Weathered and in a tough situation, this tree is facing the risk of extinction

When it comes to maple trees, you may be very unfamiliar with them. Those who are familiar with this word may call it "qī tree", but it should actually be read as "qì tree". But when it comes to maple trees, almost everyone knows what kind of plant it is. In today's context, maple trees are almost equivalent to maple trees. Both professional scholars and the general public are not too obsessed with the distinction between the two. The Yangbi maple we are going to introduce today is a kind of maple tree.

Yangbi Maple (Silhouette) | Jianyi Ling

Weathered and in a difficult situation

Acer yangbiense is a tall deciduous tree belonging to the genus Acer of the family Aceraceae. Its leaves are large, 5-lobed, and resemble palms; its two winged fruits grow together and resemble ingots. Acer yangbiense was only published in 2003. Its genus name Acer means "sharp and hard", and its specific epithet yangbiense comes from its place of origin, Yangbi County. Yangbi County in Dali is located to the west of Cangshan Mountain and is named after the Yangbi River, which is formed by the confluence of the Yangjiang River and the Bijiang River.

The Latin name of the maple genus probably describes its sharp leaves. Pictured: Acer truncatum | Zhangmoon618 / Wikimedia Commons

The maple has been an endangered species since its discovery, and its natural population in the wild is very rare. About 700,000 to 1.2 million years ago, the population of the maple plummeted, probably due to the continued cold weather. About 52,000 years ago, the Dali glacial period continued to cool down, and the maples in Yunlong County and Yangbi County parted ways, and were later separated by high mountains and deep valleys and never met again.

Later, the population of the maple tree dropped sharply twice, the most recent one directly dropping to less than 200 trees. The repeated sharp declines reduced the genetic diversity of the maple tree. At the same time, some harmful gene mutations occurred within the population, making it increasingly difficult to resist various hazards. Frequent human activities such as deforestation, grazing and logging have also made the situation of the maple tree more difficult.

Rescued from the brink of extinction

In 2001, Dr. Chen Yousheng found a specimen of Gongshan maple that was a bit strange. Its leaves were 5-lobed, with white hairs on the back, and its fruit was hairless with obvious bumps on the surface, which was very different from the Gongshan maple with 3-lobed leaves, yellow-brown hairs on the back, and long hairs on the fruit.

Gongshan maple with hairy wing fruits | Jianyi Ling

The following year, Dr. Chen went to the place where the specimen was collected - Malutang in Yangbi County to look for this plant. After several twists and turns, he finally found it near the village and later published it as a new species.

At the time of publication, the researchers only found four large trees in Malutang. Later, after extensive field investigations, they found that the Acer truncatum has two distribution areas: Cangshan in Yangbi County and Fenghuangshan in Yunlong County, 13 distribution points (subpopulations), and a total of 743 trees.

Malutang in Cangshan Mountain was once a grazing meadow. Although it has been strengthened and protected, local villagers still graze there, and there are still herds of cattle and sheep grazing on the mountain. | Jian Yiling

Unfortunately, these Acer truncatum trees are all distributed outside the protected areas, and their habitats have been severely damaged due to walnut planting and grazing. They are facing the risk of being "wiped out".

With the efforts of many parties, the conservation of the maple is gradually effective. In 2008, Dr. Chen commissioned local people to send the seeds of the maple to the Kunming Botanical Garden. The botanical garden staff soon cultivated more than 1,600 seedlings with these seeds, and these seedlings bloomed for the first time in 2015. Today, the cultivation, trial planting, promotion, ex situ protection and other conservation methods of the maple are gradually expanding its population. They will not disappear silently in the mountains and forests, but continue to live in the world in another identity.

Acer truncatum in bloom at Kunming Botanical Garden (male inflorescence) | Weibo: @Kunming Institute of Botany Kunming Botanical Garden

Is it "maple" or "maple"?

In the Flora of China, Yangbi Maple is called "Yangbi Maple", but the name "Yangbi Maple" is obviously more widely used. In fact, maple trees have only been called "maple trees" for a hundred years, although this word appeared in ancient texts very early. Xu Shen of the Eastern Han Dynasty explained "maple" in "Shuowen Jiezi" as follows: "It can be used to make large carts. From the sound of wood, Qi", which means that maple can be used to make wooden wheel frames for large carts. Duan Yucai of the Qing Dynasty said in "Shuowen Jiezi Notes": "It is still unclear what kind of tree maple is", that is, although maple trees have appeared in our lives very early, it was not determined what kind of tree it was until the Qing Dynasty.

The wheels of an ancient chariot show that maple is also a good wood. | Cangminzho / Wikimedia Commons

Ancient people did not have the concept of species classification, and their understanding of many things was general. It was not until 1937, when Chen Rong published "Chinese Tree Taxonomy", that many trees of the genus Acer were called "maple trees" and the family they belonged to was called "Aceraceae".

In fact, maple trees are more often called "maple trees" now and in the past. "Maple" originally referred to a type of plant with thin branches and thick leaves, and the name was derived from the meaning of "the leaves rustle in the wind". Later, Guo Pu of the Jin Dynasty said in his annotation to "Er Ya" that "maple is like poplar, with round and split leaves, and is resinous and fragrant". This tree with split leaves like poplar and fragrance was gradually matched to the Liquidambar formosana today. In autumn, the green leaves of the Liquidambar tree turn blood red and emit fragrance, which is destined to occupy a place in Chinese culture.

Comparison of leaves of Liquidambar (left) and Acer (right) | Left: harum.koh / Wikimedia Commons; Right: Xu Daoli / flickr

However, the Liquidambar tree is only distributed in the south of my country (perhaps the climate in ancient times allowed it to move slightly northward). In addition, due to the emotional needs of literati and poets to write lyrics, another type of plant that is very similar to the Liquidambar tree gradually got the name of "maple tree", which is today's maple tree.

Few literary works distinguish maple from maple. Xiao Yingshi of the Tang Dynasty once wrote an article "Jiang You Feng Pian Zhang Shi": "Jiang You Feng, its leaves are hazy... Mountain You Feng, its leaves are light... I think those maple trees are also similar to maple..." The article says that maple trees are similar to maple trees in Jiangnan, but he did not specify the difference between maple trees and maple trees.

It's not a tree, it's sadness

The word "槭" also often appears in poetry, but in most cases it does not mean maple trees, and is usually pronounced as "sè". A single "槭" refers to a bare branch with all its leaves falling in autumn, which is extended to mean falling leaves and sadness; or it can be combined with other characters to describe the sound of the wind, such as the maple in Pan Yue's "Autumn Feelings Fu" "庭树枫以洒落兮, 强风逆而吹幕" refers to fallen leaves. "槭槭" that appears as a reduplicated word especially refers to the sound of the wind in autumn. It is often used with "潇潇" and also contains the meaning of sadness and sadness. For example, Liu Yingfang wrote in "傅得千山紅树送姚园客返闽" "潇潇浅绛霜初醉，枫枫深红雨再".

Red leaves all over the mountains in autumn | blacart / flickr

But strangely, many people now regard these poems as "good sentences" describing maple trees, which is really a far-fetched and far-fetched statement. In fact, there are very few poems describing maple trees in ancient Chinese poetry and prose. Most of them are mixed with the image of "maple trees" and praised. And which "maple" in those poems is maple and which is liquidambar formosana? It is estimated that even the authors themselves cannot tell which one is the maple tree and which one is the liquidambar form. After all, many poets often "force sorrow to compose new words" and moan without any reason.

This article comes from the Species Calendar, welcome to forward

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