What kind of flowers did Chang Yu want?

Yesterday, Jay Chou's new song "The Greatest Work" MV was officially released. In the MV, he traveled through time and space like Dr. Who, met Dali, Chang Yu, Monet, Xu Zhimo and other famous artists, and also transformed into flowers twice. Hmm... The flowers in these two shots are really interesting and worth talking about.

What kind of flowers does Chang Yu want?

The first thing that appears is "the flower that Chang Yu wants". What kind of flower is blooming on the lonely branch?

Lyrics: Only lonely branches can grow the flowers that Chang Yu wants | Screenshot of the MV of "The Greatest Work"

It is difficult to find one of Chang Yu's original works that is exactly the same as the potted plants in the MV. The closest one should be "Fruit Trees in Pots".

Chang Yu's work "Fruiting and Flowering Potted Plant" is now in the Taiwan Museum of History.

The potted plants in the painting have flowers and fruits, and the flowers that Jay Chou showed to Sanyu in the MV are lilies - judging from the shape of the flowers, most of them look more like oriental lilies.

The so-called Oriental lily is not a species, but a strain of modern horticultural lilies. The various lilies we see in flower shops are no longer wild original species, but hybrids obtained by gardeners after years of domestication. Among these hybrids, the most common strains include: Asiatic lily, Oriental lily, Musk lily, Trumpet lily; different strains can also be hybridized and named with initials, such as LO, LA, etc.

Musk lilies are also common. Katrina Wiese / Wikimedia Commons

There are two special things about the lilies that appear in the MV that are worth mentioning.

The first is the light red lilies, whose color and drooping posture are very similar to those of Lilium sibiricum. Lilium sibiricum is one of the important hybrid species of Oriental lilies. Its tepals often have dense red spots. The Japanese call it Deer Lily, which means it looks like the spots on a sika deer. There are many varieties of Lilium sibiricum. The base color of the tepals can be white or red. The red ones can be completely red or half red. There are also pure white varieties without spots.

There are dense red dots on the tepals of Lilium truncatum｜ kusabanaph.web.fc2.com

The second thing worth mentioning is the striking purple and blue lilies in the center of the bonsai. The garden lilies we usually see are mostly yellow, orange, red, pink, etc., except for white, and there are no purple and blue varieties. In fact, lilies also have the potential to bloom blue and purple flowers.

Blue lilies are rarely seen in real life｜Screenshot from the MV of "The Greatest Work"

The color of lily flowers comes from two types of substances: carotenoids and anthocyanins. Among them, yellow, orange and orange-tinged red come from carotenoids, while pink and purple-tinged deep red come from anthocyanins.

Anthocyanidins are a large class of substances that include many types. They combine with sugars in plant cells to form colored anthocyanidins (anthocyanins). Some people have tested some pink and dark red lily varieties and found that the anthocyanidins contained in their flowers are mainly cyanidins. The anthocyanins formed by them usually appear purple in a neutral environment. When the pH drops to about 3, it turns red, and when it rises to about 11, it turns blue. In other words, lilies have the basic substances for blue and purple flowers, but because the pH conditions of the vacuole are not met, they cannot appear blue or purple.

Colors like this come from anthocyanins｜Rhododendrites / Wikimedia Commons

The pH value in the vacuole involves many physiological processes, and even if it can be changed, it is basically impossible to make a big change. However, the type of anthocyanin can be quickly changed through genetic engineering. Many plants with blue flowers use delphinidin as the anthocyanin, which does not require a very high pH environment to appear blue. Lilies lack the gene for synthesizing delphinidin, so why not just transfer the relevant gene into them?

In fact, someone has already done this. A few years ago, the Niigata Agricultural Research Institute in Japan cooperated with Suntory (yes, the Suntory that makes beer and oolong tea) and claimed ten years ago that they had cultivated blue lilies that could synthesize delphinidin. However, the lilies they obtained at that time were still purple, and ten years later, we have not seen blue lilies on the market.

Lilies have a lot of colors. If someone tells you that they have the same blue lilies as Jay Chou, based on the current situation, it is very likely that they are just dyed.｜Pixabay

How can there be no iris?

Since we are talking about lilies and the MV was filmed in Paris, it is natural to think of the most representative French heraldic pattern "Fleur-de-lis".

The yellow "fork" on the Paris emblem is the iris emblem, and the "iris" emoji also looks like this ⚜️ | Wikimedia Commons

"lis" means lily, so some people translate it as lily emblem; in fact, this emblem depicts iris, which is the national flower of France, Iris pallida. In Jay Chou's MV, some shots seem to have iris decorations, but I can't see it clearly. I hope some friends with sharp eyes can confirm it.

Iris odorata｜David Stang / ZipcodeZoo.com

The fragrance of iris is not in the flower, but in the rhizome. Fresh rhizomes have no smell. After being dried and stored for several years, iron ketone will slowly form, which is also the main aromatic substance of iris. When people extract spices, they will grind the dried iris rhizomes and then distill the essential oil with a mild aroma from the powder. As for how iris first became a symbol of France, there are different opinions. In short, in the past few hundred years, the iris coat of arms has been one of the most characteristic symbols of France.

Like lilies, there are many horticultural varieties of irises now, and Iris vetiver is one of the parents. The English name of iris comes from Greek, which means rainbow, and many horticultural varieties now are indeed as colorful as rainbows. There is a Château de Vullierens in the French-speaking region of Switzerland, where hundreds of iris varieties are planted together. My photography skills are poor, so you can just take a look at it.

Hundreds of Iris Species | Desert Porcupine

There are many colors in the same flower | Desert Porcupine

Showing the Lotus to Monet

Ok, let's get back to the MV. When Jay Chou met Monet, he conjured a lotus flower that could change color from the mural.

Lyrics: The light awakens the sleeping petals｜《The Greatest Work》MV

The flower itself is made of CG, so it is harmless if it is not realistic. The most interesting part of this scene is what is Jay Chou showing Monet?

In his later years, Monet painted a famous group of Impressionist works called "Water Lilies". The flowers in the paintings were the water lilies in Monet's own garden pond.

Monet painted about 250 Water Lilies

Strictly speaking, these are all horticultural varieties of the genus Nymphaea. In the genus Nymphaea, there is a plant whose proper Chinese name is Nymphaea tetragona, but simply calling it "water lily" can be confusing.

There are two common types of ornamental water lilies. One type is the hardy water lily, whose leaves and flowers float on the water. The flowers usually open during the day and close at night, and the color lacks blue and purple. From the paintings, it can be seen that the water lilies painted by Monet basically look like hardy water lilies.

Cold-resistant water lily varieties | Desert Porcupine

The other type is the tropical water lily, whose leaves float on the water and whose flowers usually stand above the water. Some bloom during the day and some at night, and have blue-purple flowers - the so-called "blue lotus" can only refer to it.

Tropical Water Lily Varieties | Desert Porcupine

The mural that Jay Chou showed Monet is located in the Hôtel d'Évreux in Paris. It is a Chinese Song Dynasty style of fine brushwork and bird-and-flower painting. The content of the painting is not water lilies, but Nelumbo nucifera, which is lotus.

MV filming location｜poteletchabot.com

In the old classification system, the lotus was considered a member of the Nymphaeaceae family. Now, based on molecular evidence, we have determined that although the lotus and water lily have similar appearances, their taxonomic status is actually very different, so the lotus is classified as the Nelumbo family, and belongs to the Proteaceae order along with the Platanaceae and Proteaceae. There is only one genus in the Nelumbo family, the genus Nelumbo, and there are only two species in the genus Nelumbo, the former native to East Asia and the latter native to North America.

Lotus may be the plant most familiar to Chinese people｜Peripitus / Wikimedia Commons

Goldenseal | Altairisfar / Wikimedia Commons

So from this point of view, the plot in the MV is that the contemporary musician Jay Chou shows the modern French painter Monet, who is famous for his water lilies, the lotus paintings of the Chinese Song Dynasty style. If such a cultural exchange really happened, I wonder what kind of work would be born? Perhaps, as the title of the song says, it will be the greatest work.

If Monet saw the lotus, perhaps it would also be a kind of future art | Screenshot of the MV of "The Greatest Work"

Author: Desert Porcupine

Editor: Mai Mai

This article comes from the Species Calendar, welcome to forward

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