“要么旅行，要么读书，身体和灵魂，一定要有一个在路上。 ”这句话出自1953年美国电影《罗马假日》“You can either travel or read, and either your body or soul must be on the way”。 我很喜欢这句话，浪漫而富于哲理。
As a plant lover, I know the importance of reading thousands of books, but traveling thousands of miles is more romantic, surprising and enjoyable.
In early March this year, when the snow was in the first glow, my flower friends and I went to Donghuagou in Luanchuan County to look for the flowering plant in the snow - winter flower. When we got there, we were pleasantly surprised to find artificially grown winter flowers. Against the backdrop of the snow, the yellow flowers reveal tenacious vitality and bloom proudly despite the cold. Unfortunately, due to heavy snowfall, no wild winter flowering plants were found. Still, the experience was unforgettable. To this end, I wrote an article called "Looking for Winter Flowers in the Winter Flower Ditch", which I didn't expect to be read by nearly 10,000 people. This article evokes a deep sense of nostalgia and resonates with the heart.
In mid-May, my flower friends and I went to Donghuagou in Luanchuan County again, and there were two target species for this trip: winter flowers and orchids. I hope to find wild winter flowers, smell wild orchids, and encounter some plants that I have never seen before.
Donghuagou in Luanchuan County is 140 kilometers away from Luoyang, with convenient transportation and only two hours by car. A group of seven of us carefully planned the route of this trip: first take the Longtan Bamboo Waterfall, then half-drive and half-walk, and climb the Donghuayuan along the Donghuagou.
When you first arrive there, the first thing that attracts flower friends is a school with a sense of historical vicissitudes and a dragon claw jujube tree with a diameter at breast height of 40 cm and an inclination of 30 degrees. The school has been abandoned for many years. The school is backed by a slope facing the stream, with a stone foundation, three rammed earth wall classrooms, a two-sided slope green tile roof, blue brick door and window frames, thick wooden board doors, lattice wooden windows, beehives hanging on the gable wall, and eight big red characters on the outer wall of the door: study hard and go up every day. The quotations of Chairman Mao written on the wall decades ago are now peeling off and cannot be seen clearly. Outside the school wall, there is also a vigorous and twisted dragon claw date tree, and the small stone tablet reads "dragon claw date" in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
According to the villagers, this school has a history of more than 60 or 70 years, and it used to be a primary school shared by the three villages. In those poor times, the importance of education in this mountain village can be seen. However, today, primary and junior high schools have to go to villages that are farther away and where educational resources are more concentrated.
Villagers also mentioned that the dragon claw jujube tree may be 100 years old. They recalled that when they were in primary school 60 years ago, the date palm tree was 15 centimeters thick at breast height.
The dragon claw jujube tree is a precious jujube tree species, the branches are curled like a snake, the plant shape is beautiful, the fruit is sweet and edible, and the meaning is auspicious. It is conceivable that the villagers collected precious dragon claw jujube branches from other places and grafted them onto wild sour jujube trees. Subsequently, a school was built next to the dragon claw jujube tree, where groups of primary school students studied, worked and played, and when they grew up, they walked out of the mountains and returned to their hometowns to become rich and benefit the society.
Today, the villagers also put red couplets on the school every year to express their love for the school, the dragon claw jujube tree, the green mountains and green waters, and the strong nostalgia. This dragon claw jujube tree has witnessed the history of running a school in this poor mountain village, witnessed its transformation from a poor mountain ravine to a scenic spot, and witnessed the glorious chapter of the poor mountain village becoming rich.
Enter the Donghuagou and Longtan Bamboo Waterfall, pass through a bamboo forest, but see that the mountains and rivers here are beautiful, the vegetation is dense, ten pools and nine waterfalls, and the scenery is beautiful. Looking up at the blue sky and white clouds, deep mountains and valleys, looking at the green weeds and trees, listening to the roaring flowing waterfalls, breathing the intoxicating fragrance of flowers, feeling the fresh air, touching the rocks of hundreds of millions of years, and washing your hands and face with the cool spring water, it is really romantic and comfortable.
Every time you brush the mountain, there will be a harvest. When I came to Donghuagou in May, I gained a lot. The flowering plants seen this time are: wild jasmine, North China columbia, Central China Schisandra, Chinese meadowsweet, Chinese kiwi, North China meadowsweet, meadowsweet trifid, celandine, epimedium weed, goat's milk, large flower sparse, small flower sparse, mountain plum blossom, yellow essence, muscle and bone grass, sumac, chicken leg violet, multi-flowered wood blue, northern daylily, salvia, birch viburnum, long-beaked Tang pine grass, yellow water branch, Pu'er root, Huilan, silver orchid, ligustrum microphylla, barberry, Qiaoling flower, Lingchun wood, Yuanzhi and so on.
The fruiting plants seen this time were: bladder fruit, gouercha, elderberry, bitter candy, ficus heterophylla, herringbone fruit, large flower broken camelina, hickory, fragrant tree, etc.
The plants seen this time are: golden millet, Yunnan rhodiola, butter dot grass, clematis, curly lily, mountain tung seed, three oak black medicine, wood ginger seed, atractylodes, kudzu, wood defense, sarsaparilla, long-stemmed hydrangea, lung tendon grass (vermicelli), bolt-winged euonymus, alalia, ash, bauhinia, hornbeam, spoon-leaf oak, pentagonal maple, kudzu maple, bubble flower tree, thick plum, etc.
To our surprise, we also encountered some plants, such as violet primrose, stick-headed southern star, jingjiehua, tulip honeysuckle, oxtail (a sarsaparilla plant), Qinling vine, mountain vetch and so on.
Violet primrose is a perennial herbaceous plant of the primrose family, which is still rare in Henan, and about 20 plants were seen in three places on the same day. In order to take pictures clearly and observe carefully, flower friends have put a lot of effort into it.
The stick head south star is the first time we encountered the plant, after consulting the plant professional teacher, it was determined that it is the stick head south star of the Araceae family, its stem is like snake skin, the tip of the Buddha flame bract flower actually grows 40 cm long thin whiskers, the leaf tip grows 20 cm long thin whiskers, flower friends praise the magic of nature. There are also flower friends who have different opinions on whether to stick to the head of the South Star, which has sparked controversy and discussion, which is a situation that flower friends often encounter.
The whole herb of Rhodiola in Yunnan can be used as medicine, has the effect of invigorating blood, relieving pain and reducing swelling, and usually grows in the cracks of rocks, so it is called "Ten Steps to Return to Yang", "Great Rescue" and "Rock Life to Return to Yang".
Chinese herbal medicine has played a pivotal role in Chinese history, even in today's era. However, we must also face up to a serious problem, that is, the indiscriminate harvesting of certain Chinese herbal medicines, which not only leads to the destruction of the ecological environment, but is more likely to lead to the crisis of species extinction. Therefore, we must seek development in conservation in order to achieve sustainable and virtuous development. For example, the price of the branches and roots of goat weed, forsythia fruit and kiwifruit has skyrocketed in recent years, leading to over-harvesting and over-digging.
The villagers near Donghuagou have the habit of planting Chinese herbs such as Huangjing, and some villagers also plant horse chestnut, peony, peony, yew, blood maple, dogwood, cinnamon, Yingshan red and so on. Among them, there is a 28-year-old horse chestnut tree, with a diameter of 20 centimeters at breast height, a straight trunk, a large crown and a thick shade, full of flowers, and a huge white inflorescence like a gorgeous candlestick, which is magnificent, and looks particularly Buddha against the background of the blue sky and white clouds.
Villagers said that the local name is alder tree and Bodhi tree. The horse chestnut tree is called the sacred tree of Buddhism together with the Sanssouci tree, the Bodhi tree, and the Borneo tree, and the real Bodhi tree in botanical science is not cold-tolerant at all, and it is not allowed to spend the winter outdoors in the northern part of the mainland. Some places call the horse chestnut tree Bodhi tree, such as the "Millennium Bodhi Tree" in the Chongdugou Scenic Area of Luanchuan, which is botanically a horse chestnut of the horse chestnut family, not a Bodhi tree of the mulberry family. There is a Buddha in the heart, and the holy trees are Bodhi.
On this trip to Winter Flower Valley, flower friends not only smelled the unique orchid fragrance of wild Huilan, but also found a cluster of wild orchids blooming on the cliff along the direction of the fragrant wind.
The national key protected wild plants encountered this time are: yew (grade 1), rhododendron orchid (grade 2), orchid (grade 2), silver orchid (grade 2), Chinese kiwifruit (grade 2), Yunnan rhodiola (grade 2), etc.
Flower friends agree on the three chapters of the law, not to dig up national key protected wild plants and provincial key protected wild plants, but also to publicize and educate others not to dig and sell key protected wild plants.
Flower friends know that recently, the Luanchuan County Public Security Bureau detected a case of illegal acquisition and trafficking of wild orchids and arrested 9 suspects. Flower friends also know that endangering more than one national first-class protected wild plant or the accumulation of more than one cubic meter of standing trees, or endangering more than two or more national second-class protected wild plants or the accumulation of more than two cubic meters of standing trees, constitutes the crime of endangering national key protected plants.
Teacher "Fumiko", a fellow flower friend, worked tirelessly to climb the cliff herself, carefully photographed the beautiful picture of Huilan, and made it into a video. This work was broadcast on the official public account of Luoyang Radio and Television Station, aiming to call on everyone to jointly protect wild plants under national key protection, and strictly prohibit illegal collection. Through the promotion of "Wenzi", we were able to have a deeper understanding of the preciousness and conservation significance of the orchid, so that we can cherish and protect these treasures of the natural world even more.
Another target species of winter flowers on this trip is my nostalgia and the plant that I have always been thinking about. In order to provide for my education, Luo Ning's hometown used to plant winter flowers for two years, and repay the loan after harvesting.
Winter flower, also known as coltsfoot is a cough medicine, and its price has risen year after year since the beginning of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, reaching 400 yuan/kg in 2024, an increase of up to 5 times.
I saw the winter flowers planted by the local villagers again and asked them if they had any wild winter flowers. Local villagers said that due to the stimulus of rising prices, more than 200 acres of winter flowers were planted by the people around Donghuagou. They also said that a few years ago, there were wild winter flowers in Donghuagou, but now there are none. Do you want to be disappointed again?
However, hard work pays off, and happiness always comes inadvertently. When I walked through a small stream, I noticed that there were six wild winter flower seedlings growing next to the stones on the small high ground in the middle of the stream. I took a closer look at the 6 winter flower seedlings, and it was clear that the seeds of the winter flowers fell here by accident and germinated, and it was predictable that every heavy rain this summer would drown them in water.
Flower friends told me about the natural law of survival, which is survival of the fittest, and reminded me not to interfere. But I couldn't bear it to drown, so I transplanted two of the seedlings to the nearby hillside and watered them to keep them alive. I hope that there are still winter flower seedlings on the slopes on both sides of the canyon that survive tenaciously, and I hope that they will grow up, bloom, bear fruit, and reproduce offspring. Good luck to them!
Regardless of spring, summer, autumn and winter, flowers in nature will bloom regularly, and different flowers bloom in different regions, different altitudes, different slopes, and different habitats. Some professional botanical teachers may need to wait for two or three years or even longer in order to photograph the morphological characteristics of flowers, leaves, fruits, roots, stems and other forms of a certain plant. This is also the reason why plant lovers often brush the mountain and brush it many times.
Life is not only about what is in front of you, but also about poetry and distance. Either travel, or read. The magic of nature is a book that can never be finished, and exploring the beauty of nature during travel is poetry and distance!
About author:Yang Liusheng, Xinghua from Luoning County, Henan Province, born in December 1969, a member of the Communist Party of China, has worked in Luolong District Bureau of Statistics and Luolong District Agriculture and Rural Bureau of Luoyang City.
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