Today, I want to take you to know about the seed plant lettuce.
Lettuce
Brasenia schreberi
Seed plants, angiosperm phylum, dicotyledonous plants, water lilies, lettuce family, also known as horseshoe, lake vegetables, water planks. It grows in ponds, rivers, lakes or swamps, and is distributed in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hunan, Sichuan, Yunnan and other places. Photo taken in Baoshan Qinghuahai National Wetland Park.
Lettuce is a perennial aquatic plant with root and a precious relict species of the Tertiary flora. Its rhizomes produce creeping branches and leaves. The emerald oval leaves, as if floating on the surface of the water without any cares, are actually alternate, the petiole is hidden under the water, 25-40 cm long, and the peduncle has soft hairs.
In June, when lettuce blooms, they are beautiful with a fairy look, dark red flowers and slightly pale sepals in strips. On the first day of flowering, the petals unfold and the pale pink pistils and crimson stamens are exposed, at which point the pistils are longer than the stamens, and on the second day, the stamens will suddenly exert their strength and begin to "draw strips" to surround the pistils. From October to November, the fruiting period is reached, and the nuts are ovate.
Lettuce can be regarded as "famous" in China, it first appeared in the "Book of Poetry", "Si Le Pan Shui, Thin Picking its Roots", for this poem, the "Poetry Biography" explained: "Mao, Kai Kui also." After Lu Ji examined it, he said: "Lettuce is similar to lettuce, and the people of Jiangdong call it lettuce." ”
Because of its beautiful posture and delicious taste, the ancients have always praised it. The Book of Jin records that "Lettuce perch, Wang Jue Muzhi", raised the status of lettuce a lot. The Tang Dynasty literary scholar Yuan Shu also did not hesitate to give him ink: "Lettuce silver silk tender, sea bass snow flake fat"; Su Dongpo also wrote: "If you ask the three Wu sheng things, not only a thousand miles of lettuce soup"...
However, the most exaggerated thing is that Zhang Han of the Jin Dynasty resigned his official position and returned to his hometown because he missed the lettuce and sea bass in his hometown, which can be described as the highest realm of foodies.
If you see here, you want to taste lettuce, we have to remind you, because wild lettuce has higher requirements for the growth environment, with the development of humans, its habitat is getting smaller and smaller, the number is also greatly reduced, is listed as a national level protected plant, so eating wild lettuce is illegal.
However, in recent years, many places have cultivated it artificially, and now because of the cultivation of lettuce, many farmers have embarked on the road to prosperity.
Little Science
Baoshan Qinghuahai National Wetland Park is located in Dongcheng District, Longyang District, Baoshan City, Yunnan Province, with a total area of 1363 hectares. Qinghuahai is located in the Baoshan Basin of the Nushan Mountains, the upper reaches of the Mengboro River in the Nu River system, and the intersection and overlap of two international migratory bird migration routes in Central Asia and East Asia-Australasia, and the ecological location is very important.
In recent years, Qinghuahai National Wetland Park has been effectively protected and restored, the functions of the wetland have gradually emerged, and the biodiversity has been significantly improved, and it has become an important habitat for wild animals and plants. At present, a total of 241 species of birds have been recorded, including 25 species of national I. and II key protected birds such as jade belt sea eagle, black stork, black-necked long-tailed pheasant, gray crane, white-bellied harrier and so on. The biodiversity of Qinghuahai National Wetland Park is one of the richer areas compared with other wetland parks of the same type in Yunnan.
Co-ordination, textual arrangement: Lian Huiling
Poster Design: Zheng Biyin
