Zhou Min
"Looking back at the peach and plum are colorless, the hibiscus is not a flower." "This thing in the flower is Xi Shi, and the hibiscus peony medicine is the mother-in-law."
Bai Juyi is probably the ancient poet who likes azaleas the most, not only wrote a lot of poems about azaleas, but also did not hesitate to step on the peach blossoms, plum blossoms, hibiscus, and peonies that are recognized by the world as beautiful.
When I was a child, I lived in the countryside of Sichuan, and every early summer, the yingshan red that spread over the mountains was one of my deepest childhood memories. Nowadays, there are also azaleas everywhere in the city, rose purple, big red, pink and white, at first glance the appearance of the flowers is still like that, but the temperament seems to have changed, not enough spirit.
Like a burning fire, it is the cuckoo that gives the deepest impression The pictures in this article are all the author Zhou Min's pictures unless otherwise noted
Most of these cuckoos, which we can see the most easily, are rhododendron × pulchrum, one of the most widely cultivated horticultural hybrids. In some places, if you see a sign with the "hairy cuckoo", it is also a splendid rhododendron, in addition to the flowers, its whole body is hairy, because it blooms in March and April, also known as the "spring crane".
Splendid rhododendron, the flower color is very rich
The splendid rhododendron is always in clusters of three or five, blooming at the top of the twigs, and its common feature is the purple or red spots on the corolla. Rhododendrons look like they have five petals, but they are actually five corolla splinters. They are all zygocycle flowers, which are synthymous at the base, and when the flowers are gone, the whole flower falls together.
Three or five flowers are clustered at the top of the branches, and the corolla is 5 lobed, with dark red spots
The spring sun saved the splendid cuckoo. Once the sun sprinkles on the flowers, even this kind of flower that I disliked suddenly fades and becomes radiant, just as Bai Juyi wrote, "The wind adds to the mood, and the sunrise helps the crystal light."
Sunlight pours down on the flowers, and the splendid azaleas become radiant.
Rhododendrons are also common in the flower market, mostly low and small potted plants, and there are more varieties of flowers. Obviously, the purpose of their cultivation is to meet people's viewing needs, so they are covered with dense buds, and the branches and leaves are wrinkled and not stretched.
My family also has several this year. The most loved by the family is "Green Glow", the flower color is very special, is a faint green, even the mother who has always preferred red flowers is amazed, "This flower is like jade, it is so beautiful!" ”
The semi-heavy petal flower type is also relatively refreshing, unlike many heavy petal flowers, crumpled and not spirited. Most particularly, its calyx is also petalized, exactly the same color and texture as the petals, the so-called "double set".
"Green Radiance" was cultivated by the United States in 1990. Probably because the green flower variety is rare, the major botanical gardens in China are introduced as rare varieties, and this variety is also included in Mr. Shen Yinchun's book "Illustration of the World's Precious Rhododendrons".
Rhododendron horticultural species "green radiance", calyx fully petalized.
The other is a single petal with a white red edge, which is called "fancy color diamond" in the flower market. This is a horticultural variety cultivated in Germany, originally called sachsenstern, officially Chinese named "red-lily".
Interestingly, when viewed in person, it was completely stripped of the limelight by the "green glow". But in the photos taken, it is more camera-grabbing, and the combination of red and white is very agile under the lens.
The horticultural species "fancy color diamond", also known as "red lip lily".
These rhododendrons in the flower market are often referred to as Western azaleas, also known as Belgian rhododendrons (because they breed, cultivate and export the most). Botanically, they are all called Rhododendron hybrida (the seed word hybrida means "hybrid").
Because most of the Western rhododendrons are the parents of the species introduced from China, and then re-bred to become horticultural varieties, their history can be traced back to more than a hundred years ago. Because of its bright color is favored, the Chinese rhododendron and its hybrid descendants have spread all over the world in gardens, so there is a saying that "no rhododendron, no garden".
In today's world, there are about 1,100 species of wild rhododendrons, and there are nearly 600 species distributed in China. Among them, Sichuan, Yunnan and southeast Tibet, especially in the Hengduan Mountain area, are the center of the evolution and distribution of rhododendrons in China, with more than 400 species of rhododendrons growing.
China National Geographic magazine once did a cover feature, along the national highway 318 line, you can see nearly 200 species of wild rhododendrons, is a veritable rhododendron road. Chongqing Golden Buddha Mountain, Sichuan Emei Mountain, Guizhou Bijie Baili Rhododendron and so on, are all famous rhododendron viewing places.
Rhododendron irroratum in Yunnan. Nanshan map
Rhododendron liliiflorum in Yunnan. Nanshan map
The scientific name rhododendron comes from the Greek root "rhodon (rose) + dendron (tree)", which means "rose tree". As can be seen, the rhododendron is the alpine woody flower king. The truly beautiful cuckoo belongs only to the high mountains.
Chongqing's Golden Buddha Mountain has 69 species of rhododendrons, of which 33 are arborvitae, and the variety is among the best in the country's major mountains. The "Golden Buddha Mountain Rhododendron Festival", which begins in late April every year, is a major local event.
One year during the "May Day" holiday, a friend drove me there. When I finally saw these mountain elves of a tree age, the strongest feeling was their untamedness. They bloom at the ends of tall trees, and people have to look up and think about their beauty.
More arborvitae are opened on the cliff cliffs, accompanied by green mountains and white clouds, and can only be viewed from a distance, not near. The style of the alpine rhododendron is compared with the rhododendron seen in the city and the flower market.
Chongqing Golden Buddha Mountain is famous for its abundance of arborvitae rhododendrons
Drive on the cliff wall
Alpine cuckoo style
That time I saw two kinds of cuckoos unique to the Golden Buddha Mountain. One is the Rhododendron platypodum, which completely subverts my stereotype of rhododendron: on the aggregate umbrella-shaped inflorescence of the apex, there are more than a dozen large flowers loosely open, and the funnel-shaped bell-shaped pink corolla is large and gorgeous, and the color is delicately changed. The broad-stemmed cuckoo got its name from the broad-winged petiole, and this unpretentious name is a bit sorry for its beauty.
Rhododendron with broad-stemmed, unique to the Golden Buddha Mountain, has huge flowers.
The other is the rhododendron changii, whose yellow-turquoise flowers are slightly transparent and ethereal like mountain elves. Ten purple-black anthers, leaves full of black "eyelashes", are impressive. Rhododendron tree maple is also endemic to Jinfoshan, with a population of no more than 1,000 in the wild, and has been listed as an "endangered" species by the Red List of Species in China.
And the name of the tree maple cuckoo, there is also an interlude. In September 1929, Zhang Shufeng unfortunately fell off a cliff and died while collecting rhododendron specimens on the old ladder on the west slope of Jinfo mountain, in order to commemorate him, Professor Fang Wenpei, a world-famous rhododendron expert, specially named this yellow-flowered rhododendron "tree maple rhododendron" (its seed word "changii", which is the Latinization spelling of Zhang or Zhang surname).
The tree maple rhododendron is only distributed in Chongqing Golden Buddha Mountain
As Steven Blockmore, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh, Scotland, puts it, "There is no ornamental plant in Europe that can replace the Status of the Chinese Evergreen Rhododendron". Rhododendron is definitely one of the most important native Chinese plants that have influenced the world.
Editor-in-Charge: Wang Yu
Proofreader: Shi Gong