Have you ever been hit by a half-pound "hero flower"?

This article does not contain spoilers, please feel free to watch

Poster of "The Lion Boy"

Before this, I never thought that domestic animations could do plants so well. Even though most of the plants only appear out of focus, without even a clear frontal view; however, it is these plants that connect virtuality with reality and highlight the full charm of the Pearl River Delta.

A man hit by a hero flower

At the beginning of the film, the protagonist Ajuan, who was ridiculed as a "sick cat", was knocked down by a fleshy big red flower - this is the kapok flower (Bombax ceiba) which is very common in South China.

Kapok is the undisputed plant protagonist in this movie | "Young Lion"

In March 2005, I came to the South China Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to study for a doctorate. It was the season when kapok flowers were in full bloom. You could see large trees full of flowers in the streets and alleys, with colors ranging from orange to deep red, which formed my first deep impression of Guangzhou.

In the next three and a half years, I also did some experiments related to kapok. Kapok is a bird-pollinated plant. I watched the birds coming and going on the branches of kapok, from small white-eyes to large crows; I also tasted the nectar of kapok, which was sweet but not very good; I also worried about how to climb up the tree trunk full of hard thorns to do artificial pollination experiments - of course, I didn't do it in the end.

The trunk of a kapok tree is covered with thorns | Dinesh Valke / Wikimedia Commons

The kapok tree, known as the "hero flower" in the film, is a spiritual sustenance and an undoubted plant protagonist. From a botanical perspective, the image of the kapok tree is indeed very realistic, and the moderate exaggeration is also reasonable. For example, the seeds of the kapok tree have wool and are spread by wind when they mature. There is a shot in the film where the seeds of an entire tree are swept away by the strong wind, just like the "roar in the chest" of the protagonist, which is very shocking.

Kapok seeds blown away by the wind | "The Lion Boy"

I wonder if the falling of the Kapok flower ever gave the creative team a headache. This half-pound, fleshy flower would never fall at a speed of x centimeters per second, but would fall with a "duang" sound. This process is somewhat lacking in beauty, but in the film, when the male protagonist Ajuan was hit by the Kapok flower, he received encouragement from the female Ajuan - "You are a man who has been hit by the hero flower." This line made me smile knowingly, because I am a man who has been hit many times!

Which one is most lovesick?

In the film, when the four masters and apprentices sit on a bench to rest during training, there is always a big tree on the left side of the screen, providing them with shade with its broad leaves. This tree is Sterculia monosperma, a Malvaceae tree widely cultivated in the Pearl River Delta and even in southern China. In addition to this one, Sterculia monosperma often appears in front of and behind houses and street corners in the film, playing a large role.

Ping Po | KENPEI / Wikimedia Commons

The name "Pingpo" has a long history. It is the transliteration of the Sanskrit word "bimba", which originally means "figure". In Chinese, it has been written in many ways, such as "pingpo", "pingpo" and "pingbo". This word originally refers to the red melon (Coccinia grandis) of the Cucurbitaceae family. Because the fruit is "red and moist", it is often used in Buddhist scriptures to describe the beauty of the lips.

After Buddhism was introduced to China, the name of Bimba fruit was attached to native plants in different regions. Huilin, a monk in the Tang Dynasty, explained in "Yiqie Jing Yinyi" that "Bimba fruit is similar to the apples in this area, and is very bright red", thus linking Bimba fruit with the genus Malus of the Rosaceae family. In the late Yuan Dynasty, a variety of Chinese cotton apple was introduced from the Western Regions to the mainland, and was named Bimba fruit because of its color and luster. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, except for Lingnan, all regions used Bimba fruit to refer to this type of fruit. Later, some people added a grass head to the character "頻" and omitted the character "婆". After the simplified character movement, it became the apple we are familiar with today.

In the Pearl River Delta region, the name of the plant in the Malvaceae family has long been used to describe the fruit. During the Dazhong Xiangfu period of Emperor Zhenzong of the Northern Song Dynasty, Shaozhou (now Shaoguan) offered the fruit as a tribute. At that time, people in the Central Plains Dynasty did not know what it was, so they kept the name. After adding the grass radical and simplifying it, it became the official Chinese name today - Artocarpus.

Fruit of the Artemisia serrata | Xufanc / Wikimedia Commons

Although Sterculia sterculiae is common in Guangdong, if you ask the locals about it, they will most likely be confused. At this time, you should mention its common name - Phoenix Eye Fruit. When the fruit of Sterculia sterculiae is ripe, it will crack on one side, revealing the black seeds inside, which look like an elongated phoenix eye. These seeds are rich in starch and can be eaten after being cooked. They taste like chestnuts and are not bad, but the yield is limited. Phoenix Eye Fruit matures in July and August in summer. In the past, it was an offering for Guangzhou people to celebrate the birthday of the Seventh Sister (i.e. the Chinese Valentine's Day), so it is also called the Seventh Sister Fruit.

There are two shots of the fruit of the Artemisia selengensis in the film: after Ajuan went to Guangzhou to work, the master's friend who stayed in his hometown sat on a bench and missed him, and the water hyacinth fruit hung above their heads; after they left, the bench was covered with ripe water hyacinth fruit. The whole summer was cleverly passed by in this way, which may also express another meaning of the Artemisia selengensis fruit in Buddhist scriptures - lovesickness.

Is it Bauhinia odorata or Bauhinia odorata?

When the Artemisia strychnifolia appears in the film, it always seems to be a little gloomy, while another plant is often accompanied by sunshine - the small tree with yellow leaves and purple flowers on the left side of the store entrance of the protagonist's master Xianyu Qiang. However, it never appears in the focal plane, so I can't be sure whether it is Bauhinia serrata or Bauhinia serrata.

The one on the right side of the picture is a kind of Bauhinia|Trailer of "The Lion Boy"

Bauhinia purpurea, Bauhinia variegata, and Bauhinia × blakeana, all of the genus Bauhinia in the Fabaceae family, are commonly cultivated woody flowers in southern China. They bloom all year round, especially in March and April, and are widely loved. Bauhinia got its name because the leaves have two lobes at the tip, shaped like a sheep's hoof. Of the three types of Bauhinia, the first type has slender and pink petals; the latter two both have purple-red flowers, and it is difficult to distinguish them based on the blurred outlines in the video.

If you can see clearly, the difference between the two lies in the inflorescence: the inflorescence of Bauhinia serrata is very short, while the inflorescence of Bauhinia serrata is very long. Another important difference is the fruit: Bauhinia serrata can bloom and bear fruit normally; but Bauhinia serrata is a natural hybrid of Bauhinia serrata and Bauhinia serrata, and cannot bear fruit due to the reproductive isolation of the parents. Therefore, if there are fruits hanging on the tree, it must be Bauhinia serrata.

The fruit of Bauhinia odorata, a true legume | Atamari / Wikimedia Commons

Bauhinia rubra has another more familiar identity, that is, the regional flower of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, the "Bauhinia". This "species" was first discovered on Hong Kong Island in 1880 and was selected as the city flower of Hong Kong in 1965. After Hong Kong's return to China, the regional flag design continued to use elements of the Bauhinia. According to research, the Bauhinia rubra planted in Hong Kong and even the entire South China region are all propagated by cuttings and grafting from the branches of the first discovered plant.

Bauhinia rubra | tree-species / flickr

A tree that loses its leaves in spring?

This is another type of tree that plays a lot of roles, although most of the time it is just a foil. For example, there is one across the street to the right of the entrance of the Xianyu Qiang store, and there are also several trees outside the finals venue.

The banyan tree that appears frequently in the screen | "The Lion Boy"

They are banyan trees (Ficus virens). This is a plant that sheds its leaves in spring. When the autumn leaves fall, banyan trees remain indifferent. It is not until April or May of the following year, when other trees have grown new leaves, that banyan trees begin to shed their leaves in large numbers. After the old leaves fall, new leaves sprout immediately. The light pink stipules and tender green new leaves are also a beautiful sight in mid-spring.

There is also a tree in the movie that sheds its leaves in spring. Its trunk looks like a banyan tree, but its leaves are smaller than those of the banyan tree. | "Young Lion"

Some studies have shown that, under the premise that the germination time is fixed in spring, not shedding leaves in winter can extend the life of the leaves, allowing them to continue photosynthesis in winter and facilitate the direct transfer of nutrients to the newly sprouted leaves. Obviously, such plants can only appear in places with relatively warm winters, otherwise the losses caused by frostbite of leaves will be much greater. In addition, there are great individual differences in the time of leaf shedding of banyan trees. Sometimes, one of the two adjacent trees is completely bald, while the other is still shady. The ancients believed that banyan trees "are planted in a certain month and must begin to sprout in a certain month every year", that is, the time of leaf replacement coincides with the time of transplanting. If this is true, it implies that the leaf shedding of banyan trees can respond to changes in water conditions.

Banyan tree | Dinesh Valke / Wikimedia Commons

The banyan tree is the city tree of Chongqing. In the film, there is an open-air Buddha statue shaded by green trees, and the leaves on the top of the statue also look like banyan trees. This scene is more like the landscape of the southern Sichuan Basin, which made me feel a little out of the play.

This scene looks more like the landscape of the southern Sichuan Basin | Trailer of "The Lion Boy"

As a subtropical city, Guangzhou has a high diversity of Ficus plants, such as the most common banyan tree (F. macrocarpa) on the streets, the broad-leaved fig (F. hirta) commonly known as the five-fingered fig and used for making soup, the water lily (F. fistulosa) growing in roadside ditches, and so on.

Concept map of a scene in the movie. The banyan tree is obvious on the right | Concept map of "The Lion Boy"

However, apart from banyan trees, the only Ficus plant that appears in the film is the pumila (Ficus pumila). When the protagonist's parents return to their hometown, the camera sweeps over a vine climbing on the outer wall of their house. This is the pumila. Pumila likes to grow on damp stone walls or walls, especially around old houses. A great man once said, "Thousands of villages are left with pumila people, and thousands of houses are deserted with ghosts singing." This plant is very suitable to express poverty and dilapidated environment.

Xili | Ixitixel / Wikimedia Commons

There are also foreign actors

At the beginning of the film, when Ajuan rides her bicycle through the streets and fields of the town, many of the plants passing by are alien plants. This is not surprising. The Pearl River Delta has been a densely populated agricultural area for more than 2,000 years. Human activities have profoundly changed and even completely shaped the composition of vegetation species here. In the past few hundred years, Guangzhou was also one of the important ports on the southeast coast. Many alien species landed here when they first arrived in China.

Some of them are cultivated as crops, but many more spread into the wild and adapted to the local environment, becoming naturalized species. For example, papaya (Carica papaya) has both human species and lives well in the wild. The few scattered trees growing in the fields in the film may have sprouted from seeds that someone casually dropped.

Papaya trees laden with fruits are common in fields in southern China | Forest Starr & Kim Starr / Wikimedia Commons

There is a kind of inconspicuous foreign plant that appears at least twice - when the camera sweeps over the roof of the old house, it brings up the Kalanchoe delagoensis growing on it. This is a succulent plant from Madagascar, originally introduced as an ornamental plant. The edges of its leaves can produce a large number of bulbils with roots, which can grow into new plants when they fall to the ground, hence the name. It is this super strong reproductive ability, coupled with its drought tolerance, that makes the Kalanchoe delagoensis a "cockroach among plants" - once you plant a Kalanchoe delagoensis, you will never get rid of it.

Dark-colored succulents are stick-leaved plants that take root | "The Lion Boy"

In Australia and many Pacific island countries, the Brugmansia sibiricum is considered a harmful invasive plant. However, the climate in the Pearl River Delta is too humid for it. It cannot compete with other plants on the ground. Only places like roofs and walls with sunlight but no soil are particularly suitable for it. The flowers of the Brugmansia sibiricum are very beautiful. In its native place, it is pollinated by nectar-loving birds such as sunbirds. In February and March, if you walk past an old house in southern China, especially one with a tiled roof, you might as well look up. You will probably be surprised.

The stick leaves take root and are very eye-catching when they bloom | Yercaud-elango / Wikimedia Commons

The introduced plants include not only small grasses, but also large trees. Among the trees that make up the skyline of the town, there is one with a straight trunk and a slightly conical crown, which is obviously a conifer. It is the bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) from the southern United States. This tree originally lived in swamp forests and is extremely resistant to moisture, making it very suitable for planting in southern China, which is densely covered with water networks. Its leaves turn reddish brown in autumn, which is also quite beautiful. "Longdong Qilin", one of the "Eight Scenic Spots of Guangzhou", is a large area of ​​bald cypress planted by the artificial lake of the South China Botanical Garden.

The three straight tall trees on the right side of the picture are bald cypress|Trailer of "Young Lion"

In fact, the Pearl River Delta region originally had a native wetland conifer - Glyptostrobus pensilis. Historically, Glyptostrobus pensilis was widely distributed in southern my country and is suitable for growing in low-lying and water-rich areas. However, these places are particularly prone to being reclaimed as farmland, so the number of Glyptostrobus pensilis has dropped sharply in the past fifty years. According to a survey published in 2016, there are less than 300 Glyptostrobus pensilis trees over 100 years old in the country, and the number is still decreasing. Only 14 wild Glyptostrobus pensilis were found in the whole of Guangzhou, distributed in 8 different places, and they survived as the "feng shui trees" of the village; some experts even believe that even these 14 trees are not wild, but cultivated by the ancients.

The Chinese cypress is now a national first-class protected wild plant and a critically endangered species on the IUCN Red List. It is likely to become completely extinct within 100 years. The dead cannot be brought back, but when we see the rural skyline of the Pearl River Delta replaced by bald cypress, we should be alert.

Water Pine | Daderot/Wikimedia Commons

Just two years ago, I was still amazed at the details of plants in Frozen 2 and Moana. I didn’t expect to see plants in domestic animation that are no less than those in Disney so soon. From the image to the phenology to the artistic conception, everything is exquisite. This is also what impressed me most about Lion Boy. For a film that reflects local traditional culture, the audience does not even need to know these plants. Just through the out-of-focus and familiar plant images, they can subconsciously feel that "this story happened around me."

This article is written based on my impression after watching the movie, so there are inevitably omissions, please feel free to point them out. But the old rule is still emphasized, as long as you don't ask me what the flowering grasses are on the country road where Ajuan and others ran with salted fish, then we are still friends.

Just like the real sunset in rural South China | "Young Lion"

Author: Gu Yourong

Editor: Mai Mai

This article comes from the Species Calendar, welcome to forward

If you need to reprint, please contact [email protected]