In 1973, Liu Chengzhao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, conducted a field expedition in Baoxing County (file photo)
A few days ago, the team of researchers Hu Guangwan of Wuhan Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences found a unique hydrangea in the special investigation of orchid plant resources in the Liziping Nature Reserve of Asbestos County, China, and then determined that it was a new species through morphological and molecular research, and named it Changmang Hydrangea.
The discovery of the long-mango phoenix fairy flower, Ya'an, which has the reputation of "biological gene pool", has once again attracted the attention of everyone.
Sichuan Golden Snub-nosed Monkey Xinhua News Agency
Ya'an plants outside the national gate
The genus is one of the most abundant species of angiosperms, with a total of more than 1,000 species worldwide, and about 290 species are recorded in China. The team of researchers Hu Guangwan of wuhan botanical garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences this time found that the long mango phoenix has an elongated mango-like structure on its lip flap, which is very obvious at the flower bud stage.
The hydrangeas that grow in nature continue to multiply in the long river of time, form tributaries, and produce new species. Similarly, countless plants on this planet have completed their evolution in the vicissitudes of nature, and it is this nature that has recorded all this.
Every year in April and May, Xingjing welcomes a wave of tourists. Everyone's purpose is surprisingly the same - to see the blossoming flowers in the dragon's furrow.
Pigeon flower is 10 million years ago Cenozoic Tertiary Paleotropical flora relics of the species, in the Quaternary Ice Age, most of the regions of the tung have been extinct, some areas of southwest China survived, with "plant living fossils" and "green giant panda" reputation, is the national 8 kinds of first-class key protection plants in the treasures, for China's unique rare and valuable ornamental plants.
In May 1869, when the French missionary and biologist Armand David was inspecting Muping (present-day Baoxing County), he found a strange tree with huge white flowers, swaying with the wind, like a white pigeon hiding in the branches, flapping its wings and flying high. David was surprised and concluded that it was a plant he had never seen before, and he made a specimen of it, along with a beautiful color picture. It is known as the "pigeon tree" or "handkerchief tree".
In 1911, the British naturalist and world-famous "plant hunter" Wilson bred the retrieved tung seeds into seedlings, and the saplings thrived and bloomed the first artificially planted pigeon flower.
In the nearly one century since then, it has been widely introduced and planted in large quantities around the world, and it has become one of the top ten ornamental plants in the world, and has been called "the most beautiful tree in the northern hemisphere" by Western gardeners. It took root in some famous botanical gardens, and soon became a street tree in many cities in Europe and the United States, and later entered the courtyards of ordinary residents, becoming one of the famous garden ornamental trees at home and abroad.
The plants and flowers introduced to Europe by Ya'an and even to the world are not only the tung trees.
Looking at the monograph "Forests in Sichuan and the Eastern Part of Xikang" published in 1939 by Professor Zheng Wanjun, a titan of botany in China and former president of the Chinese Academy of Forestry, we can see that in the 70 years from 1869 to 1938, botanists from Britain, France, the United States, Russia and other countries have visited Sichuan to collect rare specimens and plant seeds. Since then, Ya'an plants such as tung trees, rhododendrons, and primroses have entered the royal and private gardens of Europe.
Giant panda Yan normal photo
Ya'an animals are famous
The "biological gene pool", in addition to plants, but also animals.
The most well-known animal in Ya'an must be the giant panda. In 1869, Armand David discovered the giant panda in Baoxing and made the world's first giant panda model specimen to spread to the world, making Ya'an famous.
Armand David's surprises in Baoxing are not limited to giant pandas.
In his diary dated 4 May 1869, Armand David recorded his experience: "The hunter waited for two weeks in the eastern part of Mupping. When I came back today, I brought 6 snouted monkeys with me. This monkey has a cute golden coat, a strong body, and muscular limbs. Their faces are particularly bizarre, with their nostrils facing the sky, almost on their foreheads, like a turquoise butterfly resting in the center of their faces. They have long, strong tails, long blonde hair on their backs, and have long inhabited the woods of the highest snow-capped mountains. ”
This golden-haired snouted monkey is none other than the Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkey. In the animal world, the golden snub-nosed monkey can be regarded as the star species second only to the national treasure giant panda. At present, there are 5 species in the world, and four species are endemic to China. The Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkey is one of them, they are widely distributed in Sichuan, Gansu, Shaanxi, Hubei, is the earliest discovered and scientifically named golden snub-nosed monkey, is now the largest family of golden snub-nosed monkeys.
To this day, the Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkey is still active in the mountains and forests of Ya'an.
On September 14, in the Laola River area of the Giant Panda National Park, a group of Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkeys were monitored: in the mountain forest at an altitude of about 2300 meters, more than 20 Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkeys were either collecting fruits and young shoots in the forest, or playing with each other and sorting hair.
In addition to giant pandas and Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkeys, Armand David also found more than 30 bird pattern specimens in Baoxing, which is rare in the world to find so many pattern specimens in such a small area. It can be said that Baoxing is the first county where Chinese bird pattern specimens are produced.
At present, Ya'an has recorded 519 species of birds, more than two-thirds of the province's birds and more than one-third of the country's birds. Among them, there are 17 species of national first-level key protected birds such as the black-necked crane, the black-necked crane, the black stork and the golden eagle, and 86 species of national second-level key protected birds such as the Sichuan forest owl, the red-bellied golden pheasant and the Mandarin duck.
Xinhua News Agency
Long mangfengxian flower Xinhua News Agency