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Rhododendrons are not amazing in the eastern part of China, but in the hengduan mountains in the west and the alpine valleys of the eastern Himalayas, azaleas are diverse and brilliant. As early as 100 years ago, Westerners were attracted by the rhododendrons here, and the currents continued to rush to the mountains of southwest China to hunt these beautiful flowers. Today, National Highway 318, the landscape avenue of Chinese, is passing through the area with the densest distribution of rhododendrons in the world. This avenue can be said to be a rhododendron road.
In the Jakarta region of The Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province, dark green rhododendron bushes are densely packed on a mountain at an altitude of about 4,000 meters. Entering the flower season, the peaks and slopes are like a sea of rhododendrons. In the minds of most Chinese people, the rhododendron is the red of the mountain, and the rhododendron is red. In fact, rhododendrons are a large, diverse taxonomy that encompasses all species of the rhododendron genus. Compared with Meilan bamboo chrysanthemum, the evergreen rhododendron taxa distributed in the deep mountain canyons and alpine meadows in southwest China is not familiar to the Chinese people at present. Photography / Sun Youbin
In early August, all kinds of rhododendrons have passed their flowering stage, but we who travel along the Sichuan-Tibet Line can still feel and imagine the moving scene of rhododendrons blooming all over the mountains. In the dense forest of Gongga Mountain, I saw the remnants of the large-leaved rhododendron still dotted on the branches, and in the Folding Mountain at an altitude of more than 4,000 meters above sea level in Kangding, the forest has long disappeared, but the rhododendron bushes are covered with undulating slopes and have become the main vegetation here. This is another kind of cuckoo. Professor Li Bosheng, a botany expert from the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, asked us to pay attention to the differentiation and evolution of rhododendrons, and after the large-leaf rhododendrons in the forest came out of the forest, in order to adapt to the cold and little rain in high-altitude areas, the leaves became smaller and the plants were dwarfed. Professor Li told us that the rhododendron bushes that cover the hillside belong to the rhododendrons with small leaves.
Most of the small-leaf rhododendron branches are gone, but under a rock there is a clump of rhododendron branches that are still covered with white flowers. This reminds me of one spring when the small leaf-shaped rhododendrons I saw on the slopes of the Sedilla Mountains near Nyingchi were all purple flowers. It seems that the rhododendrons of mount Sedira and the rhododendrons of Mount Orido are two different species, although they are both small-leaf cuckoos.
If we pay attention to the rhododendrons along the route from Ya'an to Erlang Mountain, we will find a very interesting phenomenon: from low altitude to high altitude, the rhododendrons are first high, the plants are much higher than us, and as the height rises, the plants slowly become shorter, our height is similar to the rhododendrons, and then our height exceeds the rhododendrons, and when we reach the bush meadows at the top of the mountain, the rhododendrons become dwarf shrub jungles. On the slopes of the hill at an altitude of about 2,000 meters, above the dark coniferous forest, rhododendron colonies are distributed in a shrub-like pattern, and their height is less than 1 meter. Photography / Sun Youbin
There is a song in the once famous movie "Shining Red Star", which is sung all over the country. One of the lyrics is "If you want the Yo Red Army to come, the mountains are full of Yo Ying Mountain Red". The red of the mountain in the song refers to one of the most common rhododendrons. Yingshan red is widely distributed in China: from Henan in the north to Fujian, Taiwan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan in the south, and along the Yangtze River Basin. It can grow in a variety of habitats such as medium and low hills, valley rocks, forest edge shrublands, and under the forest slopes, and when it blooms, it spreads all over the mountains and reds the mountains and rivers. Yingshan red has a long history of cultivation in China, and is the most common and impressive rhododendron species of our people. Photography / Ouyang Ping
There are too many types of rhododendrons on the Sichuan-Tibet line. I checked the professional books and found that there are more than a dozen kinds of rhododendrons named after places near the Sichuan-Tibet Line, such as: Baoxing Rhododendron, Gonggashan Rhododendron, Kangding Rhododendron, Folding Rhododendron, Danba Rhododendron, Daofu Rhododendron, Lulang Rhododendron, Nyingchi Rhododendron...
One may, during the season of rhododendron blooming, I took the Sichuan-Tibet Line from Chengdu to Lhasa. Along the way, I felt like I was walking through a sea of flowers.
The Sichuan-Tibet Line passes through the undulating mountains and valleys of the Hengduan Mountains. If you don't cross the snow line, the high summits along the way are generally gentle razor-flat rather than steep ridges. The surface is covered with vast shrubs and meadows, with light and dark, staggered. The vast majority of the shrubland is rhododendrons, and in late spring, the snow on the high mountains has not yet melted, and the rhododendrons have quietly bloomed. If the mountain is extremely high and crosses the snow line, you can see that under the permanent ice and snow belt, pink or red rhododendrons bloom in early summer, even with the ice circle.
Below the high mountains are river valleys, and the vegetation at the bottom of the valley is often forest.
Western garden rhododendrons and Chinese wild rhododendrons
The influence of Chinese rhododendron on Western gardens can be said to have caused a revolutionary change in the Western garden industry, and no plant can cause a sensation in the entire European garden industry like azaleas, and thus affect and change the development of European horticultural circles and the direction of botanical garden introduction and cultivation. Since Westerners collected rhododendrons on a large scale in China more than 100 years ago, Chinese rhododendrons and hybrid descendants have been piled up in gardens around the world. A British botanist who has been engaged in the classification of rhododendrons for many years once wrote: "Perhaps no other plant except the rose can cause as much sensation as the rhododendron in all of Europe"; the famous plant collector Wilson also lamented that "the rhododendron is the most beautiful species in the botanical garden".
Photography/SkyScan/c
Photography / Lu Jiangtao
In the Hengduan Mountain region of China, the azaleas that grow freely are well-deserved representative species. Under the White Snow Mountain, rhododendron communities are important vegetation taxons in alpine and subalpine shrub ecosystems, with a coverage of almost 100%; even in the lower layers of subalpine coniferous forests and mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forests, rhododendrons are the most dominant species in Hengduan Mountains. According to paleobotanists, the Archaeoptera taxa of rhododendron originated in the transition period from the Late Cretaceous to the Early Tertiary, and by the Tertiary period it had spread throughout the northern hemisphere. Although there is still controversy about the origin center of rhododendrons, most experts believe that since the Mesozoic Era, the ancient geological history and superior natural conditions from southwest China to central China are most likely the origin centers of rhododendron plants.
When the road passes through the forest at the bottom of the valley, you will also see the rhododendrons in the forest, clusters, like torches lit in the dark forest, bright and dazzling. Especially by the river, azaleas bloom along the riverbank, and the shadows of flowers sway in the river. The rhododendrons in the forest are no longer shrubs, but tall as trees, if you walk into the forest, you do not need to look up at the flowers, but the colorful petals on the ground have created a charming mood.
As the altitude rises, especially on the slopes of the Sichuan-Tibet Line at an altitude of about 3500-4000 meters, we will find that the forest suddenly stops, and above the forest line is often dark green rhododendron shrubland. At such altitudes and climatic conditions, it is difficult for other plants to take the place of dominance of rhododendron microphylla.
Rhododendrons prefer wet and cold environments, have a strong adaptability to low temperatures, their roots have no obvious main roots, completely composed of whisker roots, can be flattened in the soil, so there is no need for a very deep and good soil. Even with only thin moss and soil, the leaflet rhododendron can still grow densely. Therefore, in the Folding Mountain, I saw the section of the rhododendron bush being cut by the road, and I could clearly see that the entire rhododendron bush jungle was grown on the large and small gravel left by the ancient glacier, and the gravel was only a dozen centimeters thick with a thin layer of soil. For other shrubs, such soil conditions are difficult for them to survive. What is more competitive about the rhododendron is that it has many seeds, hundreds of seeds in a fruit, and thousands of seeds in a bouquet of flowers. It is conceivable that a single rhododendron can produce tens of thousands of seeds in a year, and the seeds are scattered around, and soon the rhododendron colony area is getting larger and larger. At high altitudes above the forest line, such tolerance, adaptability, and diffusion rate make rhododendrons grow in patches once they appear, while other shrub vegetation only gradually retreats under the squeeze of rhododendrons, and eventually has to face the fate of complete withdrawal. In this way, the rhododendron microphylla finally occupied every place suitable for its growth, becoming a stable and irreplaceable top plant community.
Therefore, on the Sichuan-Tibet Line, whether in the river valley or on the slopes and summits, azaleas can be seen everywhere.
In fact, according to the views of most experts and scholars, the Hengduan Mountain area crossed by the Sichuan-Tibet Line is the central area of the distribution and origin of rhododendrons. There are about 960 species of wild rhododendrons in the world, and China occupies about 570 species, of which nearly half of the species are distributed in the Hengduan Mountains. It can be said that the distribution center of the world's rhododendron is in China, and the Sichuan-Tibet line passes through the distribution center of this rhododendron. In this sense, the Sichuan-Tibet Line is a rhododendron road.
In Kangding's Wooden Grid, there is a rhododendron canyon about 6 kilometers long. In early summer, azaleas bloom quietly on the banks of the creek, and the water is colorful. Rhododendrons play an important role in Western horticulture and contribute well to tourism. China can be described as the kingdom of rhododendrons, and the wild rhododendron species in the southwest mountains are even more abundant. Rhododendron is a precious flower resource that accompanies National Highway 318. Photography / Liu Youzhi
Hengduan Mountain has the most abundant types of rhododendrons, and the reason why it is the distribution center of rhododendrons is because the natural conditions in Hengduan Mountains are very suitable for rhododendron growth. Rhododendrons like to be cold, and the temperature should not be too high. Although it is located in the subtropics, but some of the high mountains and extreme mountains of Hengduan Mountain gradually decrease with the increase of altitude, with various temperature gradients, all the way to the ice and snow circle; rhododendrons like to be wet, and there are always cloud and fog belts with sufficient water vapor in the alpine canyons here, and different rhododendrons can find their own suitable humidity; large-leaved rhododendrons are afraid of strong light radiation, and here are canyon forests everywhere, which can block the sun; small-leaf rhododendrons are afraid of darkness, and above the mountains, there is a flat and broad, dazzling plane of sunlight.
Diverse natural conditions and huge altitude differences can explain the reasons for the good growth and wide distribution of rhododendrons in hengduan mountains, but why there are many types of rhododendrons, new species and endemic species in hengduan mountains, which needs to find another reason.
Professor Li Bosheng's answer to this question is as follows: the most critical point is that the forest line in the Hengduan mountainous area is very sensitive to environmental changes, with the warming or cooling of the climate, the forest line will move forward and backward, and the rhododendron is near the forest line or close to the forest line of vegetation, when the forest line is pushed forward, so that the original rhododendron shrubland that is not in the forest has entered the forest, light, temperature, moisture, wind and other natural conditions have changed, in the process of adapting to the new environment, it will inevitably cause the differentiation and evolution of rhododendron. In the process of evolution, the unsuitable genes and traits are gradually eliminated, and the appropriate genes are gradually retained and accumulated, and when the difference with the original species is significant enough, new species are born. In the same way, when the climate becomes colder and the forest retreats, the tall large-leaf rhododendron in the original forest is exposed to the strong radiation environment without forest, and the large-leaf rhododendron is forced to adjust its survival strategy through evolution and gradually mutate into a new species.
The change of the forest line is equivalent to a moderately strong disturbance, which disrupts the original stable order, and the composition of the species at the forest edge and the structure of the community will change accordingly. The staggered strips of forest and grass near the forest line are often areas of great biodiversity. It is conceivable that the complex and changeable environment will inevitably provide an external impetus for the differentiation of new species.
In short, changes in the environment have catalyzed the birth of new species. The forest line is a sensitive area for environmental change, so the forest line has become an accelerator for the continuous differentiation and evolution of cuckoos.
Located in Luding, Kangding and Asbestos counties, Gongga Mountain is one of the richest floras in Sichuan Province, with towering mountains intercepting water vapor from the southeast monsoon and abundant precipitation on the slopes providing a suitable habitat for rhododendrons who prefer shady and wet environments. There are about 80 species of rhododendrons distributed in the Gongga Mountain area, most of which are endemic to Sichuan. Gongga Mountain is also one of the regions with the largest distribution of rhododendrons in the country. Photography / Wang Jianjun
Azalea expert Geng Yuying let us look at a map of the distribution of rhododendrons in various provinces of China, in this map, we clearly see the imbalance in the distribution of rhododendrons in China: Yunnan has the most, there are 245 species, Tibet 180 species, Sichuan 181 species, there are about 420 species distributed in these three regions, accounting for 75% of China's species, followed by Guangxi, with more than 60 species, Guizhou about 60 species. In the eastern regions with a long history and developed culture, there are very few rhododendron species, such as Beijing and Shanxi only two kinds of rhododendrons, and these two are only distributed in the middle and high altitude mountainous areas; and like Shaanxi and Henan, the location of China's ancient capitals, is only a small province where rhododendrons are distributed; the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas were the center of gravity of China's economy and culture in ancient times, but they are not the most favorite places for rhododendrons to grow, and the rhododendrons here are mainly based on Yingshan red, and the species are relatively monotonous, which cannot be compared with the colorful rhododendron species in the hengduan mountains in the southwest.
Kelsang flowers are the Tibetan people's general name for many plateau flowers such as aster, rhododendron, primrose and so on. In the villages between Nyingchi and Lhasa, near Mount Mila, the gesang flowers that local residents call Kelsang flowers refer to the rhododendrons that roam the mountains. They tell us: "To see the Gesang flowers is to see hope, because it marks the arrival of summer and the rainy season." "Nyingchi, Chayu, Bomi, Milin, Metuo, and Yadong and Nielamu in the southern foothills of the Himalayas are the most concentrated distribution areas of rhododendrons, and the brilliant opening of rhododendrons naturally cannot avoid the sight of early western collectors. Historically, Tibet was one of the first areas where Westerners entered and collected plants, and most of the rhododendrons native to Tibet were introduced and cultivated in Western gardens, and many of them were new species described according to the flowering results after collectors planted rhododendron seeds in Tibet into Western botanical gardens. Photography / Dorjee Phuntsok
This distribution pattern of rhododendrons has caused such a phenomenon: although China is the distribution center of rhododendrons and the kingdom of rhododendrons, the distribution center of gravity of rhododendrons does not coincide with the traditional cultural and economic center of gravity in China, especially in China's famous ancient capitals, and the appreciation of flowers by people in the capital will inevitably affect the whole country, and will inevitably form the overall style of appreciation of flowers in mainstream culture. Therefore, in the flower culture of Chinese, there is such a phenomenon: among the traditional famous flowers in Chinese, there are no rhododendrons, and the love of rhododendrons in the mainstream culture of China is far less than that of orchids, peonies, chrysanthemums, plum blossoms, and lotuses.
In the cold and wet subalpine shrub meadows, the small-leaf rhododendron bushes with twisted branches grow densely on the barren moraine, growing quietly in a lonely and poor environment with amazing adaptability and tenacious vitality. In fact, the beauty of rhododendrons is not only reflected in the gorgeous flowers, in the distant European and American botanical gardens, horticulturists cultivate the shrub-like rhododendrons on these high mountains into hedges on the side of the road, so that passers-by can fully appreciate the beauty of the branches and leaves of the rhododendrons. Photography / Sun Youbin
Although we can also find some verses and words about rhododendrons in ancient poetry dictionaries, especially the poet Bai Juyi is very appreciative of azaleas, there has been a verse "Look back at the peach and plum are colorless, reflecting the hibiscus is not a flower" praises the azaleas. However, there are also poets who tell the phenomenon that the Tang Dynasty people do not appreciate azaleas, such as the Tang Dynasty poet Shi Shoulder Wu has a poem: "When the azaleas are beautiful, the hated imperial city people do not know." ”
I have a book with pictures and texts, "Tang Poetry Botanical Atlas". The book writes about 54 kinds of plants that appear in Tang poems, especially flowers, but unfortunately there are no rhododendrons. It seems that the cuckoo has indeed not entered the mainstream ranks in traditional Chinese culture.
This is in sharp contrast to the Westerners' fanatical love of rhododendrons. Westerners here refer to Western Europeans, including Western Europeans who immigrated to the Americas. In fact, rhododendrons are not distributed much in Europe and the Americas, such as more than 900 kinds of rhododendrons in the world, only 9 species in Europe and 24 species in North America. The important reason why Westerners understand and love rhododendron is that they have collected and introduced a large number of new species of rhododendron from China, and the Chinese rhododendron has caused a sensation in the Western plant and horticultural circles, and then brought about a "rhododendron revolution" in the Western horticultural community. Some people say that in any botanical garden in Europe, if there is no rhododendron from China, it is difficult to become a famous garden, and it is difficult to attract people's attention.
Today, it is hard to imagine the ecstasy of Western plant collectors when they entered Hengduan Mountain and saw the rhododendrons that they had never seen before. However, the scene of that year can be inferred from the performance of Western botanists today when they came to Hengduan Mountain to see the rhododendrons. In 1981, a botanist from Kew Garden, England, came to Dali Diancang Mountain, Yunnan Province, China, and when he saw the rhododendrons all over the mountains, he cried with excitement and said: "It's so beautiful, this is the paradise I'm looking for!" ”
To be sure, the Western plant collectors of the time were no less excited than western plants and horticulturists today when they saw the rhododendrons of their dreams, and they were completely more beautiful than they imagined.
If we miss the flowering period, the rhododendrons we see on the plateau will be long, compact dark green shrubs all over the mountains. In August, in the Bangda steppe of southeastern Tibet, dwarf rhododendron bushes intersect with alpine meadows. In cold, windy environments, in order to reduce the amount of water in the body, the leaves of alpine evergreen rhododendrons are much smaller than those of small tree-like rhododendrons under the forest. Photography / Liang Bo
The attention and hunting of rhododendrons by Western plant collectors in the mountains of southwestern China is a rare spectacle in the history of plants and horticulture in the world. What plants and flowers in the world have such a history? No, only rhododendrons in the Hengduan Mountains of China.
Since Westerners collected rhododendrons on a large scale in China 100 years ago, Chinese rhododendrons and their hybrid descendants have spread throughout gardens around the world, and Steven Blockmore, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh, Scotland, has said many times that "in Europe, there is no ornamental plant that can replace the status of The Chinese evergreen rhododendron." Unlike the wild rhododendrons in China, many cultivated varieties in the West are named after the surnames of royalty, celebrities or mythological figures.
Plants are migratory, like animals, although plants do not have long legs, but there are various mediums to help plants spread seeds, such as wind, running water, birds and animals, and so on. But now it seems that the most important and fastest medium is still people. Under God's arrangement, there are only 9 species of rhododendrons in the land of Europe, while there are more than 250 species in the Hengduan Mountains of southwest China.
Yingshan red, manshan red and Zhaoshan white are more common along the 318 National Highway from Shanghai to Hubei and Chongqing; the widely distributed Yinghong rhododendron in northern China also has a small distribution in this section. In addition to the above four kinds, the rest of the rhododendrons in the figure are concentrated in Sichuan and Tibet provinces and regions, and the rhododendrons along the Sichuan-Tibet Highway are much richer in both species and form than in the eastern section of National Highway 318. Among them, the tallest growing is the tree-shaped rhododendron, and in the wild, the height of the tree-shaped rhododendron can reach 20-30 meters.
In the long million-year-long million-year period, the azaleas of the Hengduan Mountains and the Himalayas in China, with the help of various media in nature, did not migrate to Europe. But in just about 100 years, Western plant collectors have allowed all kinds of beautiful rhododendrons in China's Hengduan Mountains and The Himalayas to bloom in various botanical gardens in Europe, and the various hybrid offspring cultivated from them are innumerable.
When Western collectors were in full swing to collect rhododendrons in southwest China, Chinese did not attract much attention to the rhododendrons in the mountains of southwest china, which of course had to do with science, because Westerners' interest in rhododendrons was closely related to the development of Western botany and horticulture, and it was also closely related to culture. Chinese has long had a set of its own appreciation culture for flowers, and this flower culture was developed in eastern China and is inseparable from the entire Chinese culture. Chinese ornamental flowers have formed a system, such as our peonies, plum blossoms, chrysanthemums, orchids, etc., and our Chinese culture has given these flowers various symbolic meanings, such as peony symbolizes wealth, plum blossom symbolizes firmness, chrysanthemum symbolizes purity, orchid symbolizes elegance and so on. In short Chinese appreciate flowers is to project people's cultural needs in the world of flowers. Chinese appreciate lotus flowers, admire bamboo, admire pine trees, admire willows, etc.
Rhododendrons have also been given cultural significance, such as the origin of the name of the rhododendron.
The legend is this: The king of the ancient Shu kingdom, Du Yu, loved his people very much, lived in seclusion after the Zen throne, and became a cuckoo bird after his death, but still remembered his own people, and every spring, he reminded the people to cultivate with his own voice: sowing the valley quickly, sowing the valley quickly, crying hard day and night, the blood in his mouth spilled on the ground, staining the wildflowers all over the mountain, this flower is called azalea, and the folk are also known as Yingshan red.
There is also a legend that after his death, his soul turned into a cuckoo bird, persuaded the dim-witted turtle spirit who inherited his throne, sympathized with the people, and kept calling "min gui, min gui", day and night mourning, the corners of his mouth cryed blood, blood dripped into the soil, stained the wildflowers of the mountains, posterity called azaleas.
Although there are many legends, they are mainly birds and supplemented by flowers, and the azaleas are not condensed into simple but important symbolic meanings in the end. It can be said that the azalea is a legend and no symbol in the Chinese flower culture.
The key problem is that these legendary rhododendrons are mainly the red Yingshan red that is easy to see in the eastern region, which is only a kind of Chinese rhododendron, and the various evergreen alpine rhododendrons in the Hengduan Mountains and Himalayas in southwest China have not yet entered the mainstream cultural vision of the eastern Central Plains. Moreover Chinese already have their favorite flowers, and a deep culture has been formed about the cultivation and breeding of these famous flowers. For example Chinese cultivated more than 3,000 varieties of chrysanthemums, and China's peony flowers have long been Wei Huang Yao Zi, and new products are constantly emerging. Others, such as plum blossoms and orchids, also have their own systems, and I once saw an atlas of purple-spotted peonies and crystal orchids, and I was amazed by the profound flower culture of Chinese.
In the Nyingchi Mountains at the turn of spring and summer, although the snow above the seasonal snow line has not yet receded, above the mangy forest sea, colorful azaleas have quietly bloomed until the height of summer. Between 1700 and 3700 meters above sea level, it is a concentrated area of rhododendron distribution, and 70% of rhododendron species grow in this altitude range. Among the specimens with recorded altitude, the highest-distributed species is the snow-layered rhododendron, which can reach an altitude of 5500 meters, while the lowest-distributed species, such as sheep's heels, can be found from sea level. Photography / Dorjee Phuntsok
Chinese's love and cultivation of flowers is very importantly driven by cultural forces, while the Western love and collection of rhododendrons is promoted by botany and horticulture, and by commercial interests. Westerners who come to China to collect rhododendrons are commissioned by museums, botanical gardens, or scientific societies, and their gathering activities are highly praised and rewarded by these organizations. These were the cultural atmosphere that China lacked at that time, so it is understandable that the alpine rhododendron in the Hengduan Mountains and the Himalayas in southwest China did not become a famous flower in China and was not sought after by Chinese. The valuable cultural treasures excavated by Westerners from Dunhuang in northwest China are now placed in Western museums, which no longer belong to China, but the azaleas in Hengduan Mountain and the Himalayas, although they have been frantically collected by Western collectors, are still open all over the mountains, and they have begun to enter the Chinese their own botanical gardens, but the rhododendrons in the botanical gardens lack a charm and style after all. In fact, the most beautiful image of the rhododendron is the majesty of the snow in the mountains and valleys of southwest China. In particular, the background is snow-capped mountains and glaciers, which are images that only azaleas can have. It seems that to appreciate the beauty of rhododendrons, we can only run to the Hengduan Mountains and the Himalayas in southwest China like the Western collectors of the past, but we do not need to collect them, because this is our home.
This excerpt was published in China National Geographic, No. 10, 2006
Written by/Shan Zhi rose
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