Dunhuang murals belong to the World Cultural Heritage, with different aesthetic characteristics and artistic styles from secular paintings, plant patterns as an extremely important form of artistic expression has always run through it, the murals are rich in flowers and trees, lush forests and grasses, and rich in species connotations.
The plant in the Dunhuang murals - lotus flowers
Photo by Li Guangmin
Lotus flower (Nelumbo SP.) is a perennial aquatic herb of the lotus genus of the family Ranunculaceae, also known as lotus, water hibiscus, etc., ranking among the top ten famous flowers in China, known as "living fossils", one of the earliest plants in the angiosperm. The rhizomes of lotus flowers are thick, swollen and hollow between nodes, densely stomata; the leaves are round and shielded, covered with waxy white powder, fully margined wavy; the flowers are single at the top of the peduncle, high above the water surface; the fruit is oval nuts. The flowering period is from June to September, the morning opening is twilight, and the fruiting period is from August to October.
The noble character of the lotus flower, "straight in the middle and straight, not vines and branches, out of the mud and not stained", has been praised by the world and has become the theme of the thousand autumn songs of the literati and inkers. "The lotus leaves are infinitely blue, and the lotus flowers are different red." The beauty of the lotus flower, the fragrance of the centuries. In addition, lotus flowers are treasured throughout the body, and lotus roots and lotus seeds can be eaten; lotus seeds, rhizomes, lotus nodes, lotus leaves, flowers and germs of seeds can be used in medicine.
Lotus flowers in frescoes
(Source: China Wildlife Conservation Association Public Account Editor Wang Qiang)