Dianchi Lake is a pearl on the Yunnan Plateau and a national tourist resort with beautiful scenery.
It is closely related to the life of the people of Kunming, Dianchi Lake is not only one of the main sources of industrial and agricultural water and domestic water in Kunming, but also an important production base for aquatic products, but also has an important role in regulating the climate, maintaining the natural ecological balance of the region, and protecting the health of the local people. In recent years, due to the discharge of a large amount of industrial and domestic wastewater, the water quality of Dianchi Lake has been seriously polluted, resulting in the deterioration of the ecological environment of the lake. The direct consequence of this is the extinction of many precious aquatic plants. Sea cauliflower is one of the typical representatives.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-center-line" > where the cauliflower grows</h1>
Sea cauliflower is a large submerged herb that grows in argillaceous or sandy lake beds, and is a sea cauliflower plant in the family Hydro turtle family. As an endemic species in China, there are 3 species of sea cauliflower plants, namely agave, water cauliflower, and sea cauliflower. There are also three varieties that are only produced in Yunnan, namely Tonghai Sea Cauliflower, Wave Leaf Sea Cauliflower, and Lunanhai Cauliflower.
The lake with sea cauliflower has an altitude of 1410 to 2700 meters, and the lake on the Yunnan Plateau is the distribution center of cauliflower plants in China and Asia. As early as the Qing Dynasty, it was recorded in the "Botanical Names and Facts" that "sea vegetables are born in the water of Yunnan, with long stems and long leaves, and the leaves are like a car and are large, all hidden in the water." The long buds are drawn, and a dozen flowers are the same bud. The flower blooms out of the water, three petals, white color, concave in the petals, as six, as large as a cup, wrinkled and thin, xanthocephalus calyx, shining ripples, flowers knotted sharp corners and corners, curved like dragon claws, so also known as dragon claw vegetables. The Mengzi County Chronicle states that it "blossoms on the stem, leavesless, long and long, and as thin as a plutonium." Roll and bundle it, to the city, the japanese sea vegetables, can be eaten."
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" > how to identify cauliflower</h1>
The stem of the sea cauliflower is short and shrunken, the root is a whisker root system, the leaf base is clustered, one tree often reaches 10 to 20 pieces, and many can reach 70 pieces, and the leaves have two parts: obvious leaves and petioles. The shape and size of the leaves of the same plant, the length of the petiole and the petals vary with the depth and flow rate of the lake, and the leaves may be as long as kelp or as wide as the clump fan, and the difference between their length, width and narrowness can be as much as 10 times. In shallow water, the leaves of the cauliflower are short and wide, generally about 20 cm long and about 15 cm wide: in deep-water lakes, the leaves are mostly banded, up to 90 cm long and only 3 to 6 cm wide. Their petioles also expand and contract with different water depths, and the elderly can reach 2 to 3 meters, and the water depth must be more than 2 to 3 meters. Obviously, this is an automatic adjustment function formed for a long time in order to obtain sufficient light, and it is also a manifestation of the adaptation of plant organisms and the growth environment.
The flowers of the sea cauliflower are very long, to the extent that the flowers can float to the surface of the water. Its flowers are hermaphroditic or hermaphroditic unisexual flowers, one or more of which are drawn from within a Bud of buddha flame. Each plant can produce several inflorescences, and the flowers will open one after another. The corolla is neatly symmetrical, 2.5 to 5 cm in diameter, the outer 3 are sepals, smaller, green; the inside 3 are petals, wide, white, inverted heart-shaped, 1.2 to 2 cm long, the top of the petals is concave in the middle, and the petals are wrinkled into a folded fan, looking like 6 petals. The complete flowers of the sea cauliflower have 12 stamens, the anthers are yellow, and the flower pillars are 3; among the unisexual flowers of the hermaphroditic plant, the male flowers have 12 stamens, the pistils are degenerated, there is no anther, and the flowerpole is the same as the complete flower. The fruit has three edges, oblong tapering, non-cracking, most of the seeds, oblong oval, as small as sesame seeds.
Sea cauliflowers bloom all year round, and only bloom in May to October in Lugu Lake, where the temperature is low. Although each sea cauliflower blooms for only one day, because each inflorescence has a large number of flower buds, it is still full of stars throughout the year.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-center-line" > unique breeding method</h1>
As an aquatic plant, sea cauliflower has a unique way of reproduction, the process is: the seed sinks into the water, a seed germination line leaf stage (leaves such as linear, petiole leaves can not be distinguished) a belt leaf stage (leaves such as bands, petioles and leaves have obvious differences) a leaf bush stage (leaves increase, continue to grow. This is the main vegetative growth period) one pumping period (the flower is drawn from the leaf bush and extends to the surface of the water), one flowering stage (the flowers float out of the water and open, pollinate) and one fruiting stage (after the entire inflorescence is opened and pollinated, the inflorescence stalk is spring-shaped and retracted into the water, and the fruit matures in the water) and one seed (the skin rots, and the emitted seed falls into the water).
It takes about 2 years from the time the seed falls to the bottom of the water to the time it blooms.
Even more interesting is the Lunanhai cauliflower that grows in the limestone lake of "Ashima".comus. This plant has a pseudo-fetal phenomenon: it can grow a complete seedling with roots in the bud of the Buddha flame, which is a rare phenomenon different from the sexual reproduction of ordinary aquatic plants. The process is: there are bead buds at the base of the plant Buddha flame buds, which will grow asexual propagating buds of the leaf-like body, and when the flower buds open, the leaves emitted by the buds also begin to show the buds of the Buddha flame, and the roots will grow randomly below to form a complete seedling. When the young leaves of the seedlings grow to 15 cm and the roots grow to 2 to 3 cm, the flowers and grasses under the buds rot on their own, and the seedlings immediately fall into the water, come into contact with the silt and take root. A Bud can grow 2 to 4 seedlings. This is a peculiar and interesting way of reproduction that sea cauliflower plants have been passed down from generation to generation.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" > lugu lake flowers</h1>
Sea cauliflower has a wide range of suitable growth, in the temperate and subtropical regions with an average annual temperature of 12 to 20 to C, lakes below 2700 meters above sea level, as long as the water body is clear, transparent, warm, unpolluted, can grow. At present, the best preserved sea cauliflower is Lugu Lake.
Lugu Lake is an alpine lake located at the junction of northwestern Yunnan and southwestern Sichuan, with an average water depth of 40 meters, second only to Tianchi (317.7 meters) in the Changbai Mountains in the northeast and Fuxian Lake in Yunnan (170 meters), ranking third in the country.
This beautiful and magical alpine lake is surrounded by mosuo people who still maintain a matriarchal social form, and is a famous scenic tourist area in the country. The transparency of Lugu Lake is up to 5 meters deep, pollution-free, directly drinkable, coupled with the mild climate, it is very suitable for the growth of aquatic organisms such as sea cauliflower. The variety of submerged plants is rare in other plateau lakes in Yunnan, and the community of cauliflower is the largest submerged plant community there, which appears in a continuous band around the lake and around the small islands in the lake, and the total coverage of the community is 60% to 90%.
When you come to the lake, you can see a white garland with a diameter of 4 to 5 centimeters embedded in the lake and set on the edge of the island; the deep sea cauliflower leaves are intertwined with each other, like a brocade belt, paved with underwater greenery up to 3 to 4 meters thick, so dense that the bottom of the lake is completely missing. The small and exquisite white flowers are like the sunset of the Milky Way, and like a cluster of crystal white snowflakes, scattered on the lake surface, forming a unique water landscape of plateau lake vegetation. Therefore, Guanbo leaf sea cauliflower has also become a must-see scene when visiting Lugu Lake.
In addition, there are also sea cauliflower distributions in western Guangxi, southwestern Sichuan (Butuo), central Guizhou (Guiyang Huaxi, Guiding, Pingtang), and southwestern (Anlong).
<h1 class= "pgc-h-center-line" > the value of cauliflower</h1>
As a unique higher aquatic plant in China, sea cauliflower has evolved from amphoteric flowers to unisexual flowers, and the number of stamens and flower peduncles has gradually decreased, which has certain scientific research value for studying the evolution of its family. It explains a way in which plants evolved, whereby all higher aquatic plants were originally essentially terrestrial plants. Later, as the environment changed, it gradually entered the water from land. At the same time, the variability and variability of the morphology of sea cauliflower are also important for the study of the interrelationship between ecological factors and morphological formation.
In addition, sea cauliflower is also a precious aquatic plant resource in the highland lake, and is a beautiful ornamental plant on the surface of the water. It has a certain medicinal value, its leaves and flowers can be used as vegetables, the taste is delicious as seafood, it is salvaged out with clean water, connecting flower buds, stems and leaves and taro to cook soup, refreshing and delicious, known as "sea vegetable taro soup", is a famous dish often eaten by the Bai people. Whole sea cauliflower plants can also be used as bait feed.
Because the "rich" vegetable of sea cauliflower is very sensitive to the pollution of the water environment, it can only grow in pure living water, and all waters that are seriously polluted by industrial wastewater and pesticide and fertilizer residues cannot grow. Therefore, sea cauliflower can also be used as an indicator plant to measure the environmental cleanliness of plateau lakes. Where there are sea cauliflowers in the water, its water quality must be very good. Otherwise, the water quality must be polluted. It is precisely because of this feature that the environmental protection department jokingly calls it "environmentally friendly dish".
Since the 1970s, due to the serious pollution of water bodies, the original sea cauliflower in Kunming Dianchi Lake has basically disappeared, and the sea cauliflower communities in some other plateau lakes are not very optimistic, and they need to be rescued and protected urgently. In addition to the pollution of water bodies, it is also due to over-stocking of grass carp and artificial fishing.
In 1984, it was listed as a gradually endangered species, and sea cauliflower was listed as a national second-level protected plant.
At present, except for the small area of introduction cultivation in the Kunming Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, cultivation is still rare in other places. In order to protect this precious aquatic living resource, we should properly protect it in situ and do a good job in breeding.