Paphiopedilum sclerophyllum, a beautiful legend

As a member of the orchid family, Paphiopedilum sclerophyllum, like its other friends, has a graceful body and charming flowers. Since Paphiopedilum sclerophyllum mostly grows in remote places such as deep mountains and cliffs, it rarely shows its true face. It was not until 1951 that botanist Mr. Wang Fazan discovered this beautiful Paphiopedilum in Malipo, Yunnan Province. Perhaps unwilling to take off its mysterious veil, Paphiopedilum sclerophyllum has played a big joke on everyone.

The specimen collected by Mr. Wang was a plant with a small flower that had not yet opened, so the hard-leaved Paphiopedilum was given a confusing Latin name, Paphiopedilum micranthum (meaning small-flowered Paphiopedilum). Due to the difficult and dangerous roads and inconvenient surveys, this beautiful elf played hide-and-seek with people in the mountains for 30 years. It was not until the 1980s that orchid expert Mr. Chen Xinqi re-described and published the hard-leaved Paphiopedilum in the wild, truly unveiling its mystery.

Although the plant of Paphiopedilum sclerophyllum is small, it has large and gorgeous flowers. These flowers are either pure and clean, or have peach blossoms, or are dressed in red. They are hidden deep in the mountains like a beautiful woman waiting to be married. Therefore, it is called "Jade Girl Orchid" and is known as one of the most beautiful flowers in the world. When the first living plant appeared at the Hong Kong auction house, the whole world was conquered by its beauty, and each seedling was sold for thousands of dollars. The huge economic benefits became the sword of Damocles hanging over the head of wild Paphiopedilum sclerophyllum. From the early 1990s to the beginning of this century, the number of wild populations of Paphiopedilum sclerophyllum has been greatly reduced.

In the hottest days of orchid trading, these treasures were picked up like cabbages. In addition to direct collection, unplanned deforestation and logging are also destroying the limited living space of Paphiopedilum sclerophyllum, which is tantamount to adding insult to injury for its survival and reproduction. In the past, Paphiopedilum sclerophyllum was widely distributed in the limestone areas of Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi in southwest China; but today, it is difficult to see a large population of Paphiopedilum sclerophyllum in the wild; in many places, we can only associate the splendor of "a thousand flowers blooming" through the remaining plants. In order to retain these mountain elves, to allow them to return to their homeland, and to allow more people to appreciate this beautiful orchid, we began to study and explore the reproduction mechanism of wild Paphiopedilum under the guidance of Professor Luo Yibo.

With the help of the Forestry Department of Guizhou Province and the Forestry Bureau of Dejiang County, Guizhou Province, we finally found a complete population of wild Paphiopedilum sclerophyllum in Dejiang County in northeastern Guizhou. Since Paphiopedilum sclerophyllum is mostly distributed at the junction of Yunnan, Guizhou and Yunnan provinces and in the areas to the south, botanists have long believed that Xingyi in southwestern Guizhou is the northern boundary of its distribution area. When Director Zhou Qing of the Wildlife Conservation Station of the Forestry Department of Guizhou Province sent photos and plant specimens to Beijing for identification, Mr. Luo could not believe his eyes.

Dejiang County is located in the northeast of Guizhou Province, bordering Wujiang River in the south and Fanjing Mountain in the east. It has a mid-subtropical monsoon climate, with no severe cold in winter and no scorching heat in summer. The suitable soil and climate here provide an unexpected paradise for Paphiopedilum sclerophyllum and other orchids. This population, which grows at the northernmost end of the distribution area, is also the wild Paphiopedilum sclerophyllum population with the highest plant density that we can see today. A detailed study of this population can help us better understand the geographical distribution characteristics and growth and reproduction conditions of Paphiopedilum sclerophyllum. In 2001, Dr. Phillip Cribb, Chairman of the Orchid Specialist Group of the World Conservation Association (IUCN), highly praised the research value of this population after a field investigation.

It should be a pleasant thing to be with orchids, but the dance we performed with the Paphiopedilum sclerophyllum was not easy. It was drizzling when we first climbed the mountain. Although there were no big raindrops hitting our heads, the water drops on the weeds and shrubs on the roadside were enough to soak all our clothes and equipment. The rugged mountain road had long since turned into a "cement" road. We could only "climb" the mountain with our hands and feet. In addition, I had no experience climbing limestone mountains before, so I knew where to put my feet at once. Teacher Luo kept telling me the essentials of climbing and stuffed all my equipment into his mountaineering bag.

Although the road from the village to the observation point is not long, we walked for a long time. The sweat and rain on our bodies were mixed together, and with the breeze blowing from time to time, the whole person was wrapped in the bone-penetrating cold, which made people forget that it was late spring and early summer. At this time, the star-like flowers on the rock wall came into our eyes. Those flowers were the hard-leaved Paphiopedilum we had been looking forward to for a long time. A warm current spread throughout my body, and I immediately forgot the desolation and hardship just now. Next, we began to count and record the plants and the flowering conditions. Because the Paphiopedilums all grew on the nearly vertical rock walls, we could only climb up and down by holding on to small trees and grass roots. Although it was hard work, everyone's heart was filled with joy and excitement. Looking at the more than 900 seedlings and more than 100 Paphiopedilum flowers in front of us, the cold and fatigue were completely thrown behind our minds. In this way, we began our close contact with the hard-leaved Paphiopedilum.

The next day, following the clues provided by the locals, we continued to look for more Paphiopedilums. Because Paphiopedilums sclerophyllums generally only grow near the top of the mountain, this means that we have to climb to the top of the mountain to ensure that we can find these elves. But the god of luck is not always on our side. After a difficult climb and careful inspection of both sides of the mountain top, we only found more than 10 Paphiopedilums sclerophyllums, of which only 3 were in bloom. It seems that these elves are quite picky about where to live.

After searching for several times, we had to go down the mountain with regret. On the way down the mountain, a faint fragrance entered everyone's nose, and we soon found the owner of the fragrance in the grass by the roadside - a wild spring orchid. Spring orchid is our traditional orchid variety, and has a cultivation history of thousands of years in my country; because of its elegant color and leisurely fragrance, it is deeply loved by literati and scholars of all generations. The guide Feng Ge told us, "In the early years, many hilltops in Dejiang County were covered with large areas of spring orchids. Due to human factors in the past few years, it was difficult to see this flower in the wild for a period of time.

Fortunately, the local forestry bureau has made great efforts to rectify these illegal activities, and the number of spring orchids has gradually increased. "On the way down the mountain, we also saw another kind of Chinese orchid - cymbidium. Compared with spring orchid, her plant is taller, with more flowers on each inflorescence and a stronger fragrance; but the graceful and moving temperament she reveals is the same as that of spring orchid. In the following days, we walked all over the nearby hills of all sizes. In addition to discovering new populations of hard-leaved Paphiopedilum, many wild orchids such as Hanlan, Rabbit Orchid, and Shrimp Orchid also appeared in front of us one by one. After investigation, we found a total of 7 populations of hard-leaved Paphiopedilum in the observation area. All Paphiopedilum plants grow under bushes or in grass, and their roots are rooted in the thin soil on the rocks. The surrounding bushes are mainly composed of Jinfoshan Viburnum, wild pepper, tail-leaved Polygala, Pyracantha and Xingshan wax tree.

Through hybridization experiments in the greenhouse, we found that as long as pollen is artificially fertilized on the stigma, the hard-leaved Paphiopedilum can bear fruit. So who is serving this beautiful flower in nature without artificial pollination? All we have left is to wait for this mysterious visitor to appear. Since the hard-leaved Paphiopedilum grows on cliffs, there is no place for people to stay, so we can only build a fence with bamboo for people to climb, but even so, it is still dangerous.

When I opened my backpack, my camera accidentally fell out and rolled down for 30 meters before stopping. I was secretly glad that it was not me who fell. Since we did not have any historical records of the reproduction pattern of Paphiopedilum sclerophyllum, we had to stay by their side every day in the early stage of observation, rain or shine. Paphiopedilum sclerophyllum blooms in mid-April every year, which happens to be the local rainy season. The flowers with water droplets hanging on them are more crystal clear. However, too much rain caused a lot of trouble for our daily fixed-point observation.

When observing on rainy days, we can only hold an umbrella with one hand and hold a bamboo pole with the other. It is normal to have backaches after a whole day. The rain here never stops once it starts. Dark clouds and drizzle accompany us almost every day. The temperature always hovers around 15℃. At this time, I wonder how nice it would be if I could hug a stove. There is no comfort in observing on the only sunny days. The scorching sun will take over the cloudy and rainy days to take care of us. Since the observation site is unobstructed, the sun will shine on the hillside where we are after noon every day, making people's scalps tight and it is difficult to open their eyes. We hold on to that expectation, because the wild Paphiopedilum fruits show that the "mysterious visitor" will eventually appear.

Perhaps because the Sclerophyllum sclerophyllum does not have a strong scent, few insects are attracted to the flowers, and even fewer can pollinate them. Occasionally, a few small bees and flies come out to "show off", but they just wander around the flowers. None of them can touch the pollen of the Sclerophyllum, and of course they cannot be involved in pollination. Time passed day by day in this waiting.

Until one day, a black "figure" suddenly appeared on the Paphiopedilum orchid and flashed for a moment, and then the lip of the flower began to shake. I quickly followed the direction and climbed over the fence. The "mysterious visitor" we were waiting for was struggling inside the lip. Not long after, it struggled to climb out of the exit and hurriedly fled with pollen. It turned out that the black and strong bumblebees were pollinating the charming Paphiopedilum sclerophyllum. What's more interesting is that, like other Paphiopedilum orchids, Paphiopedilum sclerophyllum also pollinates by deceiving pollinators. Its beautiful pouch-shaped lip is a gentle trap for pollinators, attracting those bumblebees that can't resist the temptation. Once trapped in this trap, the bumblebee can only obediently let the Paphiopedilum sclerophyllum brush pollen on its back, and cannot get any food, otherwise it will never escape. I don’t know whether it’s because the Paphiopedilum orchid is too beautiful or some bumblebees have short memories, but they will still crawl into the trap of another flower, so that the pollen originally on the bumblebee’s back will be successfully transferred to the stigma, and the Paphiopedilum baby (seeds) will begin to grow in the fruit.

Compared with animals, the first impression of plants is often inferior and rigid. However, when you see such a delicate reproduction process, I believe you will also be amazed at the wisdom of plants. The design of nature is so exquisite. It is not just the Paphiopedilum that is "smart". In our spare time, we also observed the flowering Alpinia officinalis. Its stigma can move. Some plants raise their stigma in the morning and scatter pollen, so that their pollen will not stick to their stigma. In the afternoon, when the pollen is scattered, the stigma will droop, so that it can accept pollen from other plants; other plants droop their stigma in the morning to accept pollen, and raise their stigma in the afternoon and scatter pollen. In this way, Alpinia officinalis cleverly avoids self-pollination and produces weak offspring. It is a pity that we were not the first to discover this interesting phenomenon. Dr. Li Qingjun discovered this phenomenon in 2001 and published his description in the British journal Nature, which caused quite a stir in the biological community at the time. There are too many wonderful little secrets in nature waiting for us to explore.

After pollination, the Paphiopedilum will start to grow in no time. The fruit will slowly grow and swell. Before the first snowflakes fall, the dust-like seeds will break free from the cracked fruit and follow the wind to find a new home. Year after year, the Paphiopedilum sclerophyllum repeats this simple and beautiful story in its own little paradise, and thrives.

However, there are always unexpected events, and their peaceful lives are sometimes interrupted by unexpected changes, such as the hailstorm in 2006. That day, we were checking the pollination of Paphiopedilum sclerophyllum on the mountain. The dark clouds in the sky were getting thicker and thicker, pushing the sultry heat of many days to a new level. At this time, the muffled sound of hail cannons came from the distance, and the guide Feng said: "Not good, it may snow marbles (local dialect, hail), we should hurry down the mountain." Looking at the few flowers that had not been checked in the distance, I reluctantly followed him down the mountain. A moment later, we realized how wise this decision was. As soon as we reached the foot of the mountain, heavy rain and strong winds poured down all at once.

We didn't even bother to hold an umbrella, we just wrapped the camera in a rain cover and ran to the camp. As soon as we rushed into the house, hailstones as big as eggs began to fall outside. The hail lasted for 20 minutes, breaking many tiles on the roof and destroying the vegetable fields and crops outside. Then came the flood from the mountain. From a distance, the path we had just walked on had become a small river, and the only way to pass in the dry riverbed was buried under the flood.

At this time, I could only secretly pray that the Paphiopedilum sclerophyllum on the mountain would escape the disaster. Two days later, the flood subsided, and we rushed up the mountain anxiously to see the Paphiopedilum. The situation on the hillside was worse than that at the foot of the mountain. Almost all the trees were hit by hail, making people feel that autumn had suddenly arrived. The Paphiopedilum sclerophyllum under the bushes was not spared either. Many flowers had long disappeared, and the few remaining ones were also beaten to pieces, without any "flower" color. Brother Feng replanted the plants that were washed out back to their original positions. Although most of the plants were safe and sound, the heaviness in our hearts made us speechless at this moment.

In this peaceful valley, we spent four years in the company of Paphiopedilum, where flowers bloomed and faded. I hope more people will join the ranks of protecting Paphiopedilum sclerophyllum, and hope that one day Paphiopedilum sclerophyllum can return to where they once lived, and hope that one day Paphiopedilum sclerophyllum can show their beauty and wisdom to everyone, and hope that they will bloom more and more beautifully and gorgeously in the days to come.