At noon on Saturday, my sister posted three photos in the family group. The two are close-ups and panoramas of the old rhododendron in the courtyard, and the petals are bright red, like a fire burning, very beautiful. The other was a three-year-old niece, sitting on a small stool, her little face flushed, and her azaleas were as bright and cute as ever. The sister said that this is the first time in the Past Year to return to her mother's house, which is to make up for the dinner delayed by the epidemic.
This rhododendron in the yard has a bit of history and is a common memory of our family. Father said that before the old house was built, the rhododendron had come to the courtyard from the mountain. After sending Grandpa up the mountain, my father took it from the pit hill to the low wall on the east side of the yard. Fingers crossed, I have been in our house for thirty-six years, and I have almost become a member of the family. Under the careful care of parents, this rhododendron grows very strong, has reached four meters, blooms every year, the amount of flowers is huge, the flowering period is long, thousands of flowers, rambling, intricate, the whole yard is reflected in it red, I don't know how many relatives and friends appreciate under the flowers, and I don't know how many pedestrians who pass by are attracted to the courtyard to take photos.
Rhododendron simsii, the head of the Rhododendron family Rhododendron family, is called Yingshan Red in its hometown, is an indicative plant in acidic soil, especially suitable for the red soil of Jiangxi, so it has become one of the most common wildflowers in the mountains. Every year around the spring equinox, the mountains are like a piece of splendid embroidery, the mountains and valleys are full of red rhododendrons, and thousands of mountains are red, fat, green and thin, very beautiful. At that time, on the ridge, it was often seen that the primary and secondary schools in the county town came to our back mountain spring tour, and the sound of children laughing and playing was as lively as the cuckoos in the mountains. In the middle of the cuckoo, there will be a small number of yellow sheep flowers, and the adults tell us that we must look at the cows and don't let them eat this flower, otherwise the cows will be poisoned. Frightened by this, we see that the sheep flowers are a little afraid, and whenever we encounter them, we stay away. Later, when I studied plants, I learned that the scientific name of the sheep flower is called Rhododendron molle, which is indeed poisonous.
Yingshan red is so bright and gorgeous, it is the most classic beautiful scene of spring in the mountains of my hometown. However, the townspeople did not cherish it and regarded it as miscellaneous firewood. I remember when I was a child carrying a rope and a wood knife into the mountains to cut firewood, Yingshan Red, like Ebony, belonged to one of our favorite miscellaneous trees. There are three reasons: one is that the leaf twigs are dry and large, good to burn and resistant to burning; the second is that the branches are smooth, there are no needles, thorns and other things to tie the hand, and the feel is good; the third is that there are many, everywhere, and it is convenient to cut. For this reason, at that time, we did not know how many giant stem branches of the old cuckoo, which were more than ten years and decades old, were stuffed into the stove by us. Now that I think about it, it's really a tyrannical thing. Fortunately, later it was changed to burning gas, and even if the mountains were not closed and forested, no one went to the mountains to cut firewood.
For children, azaleas are a snack in their mouths. Coming home from school, morning glory goes to the mountains. The cows grazed on the hillside, and we went around looking for snacks. Kasuga Yamano's favorite food is to count the "tea bubbles" that grow from the camellia oleifera tree, a kind of oil tea young leaf mutation, thick and crisp and sweet. On the second level, there are young stems such as wild roses, golden cherry seeds, knotweed, etc., which are pointed and peeled, and they are quite refreshing and delicious to eat. If none of this, the azaleas that can be picked at any time have also become snacks, fold the flower branches, tear off the flower buds, throw a handful into the mouth, the taste is a little sour, there is nothing to chew, but it is better than nothing. Adults often say that Yingshan Hong can't eat too much, and she will have nosebleeds. However, no matter how we ate it, we didn't seem to have flowed.
The time of living in Ningbo has long exceeded that of his hometown, and it is not too much to regard it as his second hometown. Ningbo also has rhododendrons, which are more diverse than in their hometown. Beilun Chaiqiao is also named "the hometown of Chinese rhododendrons" by the Ministry of Agriculture, and is an important rhododendron flower production and export base, especially the Western rhododendron. In the mountains of Ningbo, compared to the ubiquitous purple rhododendron mariesii, there seems to be less distributed here. At the slope of the Five Eagles Peak in Ninghai Tea Mountain, there is a rhododendron king who is said to be more than 300 years old, that is, the mountain is full of red, there are many branches, a bush into a forest, and the annual flowering period is brilliant, beautiful, and the distant mountains can see this red mist.
Slightly higher on the hill, there is also a kind of Rhododendron ovatum, with lilac flowers, elegant and quiet, I like very much. On the higher mountains in the west and south of Ningbo, there are also two kinds of alpine rhododendrons, one is rhododendron fortunei, which has beautiful flowers and leaves, and is the most elegant and luxurious. The most famous place in China is the Tiantai Mountain in Taizhou next door, where the mountains and valleys are full of adult old trees of yunjin rhododendron, around May Day, it is the flowering period, and the mountains are really like clouds. Yunjin Cuckoo was later tea thief Robert. Fu Qiong brought it to England and became the hybrid parent of many rhododendrons, contributing to the overseas glory of Chinese cuckoos. Another more rare is the Rhododendron huadingense (Rhododendron huadingense), which grows on the high mountains above 800 meters of Siming Mountain, belongs to the type of first flowering and then leaves, and is the most bright and dazzling among the alpine miscellaneous forests with relatively bare foliage in early spring.
Since graduating from high school, I have not seen the spring scenery of my hometown in the mountains for twenty-seven years, and I don't know if the azaleas in the mountains are okay? My brother, who had just returned from his labor at Oleifera Mountain on Sunday, sent me the following picture of the rhododendron and told me: Now there is no one in the mountains to cut firewood, and the azaleas are undisturbed and free, and they bloom more brightly than before!
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