In Turpan, the transportation hub of the ancient Silk Road, there is a desert botanical garden with distinct regional characteristics. Here grow a variety of strange desert plants, they face water shortage, high temperature and strong winds and many other unfavorable environmental factors, showing tenacious vitality, forming a unique desert plant landscape. It is the lowest botanical garden in the world, the Turpan Desert Botanical Garden.
White pisha turned jujube fruit branches
Flowers of arbor-like sand dates
Strolling through the garden, you can see the figure of sand jujube everywhere, some branches stretch, some bend, blossoms in the flowering period, the aroma is strong; the fruit period is fruitful, the color is rich and beautiful, and the red, green, and pink fruits hang like lanterns on the branches... The fruiting season lasts from the end of April to the end of May, and the botanical garden is beautifully decorated.
Because of its outstanding contribution to wind and sand fixation, sand dates are also often found along shelterbelts and desert roads. It is like a pearl scattered in the Gobi desert, taken back by scientific researchers, settled in the botanical garden, endless reproduction, full of vitality, but also became the Turpan Desert Botanical Garden "town garden plant treasure".
Natural habitats are destroyed
It is understood that the jujube plant is a strongly xerophytic or ultra-xerophytic plant widely distributed in the desert and the Gobi in arid areas, mainly distributed in Asia, southern Europe and northern Africa.
Head-shaped sand-like jujube branches
Kang Xiaoshan, a researcher at the Turpan Desert Botanical Garden, told China Flower News that the classification of jujube plants is mainly based on the morphological characteristics of the outside of the fruit. After several taxonomic mergers, the genus retains 36 species and 11 varieties, and China has 25 species, accounting for more than 2/3 of the world's species, of which Xinjiang has the largest, with 22 species.
The genus originated in the ancient Mediterranean Sea, of which there are widespread bubble fruit jujube and Mongolian jujube jujube, and there are 11 species endemic to the continent in the narrow area. It is mainly distributed in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Qinghai and other regions in the mainland, and is one of the important species of sandy and partially gravelly desert vegetation.
Most of the plants of the genus Sandtail are excellent sand fixation plants and are widely used in ecological construction. In addition, because the dried and fresh branches are good fodder for camels and sheep, and have economic value such as firewood, sand fixation, and honey source, many naturally distributed sand-turned jujube plants have been destroyed.
Head-shaped sand-like jujube plant
"After years of investigation by our team, it was found that many of the distribution sites recorded in the original specimens have been difficult to find traces of sand jujube (such as Jimunai, Wutai, Bole and other places in Xinjiang), and the existing populations have been seriously damaged in many areas due to grazing, land reclamation, tourism development, new roads and other reasons in addition to light human damage in the depths of the desert." Kang Xiaoshan told reporters.
Due to the fact that sand jujube grows in arid desert areas, harsh natural conditions such as large wind and sand, poor hydrological conditions, poor soil and multi-salinization make it difficult for plants to form complex, closed and diverse communities, making the community structure very fragile, and human factors exacerbate habitat fragmentation, so conservation work cannot be delayed.
Collection and conservation
According to Kang Xiaoshan, since the 1970s, the Turpan Desert Botanical Garden has begun to introduce exclusive species of sand jujube plants. Nearly 3/4 of the wild introduction of jujube plants in China has been completed, and mature breeding, planting and afforestation techniques have been mastered.
The research team has carried out long-term research on the localization of biological and ecological characteristics, achieved important basic and applied basic research results, and accumulated rich practical experience in field investigation and a rich foundation for preliminary work.
Arbor-shaped sand dates
At the same time, he compiled the "Technical Regulations for afforestation of Sand-turned Jujube" (including seedlings), and completed and participated in the compilation of the genus sand-turned-jujube in the "Flora of China" and "Flora of Xinjiang".
It has built community plots such as Baipisha Jujube, Red Pisha Jujube, Southern Xinjiang Sand Jujube and Bubble Fruit Sand Jujube recorded in monographs such as "Vegetation of China" and "Vegetation in Xinjiang and Its Utilization", and appropriately introduced other associated shrubs and perennial herbaceous plants to increase the content of garden construction.
A four-in-one special garden system of jujube has been built with a "four-in-one" jujube herbarium, community vegetation plot, field germplasm resources nursery and database (including living plant information, nursery management information, colonization information, wax leaf specimen information, seed specimen information, living plant pictures, etc.).
Dense thorn sand turn dates
At present, 90% of the domestic sand jujube plants have been collected, 19 species (varieties) have been introduced and colonized, and a large number of fruits can be collected and can be used to cultivate seedlings, scientific research experiments and external introductions. The application and promotion of jujube plants in botanical gardens and other ecological construction has been greatly successful, and has won a number of provincial and ministerial awards.
"The taxonomy of plants in the genus And the presence or absence of hybridization is the biggest challenge facing the study of this genus." Kang Xiaoshan said that the research team of sand jujube has conducted research on taxonomy, ecology, community, anatomy, reproductive biology, molecular biology and other aspects for more than ten years.
She said that the establishment of the special garden has effectively improved the scientific and technological innovation ability of the Desert Botanical Garden in the research of special plants, provided a new theoretical basis and reserve of plant germplasm resources for the classification and phylogenetic evolution of the plants of the genus Jujube, diversity conservation research and rational development and utilization of resources, and also created conditions for in-depth molecular biology research.
Head-shaped sandy jujube
The Botanical Garden is still committed to the collection and conservation of germplasm resources of the genus Jujube, and plans to gradually collect the global germplasm resources of jujube on the basis of collecting national germplasm resources, and establish the World Research Center for Jujube.
(Written by Guo Xinyi, a reporter of this newspaper)
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