Celebrate Chinese New Year with a scientific flavor | There is a "dragon" in these flowers!

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Written by reporter Ji Jingjing Edited by Chen Yongjie

New Media Editor/Ji Xiumei Art Editor/Chai Qingyan

The fragrance of flowers brings a strong festive atmosphere! In this joyous festival, in addition to the indispensable New Year's goods, the festive and bright New Year flowers serve as the "atmosphere group" for celebrating the New Year and welcoming the New Year. They have various beautiful meanings such as auspiciousness, prosperity, good luck, fortune, prosperity, hope, etc. People all over the country have different preferences for buying New Year's flowers. What flowers do you like to buy for the New Year?

This year is the Year of the Dragon, so various New Year flowers with the word "dragon" in their names are also taking the center stage. Let us take a look at their beauty first!

[Red and fiery dragon boat flower]

Rubiaceae, Ixora genus, also known as Xiandan flower, 100-day red. It has a beautiful plant shape, dense flowers, rich colors, and a long flowering period. The flowers are bright red, and the clusters of flowers form a thriving scene, which looks auspicious and festive.

【Phnom Penh Chinese Dragon Orchid】

The Golden Edge Chinese Dragon Orchid is a special orchid variety, characterized by a thin golden or golden edge on the edge of the petals. It represents a breakthrough in orchid breeding and has a high collection value.

【Dancing Jade Butterfly and Dragon Swimming in Plum Blossom】

The ornamental plum varieties are mainly straight-branched, and there are very few weeping-branch plum varieties and Longyou plum varieties. Among them, the Longyou plum variety group only has one variety, "Jade Butterfly Longyou". Its flower color is milky white and as gentle as jade. It is a small tree of the genus Prunus in the Rosaceae family, 2 to 3 meters high, with naturally twisted branches and a naturally curved crown, like a swimming dragon.

[Jade face, red lips, dragon spits pearls]

Before the Clerodendrum thomsoniae blooms, the white sepals "spit out" red spherical buds, which look like a silver dragon spitting out pearls; then the buds bloom, revealing white stamens; after it bears fruit, the white sepals turn purple-red, setting off the shiny black fruits, which has unique ornamental value.

——I am here to send New Year's greetings.

After seeing these beautiful New Year flowers, do you know how many plants have the word "dragon" in their names?

In the new year, we have used plants with the word "dragon" in their names to create a "dragon" for everyone. We wish you all good luck in the Year of the Dragon and good luck in everything.

"Longan"

Longan is a traditional fruit in my country. If you cut a longan, the yellow peel, translucent aril and black seeds together form an eye-like shape. The fleshy aril shows that longan, like lychee, belongs to the Sapindaceae family. After longan is dried, it becomes the so-called "longan".

"Dragon Beard" Vegetable

Gracilaria, a genus of Gracilariaceae in the red algae family, is known for its economic importance as an agar plant and its use as food for humans and various shellfish. It grows along the coast of Shandong Province and Taiwan Province in my country.

Dragon Tongue Orchid

Agave is a large family of more than 300 species, all native to the Americas. Their characteristic features are hard, thick leaves arranged in spirals on short stems, which makes many Agaves famous as ornamental plants.

Dragon's Tooth Grass

Agrimony, also known as crane grass and ground fairy grass, is the general name for perennial herbaceous plants of the genus Agrimony in the Rosaceae family. It is named because the new shoots growing from its roots resemble the dragon's teeth in people's imagination.

Aromatic "Dragon Face" Flower

The side lobes of the corolla of the fragrant dragon face flower extend to both sides, and the base of the lower lobe bends upward to form a capsule, which fits tightly with the base of the upper lobe, forming a shape similar to a dragon's face. The function is to force pollinating insects to squeeze into the corolla to assist in pollination.

Tokyo "borneol" incense

The first-class protected plant of the country is a tree of the genus Tokyo Dipterocarpa, native to southeastern and western Yunnan and southeastern Tibet, China, growing in moist valley rainforests and dense forests of limestone mountains. It is about 45 meters tall, with axillary racemes and pink and fragrant petals as its main features.

"Dragon Scale" Spring Feather

Spring feather is a tropical foliage plant of the genus Philodendron in the family Araceae. It is native to Brazil and prefers a warm and humid environment all year round. As long as the environment is suitable, its plants can grow to 1 to 2 meters high. The main trunk at the bottom of the spring feather continues to grow taller, and the leaves at the bottom continue to fall off, forming a very unique "old pile" that looks like dragon scales, so some people call it "dragon scale" or "dragon scale spring feather".

"keel"

The dragon bone from Africa is straight, thorny, and triangular in cross section, resembling the spine of a giant dragon. But be careful, as it is a member of the Euphorbia genus, the white juice in its body is somewhat irritating, so don't pick it casually.

Dragon Blood Tree

In its native place of West Africa, the dragon blood tree can grow into a huge tree more than ten meters high. When its trunk is injured, it will form a dark red mark, which is regarded as the "blood of the dragon". Thanks to the efforts of gardeners, the exotic giant tree has been transformed into an exquisite potted plant, decorating our lives.

"Gentian"

Gentiana is a light blue-purple flower that grows at altitudes between 400 and 1,700 meters. It is one of the three major alpine flowers in the world, along with azalea and primrose. There are more than 240 species of Gentiana in my country, most of which are produced in the southwestern mountainous areas, and only a few species are found around Beijing.

"Dragon Claw" Dates

The tree is named after its twisted and coiled branches that resemble dragon claws. It is an ornamental variety with a unique branch shape in the jujube family. It has a beautiful tree shape, swaying green leaves in summer, beautiful red fruits in autumn, and especially in winter when the leaves fall, the twisted branches are like a group of dragons dancing, making it unique among various ornamental flowers and trees. Dragon claw jujube is native to Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Shaanxi and other places in my country.

Chinese Stone "Dragon Tail"

The name sounds very domineering, but the flowers are actually very small. They mostly grow near water or in wetlands beside fields. It is a herb with slender stems. The submerged part is glabrous or almost glabrous. The aerial part is 6-40 cm long. The corolla is 6-10 mm long and purple-blue or pink. The capsule is nearly spherical and flat on both sides. The flowering and fruiting period is from July to January of the following year. It is produced in southern Fujian, Guangdong, Hong Kong, Hainan, Guangxi and Yunnan in my country.

The article is compiled from Beijing Daily, Shanghai Botanical Garden official website, Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Garden official website, "Guangzhou Panyu Release" WeChat account, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and China Plant Image Library