Editor's note: In the vast historical river of the earth, the living world has composed a tragic and magnificent song, shaped the earth's environment, bred the epic of human civilization, and promoted economic and social development. In the stars of science communication, the Voice of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the South China Botanical Garden jointly opened the column "Flowers and Birds", which is not only a window to the living world, but also a collection of stories of natural experience. May she speak for the natural world and promote biodiversity conservation. May she interpret the frontiers of science, tell the story of science, and seal the footprints of nature.
When mulan is mentioned, what comes to mind is the magnolia of "neon pieces of evening makeup new, Shu Su Ting Ting Yu Dian Spring", or the smile of "mellow and rich banana flavor, plain and fragrant and graceful", and even the wood lotus of "like folding hibiscus to plant dry land, like throwing peony medicine and hanging high branches", then do you remember that there is an alternative "ethnic minority" in the Magnoliaceae plant? They are covered with leaves that resemble goose paws, and are figuratively known as Liriodendron chinense (Hemsl.) Sarg.）。
Unique in Magnolia
Every year in April and May, the spring breeze awakens the sleeping winter buds, and a pair of bud scales slowly open, revealing new green in the outward roll.
The winter buds of the catalpa spit green
Then, Spring transformed into a skillful tailor, carefully cut a green coat full of exquisite portraits for the goosefoot catalpa. The top of the leaf is flat or slightly concave, like the hem of a horse's coat; the sides are slightly adducted and narrow, resembling the waist of a horse coat; and there is a pair of deep lobes on both sides of the near base, like the two short sleeves of the horse coat, which is amazing, so people affectionately call him the horse coat wood.
Goosefoot leaf
From September to October, Autumn transformed into a versatile painter, using a golden brush to dye all the green horse coats golden yellow, like the "yellow horse coats" given by the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, which attracted countless envious eyes.
Autumn color of goose palm catalpa (image from the Internet)
Autumn leaves (image from the Internet)
Horse coat (image from the Internet)
Time passed in a flash, and suddenly a gust of wind blew through, and the "yellow coat" was taken off one after another, one after another... and finally only the bare body of Wei An stood in place, as if in the "empty sigh of the years like flowing water".
Whenever the goosefoot tree is replaced with a new "horse coat" that has been specially tailored, the branches also bloom with wine-like green flowers, which resemble tulips, causing people to mistakenly think that tulips are on the tree, so foreigners call him "Chinese Tulip Tree", that is, "Chinese tulip tree".
Goosefoot flowers
Tulips (Photo by Li Biqiu)
After the flowers are cast, the goosefoot catalpa bears a spindle-shaped polymer fruit. When the fruit is immature, it is draped in a tight green coat, resembling okra, and when ripe, the coat turns light brown and gradually opens, revealing small nuts with wings inserted, which is the only winged fruit in the magnolia family.
The fruit of the catalpa is immature
The fruit of the catalpa is ripe
The rise and fall of the family
Born in the Cretaceous Period, the Liriodendron family once lived with dinosaurs on Earth and is an ancient relict plant. They were once brilliant in the history of the earth, a prosperous family, to the Cenozoic Tertiary Period there are more than 10 members, widely lived in Eurasia and North America, and later suffered the Quaternary glacier catastrophe, most of the members extinct and became ancient fossils, now only 2 survivors are left, one is the goosefoot tree living in China and Vietnam and the North American goosefoot catalpa (L. Tulipifera Linn.), really a pair of friends of the same lineage who survived the disaster.
North American catalpa flower (Photo by Li Cehong)
They are also members of the Thrush family, but they have very different fates. The North American catalpa is a pioneer tree species in North America with footprints throughout the eastern United States and southern Canada. However , it gradually declined , huddled sporadically in small areas of southern China and northern Vietnam.
Not only is it a precious street tree and ornamental tree species in the garden, but also a fine wood for building and making furniture, and as a result, it has been repeatedly deforested and the wild resources have gradually decreased. In addition, the flowers are intermatrime, when the flowers contain buds to be released, the pistils are mature and the stamens are not yet mature, and when the flowers are opened, the stamens are mature and the pistil stigma has withered and yellowed, just as the so-called "I was born without birth, I was born with an old age", destined to have no chance in this life, unable to complete self-pollination. However, he has the phenomenon of "parthenogenesis", and the pistils can continue to develop without fertilization, but the seeds formed are empty, the germination rate is extremely low, and natural regeneration is very difficult. Therefore, the incense of the wild goosefoot catalpa is in danger of being cut off, and has been listed as a national second-level protected plant, and was selected to participate in the space-based mutagenesis breeding experiment of rare and endangered forests in 2008 and flew in space with Shenzhou 7.
Survival wisdom
In the long process of evolution, how did the Eason family escape the shadow of the sword and light in the rivers and lakes and live endlessly in the natural world of natural selection? Needless to say, they take pains in the inheritance of blood, because reproduction is the top priority in the plant world.
Due to the natural defects of hermaphroditic maturity, the thrush can not complete self-pollination, so it learns to use "color seduction" as a means to bloom fresh or gorgeous flowers, the flowers are placed with eye-catching stamens, and delicious pollen and sweet nectar are carefully prepared to attract flies, beetles, bees, bumblebees and other insects to help pollinate the flowers. However, these insects are not the obligatory pollinators of the catalpa, and the pollen on their bodies is often wasted on the flowers of other species. Although this pollination method also causes pollen waste, compared with the extreme waste of pollen by wind media pollination, it can evolve to attract insects to carry pollen in ancient times, which is already an epoch-making innovation.
Pollen scattered from the stamens of the thrush
Nectar secreted by the flowers of the catalpa
In the process of natural evolution, the naked seeds of plants will directly threaten the safety of future generations. So the catalpa learned to bear fruit, and the fruit, like a quilt, gave the seed perfect protection. When the fruit is ripe, it slowly opens, and when the wind comes, the light little winged fruit flies in the wind, swirling in the wind like a helicopter rotor, floating into the distance to regain its new life. The helicopter-type propagation method of the small winged fruit is ahead of human inventions.
Goosefoot catalpa fruit
The thrush family attracts insects to pollinate them through the seduction of flower colors and the charm of food, protects the seeds with fruits, and adopts advanced methods to let the seeds fly to distant branches and leaves, all of which show their survival wisdom in natural evolution. They are ambitious and do their best to accomplish their mission so that they can thrive in the crisis-ridden natural world.
Start a family
Beginning in the 1930s, the North American goosefoot crossed the ocean to China to find relatives, and two friends of the same sect who were across the ocean were finally reunited. In the 1960s, Professor Ye Peizhong, a famous plant breeder at Nanjing Forestry University in mainland China, acted as a "red bride" to help the couple start a family, and successfully bred a marriage crystal, the hybrid goosefoot catalpa (L. chinense×L. tulipifera）。 This Sino-US "mixed race" not only inherits the advantages of its parents, but also is better than blue out of blue, tree posture, flower color, adaptability and other aspects are better than their parents, won the love of the public, and stood out at the "Welcome Olympic Tree Species Promotion Conference" in 2007, becoming the designated tree species for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, adding bricks and tiles to the success of the Olympic Games.
Hybrid thrush flower
So, how to distinguish this handsome family?
First of all, from the perspective of leaf morphology, there is a contralateral lobe on the shoulder of the leaf of the goosefoot catalpa leaf; the north American goosefoot leaf often has 2 contralateral splits on the shoulder, more like the goosefoot; and the hybrid goosefoot catalpa has both leaf shapes.
Goosefoot
North American catalpa
Hybrid thrush
Secondly, from the flower morphology to distinguish, the inner chakra of the thrush is green, with yellow longitudinal stripes, and the pistil group exceeds the duvet sheet when flowering; the inner chakra of the North American thrush is gray-green, with an irregular orange band near the base, and the pistil group does not exceed the flower sheet when flowering; and the hybrid thrush catalpa inherits the advantages of both parents, the flower shape maintains the shape of tulips, but the flower color fades green and appears more golden, and the appearance is more and more beautiful.
Goosefoot
North American goosefoot (Photo by Li Cehong)
Hybrid thrush
Settled in South China Botanical Garden
Spanning tens of millions of years of long time, experiencing the bloody storms of the evolution of the earth, witnessing the vicissitudes of countless lives, and now the ancient bloodline has encountered a succession crisis, and the wild goosefoot tree is struggling to survive. Plants have continued thousands of lives with their own lives, and we should not only pass through their world, but should do our best to protect them.
The South China Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has been committed to protecting the Mulan family since the 1950s, and the Goose Palm Catalpa family has also come to the South China Botanical Garden to settle down, which has become their "Noah's Ark". After decades of growth, their family of three is growing well, and the catalpa and hybrid catalpa can flower and bear fruit, while the North American catalpa is a bit unsatisfactory and has not yet flowered and borne fruit.
At present, the green of the goosefoot tree gradually covers the canopy, showing a vibrant, as if to pour all the breath of life into the spring and summer. When sunlight leaks through the gaps between the leaves, spreading a spot of light on the ground; when the sunlight falls on the flowers, it adds a mysterious touch to the flowers standing on the tall branches... Such a beautiful view, are you moved? If you are moved, come close to the goosefoot tree, get in touch with the ancient bloodline at zero distance, and you will find the wonder of ecology and the fun of nature.
Goosefoot catalpa (Yu Feng painting)
Hybrid goosefoot (painting by Deng Yingfeng)
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Figure: Yang Keming (except for those noted)
Source: South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences