Zhou Min
No matter how the world changes, this spring, like countless springs in the past, is about to come to an end as it walks on its own.
Whenever they perceive that the spring day is coming to an end, most of the Chinese's hearts will emerge with a sigh: It has blossomed to the flowers...
This flower is also the penultimate of the twenty-four flower trade winds: "Three seasons of valley rain, one waiting for peony, two waiting for lily, and three waiting for neem flowers." "But if you ask carefully, what kind of flower is it?" This question, even if it is asked to botany professionals, is also unclear in two sentences, so that it is called the most confusing flower of identity.
Roughly outline the appearance of the tussock: the plant form is a vine or vine shrub, the branches are thorny, three leaflets or pinnate compound leaves, late spring and early summer flowering, the flowers are white and fragrant.
There are several species of rosaceae that meet or are close to these characteristics. In the Flora of China, there is no plant Chinese properly called Tulip. Therefore, these answers are not so conclusive.
The first is the rubus rosaefolius var. coronarius, genus Rosaceae). Ming confirmed that the leader of this was the "Flower Classic" co-authored by the famous horticulturist Huang Yueyuan and Huang Delin in the Republic of China period- "The word 荼鎗酴醿, commonly known as 荼醿, also called perfume flowers; the branches are randomly pumped, resembling roses, and ordinary people are difficult to distinguish... Scientific name (Rubus commersonii), deciduous subshrub also. Although it is called a shrub and vine, the branches emerge from the roots and are prickly; the leaves are pinnate and reborn, and each leaflet is slightly wrinkled; the new shoots in late spring are drawn, the crown is heavy petals, the color is yellow and slightly white, or all red; the flower stalk is longer than that of the ten sisters, so the flowers are droopy; the color is the most messy when in full bloom, and it is a grand view. ”
The Flower Sutra describes the Dragonfly by Zhou Mintu
One of the most praiseworthy things about the Flower Sutra is that it gives the botanical name of the lotus. It is easy to find out that "Rubus commersonii" is one of the synonyms of Rubus rosifolius, which is now deprecated. The text also mentions that the flower is a heavy petal, which is obviously a heavy petal hollow bubble. In addition, the Flora of China also includes "tea flower" as the common name of heavy-petal hollow bubble.
But now it seems that the main suspicious point is that heavy-petal hollow bubbles are not common, and it is difficult to imagine that it directly chased the status of peony as a national flower during the Song Dynasty. The English revised edition of flora of China also clearly records that this "earliest description specimen came from a cultivated variety in the United Kingdom, which is occasionally cultivated in Southeast Asia today."
A heavy-petal hollow bubble cultivated in Nanjing Zhongshan Botanical Garden. Liu Xingjian Figure
The flowers are heavy petals, white, aromatic, 3-5 cm in diameter. Susigarden diagram
In contrast, the single-petal original hollow bubble (Rubus rosaefolius) is also more common, and my community has planted it, also called roseberry or March bubble. I love the hollow bubble floral fragrance, the faint fragrance, it smells like being in the middle of nature in the mountains.
Hollow bubbles, single petals of flowers, with a faint fragrance. Photographed in Chongqing. Zhou Min figure
The second is rosa rubus (Rosa rubus). In the "Taxonomy of Chinese Trees" written by Mr. Chen Rong, a famous forester in mainland China, the "Tsubaki" was given as an alias to the hanging hook rose, believing that its characteristics were in line with the text description and illustration of the Tsubaki in the Book of "Flower Mirror" in the Qing Dynasty. However, the hanging hook rose obviously does not meet the key feature of "large flowers and thousand petals", it is a white single petal, and it is a wild plant, widely distributed in the mountains of southwest, east And South China, and the ancient dragonfly is obviously cultivated.
Similar to the hanging hook rose, there are many kinds of white single-petaled wild roses on the mainland. Photographed in Jinchuan, Sichuan. Zhou Min
Therefore, the Flora of China directly denied this kind, but instead assigned the tulip flower to the perfume monthly season (Rosa odorata), because the perfume moon season has several kinds of white, orange and pink, which is more consistent with the color of the tulip flower mentioned in many ancient books. But this conclusion is probably the most unconvincing, because from the many aliases of the dragonfly such as qiong ribbon, snow wisp, etc., it can be seen that white is its true color.
Big Flower Perfume Moon Season, the original type of perfume monthly season, produced in Yunnan. Nanshan map
The latest view is that some botanists today have proposed that the clam described in the ancient poems of the Song Ming Dynasty is Rosa × fortuneana. The reason is that it is closest to the description of the morphological characteristics of the flowers in ancient texts, such as Wu Qilin's "Botanical Names and Facts Tu kao" of the Qing Dynasty: "The flowers are made of fruit, the vines are green stems, the thorns are multi-thorny, each with three leaves, the leaf surface is light and green, the back is verdant, and there are many missing carvings." Large flowers with thousands of petals, fragrant and clear. ”
The large flower white wood fragrance is considered to be the natural hybrid of the woody flower and the golden cherry blossom, and it has many characteristics that resemble the woody flower, such as three to five small leaves, the flowers are white and heavy petals, but larger than the woody flowers, while the flower solitary, flower holder and peduncle are needle-pricked, which comes from another parent golden cherry.
At present, the more common in domestic urban greening is the white heavy petal and yellow heavy petal wood fragrant flowers, and the large flower white wood fragrance is not common. In 1845, the famous plant hunter Robert Fortune introduced it from the mainland to the West, and almost all the pictures of the large flowers and white wood fragrance on the Internet came from some nurseries abroad.
Large flowers and white wood fragrance, photographed in Nanjing Zhongshan Botanical Garden. Liu Xingjian Figure
Even this name has its own mysterious atmosphere, and there are three ways to write it alone. The earliest way of writing is "酴醿", which is a kind of wine. Wang Xiangjin of the Ming Dynasty explained in the Qunfang Genealogy: "Qiu Yi ... The real name is 荼蘼, a kind of yellow color like wine, so add unitary characters. In the plant monographs of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the name "荼䕷" is often used, and as for "荼蘼", it is more like its simplified spelling.
Throughout the history of the Dragonfly, the most amazing thing is that it suddenly became a top flower in the Song Dynasty, but it almost disappeared after the Ming Dynasty. According to the statistics of Professor Pan Fujun of Taiwan in the book "The Love of Grass and Trees - The World of Plants in Classical Chinese Literature", among the vine ornamental plants that appear in ancient poems, the clams rank second, with a total of nearly 600 songs. But the vast majority are in the Song and Ming dynasties, of which the Song Dynasty has 262 songs and the Ming Dynasty has 223 songs, accounting for nearly 80% of the total.
The Song Dynasty people had a rather special aesthetic of flowers and plants. Many plants, which were suddenly highly respected in the Song Dynasty, became the top streams of flowers, such as plum blossoms, wax plums, Ruixiang, and "outsiders" daffodils and jasmine. It is not surprising that they appreciate flowers more heavily on their rhymes and lighter on their shape, and they value a "Qing" word the most, and it is not surprising that the plain and fragrant dragonfly is favored.
Looking through the poems of the Song Dynasty, we can find that this flower really blooms in all life scenes-
The emperor's palace planted the silkworm. According to the Northern Song Dynasty Zhang Qi's "Records of the Xianping County Pavilion": "The old man who built a room at that time to wait for the Son of Heaven, there must be something beautiful and pleasing and then dare to chen, it is to be unique in Yiyi, and it is impossible to reach it." ”
Literati gathered under the trellises. See "Miscellaneous Records of Chengzhai": "Fan Shugong (Northern Song Dynasty writer and Hanlin scholar Fan Zhen) lived under the promise of the emperor and built a hall with the name 'Changxiao'. There is a pickle in front, and it can accommodate ten guests in height and breadth. Every spring the flowers are in full bloom, and the guests are under it, and there are flying flowers that fall into the wine and chew a big white. Or when the laughter is noisy, the breeze is over, and the seats are full, and the time is 'Flying Yinghui.' ’”
If you believe that the big flower white wood fragrance is the terrestrial, the "tsubasa flower stand" described above is probably this scene. Photographed at Xi'an Botanical Garden. Peng Huining Figure
The Tianya Detention Brigade is even more everywhere. When he wrote "The dragon does not fight for spring, the loneliness opens the latest, the makeup is gone, there is no wind and fragrance from afar", Su Shi was degraded to Huangzhou, Hubei Province; the Southern Song Dynasty painter Zhao Mengjian's "Thinking of home in the guest", the pen is "there is a fragrance everywhere in the breeze, and it is known that it is a short wall separated by the dragon".
The Ming Dynasty continued the aesthetics of the Song Dynasty. In the "Vase Flower Spectrum" written by Zhang Qiande in the Ming Dynasty, the eight kinds of flowers such as Xifu begonia, baozhu jasmine, osmanthus flower, and huilan are listed as two products.
After being blessed by many Song Ming literati, the late spring blossom has become an eternal symbol of the prosperity of spring in traditional Chinese culture. This point is probably cut to the traditional sadness in Chinese bones, so it is particularly easy to empathize, and the emotional image of the dragon is favored and has not faded to this day. From the flower sticks of "Shaohua Shengji" in "Dream of the Red Chamber", to Yi Shu's novels, from Faye Wong's songs to the popular Taiwan dramas, it is also everywhere.
In the final analysis, we are just borrowing a cup of wine and pouring a piece of our own heart. Therefore, it seems that there is no need to be so obsessed with which plant is the clam. The common roses around, whether it is aroma, flower shape and temperament, are very similar to the legendary dragonfly, and they are very beautiful.
Single-petaled white wood incense, taken in Zigong, Sichuan. A few feet away from the map
The most common woody flower in the city, heavy petals. Photographed in Xi'an. Peng Huining Figure
Wild rose, taken in Chongqing. Zhou Min figure
You don't have to be so sad. After the thanksgiving, pomegranates, lotus water lilies, white orchids and hibiscus continue to bloom in the summer. Jun did not hear, "Spring has a hundred flowers, autumn has a moon, summer has a cool breeze and winter has snow." If there is no idle thing to worry about, it is a good time in the world"?
(The author, Zhou Min, a senior media person and naturalist, participated in the compilation of "Understanding Chinese Plants Southwest Fascicle", personal public number: plant addicts.) )
Editor-in-Charge: Wang Yu
Proofreader: Yan Zhang