There is a widely pernicious saying: "If you can't accept my worst side, then you don't deserve the best side of me." The logic, in turn, is "If you've already enjoyed the best of me, you deserve the worst of me." ”
cough! April is your lie.
April is Heather's lie, and people have become accustomed to enjoying its red fruits in the winter of Xiao Suo, letting the spring breeze touch its new leaves, everything is so natural. However, the April wind made her throbbing, and her flowering season was coming. So overnight, the clouds condensed, the east wind was evil, and the flies gathered and stinked, and there was no way to smell the aroma. In every street and alley, in everyone's nose, the first sentence of the meeting is:
"What's the smell?!"
When the calendar lady is in middle school, as soon as the season comes, the campus is full of heather flowers|southeasternflora.com
Indescribable smell
Wikipedia describes the smell of heather flowers as "a mild, hawthorn-like scent." What is the concept of hawthorn flowers, which were once voted the most unlucky flowers in the Western world, and whose smell is reminiscent of the Great Plague of London in the 17th century. It is thought that bringing hawthorn flowers indoors will bring bad luck, causing the mother or child to fall ill and die.
This is because hawthorn flowers can release large amounts of trimethylamine, which has a strong fishy smell that reminds people of decaying animal/human carcasses. When hawthorn flowers fall on your shy cheeks, you may develop a sense of despair that has nothing to do with love.
The flower of crataegus monogyna |wikimedia.org
As a "weakened version" of the hawthorn flower, heather does not have a large killer such as trimethylamine in its volatile components, but there are still many other amine compounds that interact and eventually mix a wonderful smell, which is similar to the main source of semen odor - sperm amine. This smell attracts flies and beetles to pollinate it and produce bright red fruits.
Insects busy in the flowers | zuditaka / youtube.com
King of hedges
If you also count the independent deciduous heather genus Pourthiaea, there are about 40 species of heather plants in China, common such as heather (P. serrulata，syn. P. serratifolia), P. albiki heather (P. serratifolia). davidsoniae), P. light-leaved heather glabra) and so on, its morphological characteristics are similar - evergreen shrubs or small trees, with leathery serrated leaves, new leaves or old leaves red, in April and May bloom fine small white flowers, red or yellow fruits. Their accurate classification between species basically relies on some microscopic features, and when there is no flower and fruit, it is even more invisible to the trees, often confused with common garden trees such as osmanthus and privet.
The leaves and fruits of light-leaved heather | Kenpei/wikimedia.org
Photinia × fraseri is a hybrid of heather and light-leaved heather, first appearing in 1940 at the Fraser Nursery in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. Its new spring leaves are dazzlingly red, better than the parents, extremely ornamental, and known as the "King of Hedges". There are many varieties of red leaf heather, such as "Red Robin", which has won the Royal Horticultural Society Award, and is the most widely cultivated heather plant species in the world. The domestic translation is "red robin", but in fact it should be translated as "red robin".
The red-leaved heather variety "Red Robin" | Jean-Jacques MILAN/ wikimedia.org
Flowering of large heather trees is common, but we rarely see red-leaved heather flowering. This is because the main use of red leaf heather is still as a hedge, and the hedge needs to be pruned and topped frequently. The heather hedges we see are generally only one meter high, but if you let a red-leaved heather grow, it can not only bloom every year, but also grow to four or five meters tall like its parents. Therefore, red-leaved heather can also be planted solitary, acting as the focal plant of the main structure in horticultural design.
Blooming red-leaved heather flowers | Wouter Hagens/wikimedia.org
Red leaf heather fruit | Wouter Hagens/wikimedia.org
Also a passerby tree
Adult heather, whether tree or shrub-shaped, has a perfect round canopy, dense foliage, and cute shade. The ancients planted them in the courtyard very early, admiring their new leaves in the spring, shading them in the summer, and watching them red in the winter. At the same time, the heather skin is really good, the north and south are suitable, and it is very popular. However, the morphological characteristics of heather are similar to many plants, and the ancient taxonomic level is not very high, so although there are records of heather in ancient medicine, natural museums, and horticultural classics very early, they are roughly copied from each other, and the heather recorded in ancient books is not necessarily the heather defined by botany now.
Trimmed into spherical heather |atreeaday.com
Heather was first written as "Heather", according to Li Shizhen, because it was "born in the place where the stones are facing the sun, so it is called Heather". The first people to say this must not have seen wild heather, otherwise they would have made a mistake. The most common areas of heather are hillside shrublands and mixed woods, because there are other large trees around, so the wild environment of heather is mostly shady. Modern botanists have given the Chinese name "heather" to some alpine plants of the rhododendron family, such as Calluna, Erica, and so on. These alpine plants are truly "born in the sunny place between the stones" and deserve the name.
Calluna vulgaris | Pmg/wikimedia.org
Christmas erica canaliculata | KENPEI / wikimedia.org
The description of heather in ancient books is both mentioned by words such as Li Shizhen and described in detail its morphology, but still feels that it is a mistaken species, such as the "Derivation of Materia Medica":
Heather, the leaves are as small as loquat leaves, but the back is hairless, light and not wrinkled. It blooms between positive and February. In winter, there are two leaves as flower buds, and the buds are both open, and there are more than fifteen flowers, the size of the Tsubaki flowers, very fine. Each bud is about a little bit larger, into a ball. One flower has six leaves, one has seven or eight balls, pale white and green, and the end of the leaf is slightly red. The flowers are blooming and full of flowers, but the flowers are seen, not the flowers. The flowers are just gone, and last year the green leaves fell off and new leaves gradually appeared.
It is difficult to determine what kind of plant this is from this "detailed" description of more than 100 words, such as the leaf morphology is basically correct, but the flowering period is not right; as for the two-leaf flower buds, one bud and one ball cloud, there is a feeling of fog in the clouds; and the description of a flower with six leaves, reddish leaves, and faded old leaves is quite like the Daphniphyllum macropodum common in the south. It is recorded that heather was also called "let wood" in the old Shu land, saying that it was born straight up the branches and leaves, and did not interfere with each other, which seemed to have the meaning of humility.
It belongs to the genus Tiger Pinan in the family Tiger Pinan| KENPEI / wikimedia.org
In addition, there are more accurate descriptions, such as the Bencao TuJing:
Heather, Shenghuayin Valley, now in the north and south. Born on a stone, the plant is very tall. Between the rivers and lakes, the leaves are like loquat leaves, with small thorns, and Ling Dong does not wither. Spring white flowers in clusters. Autumn knots are fine red.
But we still can't conclude that this is heather, because heather is so lowly recognizable, and it is close to the rosaceae family such as Stranvaesia and Sorbus, and as far as Viburnum.
Hundreds of poems about "Heather"
In this way, if the plant learner has both a propensity to examine, he will make himself confused, but he will be trapped in it (le) and cannot extricate himself. This is not as free as the ancient poets, although they do not know what kind of plants are planted in their courtyards, but they are all called heather anyway, and then borrow things to chant, leaving good sentences for thousands of years.
Heather Fruit | Eagle Dance / Public Account "Bird Life"
The Yongshi Nanhua probably began with Li Tang, and there are more than a hundred poems circulating so far, but strangely, none of them are accusing it of having a bad taste. Perhaps the poets valued its leaf and fruit viewing, so they were tolerant of its floral taste. But there are also some poets with strange tastes, such as Lin Hong in the Ming Dynasty:
A dog lying in the garden is warm with herbs, and the birds are crying the heather fragrance of the tree.
I guess he probably did it for the sake of leveling out.
We may wish to compare the pear blossom, the smell of the pear blossom is more evil than heather, in the Western world has the name of "semen tree". But there are thousands of Pear Blossom poems in China, many of which are outspoken. Perhaps the ancient Chinese literati tended to praise the fine qualities of traditional flowers, such as the flower shape and color of pear blossoms, the shape of heather trees, new leaves, and red fruits, and then left their notoriety to unwelcome weeds and trees, such as tribulus and sour dates.
Pear blossom, member of the Rosaceae family| Elf/wikimedia.org
However, we do not rule out that the ancients were particularly sensitive to smell. According to the analysis of the composition of heather flower essential oil, it was found that it contained a lot of benzaldehyde and a little bit of phenethyl alcohol, which has an almond flavor and phenethyl alcohol has a rosette aroma. Attached here are the two sentences of Bai Juyi's "Heather Tree":
Spring buds are finely burned with thousand lanterns (yàn), and xia rui is burning incense.
Thyme is a kind of incense made by mixing a variety of spices. Imagine the rising aroma of roses with the flavor of almonds in the blazing sunshine of early summer, interspersed with a hint of fishiness, how intense and exciting, comparable to the flaming new leaves! Perhaps Bai Juyi and Kukai once sat hand in hand in the shade of a tree, feeling the origin of life in this aromatic intoxication, thinking about the woman's confusing fate.
In "Dream of the Red Chamber", 77 times, Jia Baoyu was expelled from the sentimental Qingwen and mentioned the "Acacia Tree of the Upright Building", so as to explain that the withering glory of the grass and trees is related to people's luck. The acacia tree is not the catalpa tree in the Book of Searching for God, its other nickname is the upright tree. According to the "Biography of Yang Taizhen", after the death of Emperor Xuanzong's wéi general Yang Guifei, he continued west to the side of the Fufeng Road, and saw a large heather tree with a beautiful shape. Xuanzong looked at it for a long time, thinking that in the old days and nights in the Duanzheng Building of the Huaqing Palace, but now the heavens are eternally separated, he gave this heather the name Ofe Tree.
Lu Ping Jia Shu Bi Yun was sad, and he had served Jin Youxing Yilou.
The grass and trees are like people, and the green shade is lonely and the Hanling autumn.
Tang Wen Tingjun "Titled Upright Tree"
Pavilions of heather trees| A. Barra / wikimedia.org
The name of the acacia tree also appeared at about the same time, and the Wu Dufu said: "The wood of Nan Du, the tree of acacia." "Nan durian is Nanmu knot, why symbolize acacia, perhaps the same origin as the story of "Search for God Ji Han Ping's Wife", the early version is Nanmu, and later the version became catalpa wood. The late Tang Dynasty literati confused Nanmu and Heather, but the meaning of "acacia tree" remained unchanged. (The origin of the name "Acacia Tree" above is pure speculation and has not been examined in detail)
The intestines broke the general's burial, and the incense was remembered at that time.
For many years, he hated the acacia tree, and the spring solstice did not produce branches.
The snow maiden Tsukasa head Yao grass is combined, and the jade lotus in the guifei pond is decaying.
Neon clothes old Qu Fei Frost Hall, the dream is broken in the late stage.
Tang Xujie, "Zaixing Huaqing Palace"
In short, after the late Tang Dynasty, Heather had two profound nicknames of acacia tree and duanzheng tree, which became the symbol of Li Yang's love legend. The story spread to the Qing Dynasty, and its version also changed, such as the acacia tree mentioned by Jia Baoyu (Cao Xueqin), which was on the side of the Duanzheng Building, rather than next to the fufeng road in the earlier version.
In the second or third time of the Dream of the Red Chamber, Jia Baoyu read a book under a peach tree, and the wind blew the peach blossoms and fell full of books, and Baoyu even carried the petals of the book, sprinkled into the pool, and drifted away. Dai Yu said that when it went to the place where there was a family, it was still ruined. Dai Yu was right, in the light and dark currents, wrapped up and gone, is it the flower herself who can be the lord?
Sit and see a leaf of grass in autumn, and the birds on the pillars of the hills are quiet.
I don't know if it rains at night, and the heather flowers flow in the clear.
Song He Zhengping,"Absolute Sentence"
Author: Frost Moth
This article is from the species calendar, welcome to forward
If you need to reprint, please contact [email protected]