golden wire, which is very beautiful!
Summary: Golden silk hanging butterflies and other flowers and fruits bonsai, the maintenance method is basically the same. Usually, the more extensive the maintenance, the better not to be too pampered. Watering can be seen dry and wet, and watering is more likely to fall flowers and fruits. Spring flowering and early fruiting, continuous rainy weather, and strong winds are the main factors for falling flowers and fruits. Before the autumn leaves fall, the water can be appropriately buckled and the phosphorus and potassium fertilizer can be applied frequently, which is more conducive to the differentiation of flower buds and the fruitfulness of the next year. In addition, this tree species needs to sleep in winter and can be placed indoors in low temperatures or outdoors to overwinter naturally.