This seasonal rose-colored sea of ​​flowers is actually called Pig

I still remember that it was the end of April, the clear sky between two rains, the most intense spring in Northeast Asia. Standing in the vast birch forest, with soft humus underfoot, the stream flowing slowly through the forest, the mountains full of red, white, green and yellow wildflowers, the whole world running in the shadow of clouds.

This was the scene before I first saw the pigtooth flower.

First encounter with the wild pigtooth flower

If you want to visit beautiful wild flowers in China, you usually need to travel a whole day with a local experienced plant lover or guide. But I never thought that my friend and I would see a large area of ​​pig's tooth flowers after just a few steps on the road. I couldn't move my feet away for fear of stepping on them all over the mountains and fields.

Pig's tooth flower. Image: Uncle Zhong

This rose-colored, beautiful, drooping flower has a seemingly vulgar Chinese name, which is generally believed to come from its pointed, pig-tooth-like bulb. The English common name of the genus Trout-lily (trout lily) or Fawn-lily (young deer lily) may come from the large or small blocky spots on the leaf surface.

Although the flowers of the pig's tooth flower hang down, the tepals are bent upward when in full bloom, so some people believe that the upward petals like pig's teeth are the origin of the "pig's tooth flower". Therefore, it is easy to observe the hand-painted pattern on the inside of the tepals. This may be a "nectar guide" structure that conveys the location of the nectar gland to pollinating insects.

Bumblebees trying to find food. Image: Uncle Zhong

During the 10 minutes that I lay next to a large group of dogtooth flowers, four bumblebees were busy coming and going. The anthers of the dogtooth flowers that bloom upside down look like a ball of powder when they open. This may be similar to the buzz-pollination method of bumblebees in the Ericaceae and Solanaceae families. When bumblebees obtain nectar, they hold the stigma and anthers from the bottom and use vibration to make the pollen fall on the stigma. But occasionally there are dishonest bumblebees that lie directly on the back of the flower and use their mouthparts to pierce the petals to obtain nectar.

Taking photos of the beautiful sea of ​​flowers is the real happiness. Photo: Uncle Zhong

Gusts of wind blew, and the petals swayed in the wind. This was the happiest time I had in that spring.

A brief spring in the shade of trees

But this spring is short-lived. The birch and larch forests are sprouting new leaves. In two months, the forest will be shrouded in green shade. At that time, the light under the forest will be greatly reduced, and the stems and leaves of the dogtooth flower will wither in the summer, preserving their lives in the underground bulbs, waiting to unfold their leaves and bloom again in the early spring of the following year.

This is a survival strategy of the temperate forest herbaceous plants in the northern hemisphere, including the dogtooth flower, which is also known as the early spring short-lived plants. The nutrients stored in the underground tissues allow the dogtooth flower to quickly sprout leaves and bloom when the ice and snow begin to melt. At this time, the leaves of the deciduous broad-leaved forest have not yet grown, and the dead leaves on the ground are well-lit. The leaves of the dogtooth flower can desperately photosynthesize and accumulate nutrients. At this time, the flowers can also bloom due to the light and heat, which is enough to attract insects that have just ended their hibernation to come for pollination and fruiting.

When the broadleaf trees have unfolded their leaves and the dogtooth flowers have matured, the surface parts can transfer nutrients to the ground in time, and then wither and die. Throughout the autumn and winter, they seem to disappear until they bloom again from the dead leaves the following year.

When I see the dogtooth flower again, it is already spring and summer again. Photo: Alpsdake / wikimedia commons

The common fate of ant-seeded plants

By blooming in early spring and dying above ground in summer, Corythuja has solved the problems of vegetative growth, pollination and surviving the long winter. But another problem is seed dispersal: Corythuja grows and blooms almost close to the ground, and it can neither spread seeds by wind like trees or many of its lily relatives, nor spread seeds by sticking them on animals like grasses and chrysanthemums. So are they limited to living in a small forest forever?

Although it has no wings, the dogtooth lily can still travel around the world. Photo: Kropsoq / wikimedia commons

But nature has already given the answer - there is a small group of transparent, oil-rich oleosomes on one end of the seeds of the dogtooth flower. When the fruits of the dogtooth flower are ripe, the ants in the forest will be attracted to move these seeds and bring them back to the nest as food. But don't worry, they will only eat the oleosomes and some seeds. Most seeds will take root and germinate in those abandoned ant nests. Ant nests are often loose and breathable, and there are food residues discarded by ants, which provide a good source of nitrogen, enough for these seeds to develop into new populations. Many studies have shown that in forests with sufficient ants, the spread and growth rate of plants with oleosomes in seeds is more than 10 times higher. They are also called "ant-sown plants."

Pig's tooth flower is not alone. It is surrounded by Anemone, Eranthis, Adonis of the Ranunculaceae, Corydalis and Sanguinaria of the Papaveraceae, Gymnospermium and Plagiorhegma of the Berberidaceae, Trillium of the Veratraceae, etc. These short-lived wild flowers in early spring in the temperate deciduous broad-leaved forests of the Northern Hemisphere are distantly related to each other, but they have all developed similar traits or survival strategies of flowering and fruiting in early spring, withering in summer and autumn, and having oily seeds that attract ants to spread them. This is the "woodland plants syndrome" formed by convergent evolution.

Eranthis stellata. Image: Shushu Zhong

Most of them are covered with Anemone raddeana. Image: Uncle Zhong

Fresh Coptis chinensis Plagiorhegma dubium. Image: Uncle Zhong

Cooperate with Ant to "travel" across the mainland

In the Liliaceae family, the genus Curculigo is most closely related to the genus Tulipa, which is widely distributed in West Asia and Central Asia, and the genus Corvallis in southern East Asia. However, thanks to its cooperation with ants and its adaptation to life under temperate broad-leaved forests, Curculigo has spread from Eurasia to North America. The 20 to 30 existing species have almost "traveled" through the entire circum-Arctic temperate broad-leaved forest region. Plants on the two continents of Eurasia and North America flourished many times through exchanges across the Bering Isthmus during the warm Paleogene, but were separated by the oppression of Quaternary glaciers and recovered during the interglacial period. Therefore, they have discontinuous distribution and similar characteristics. Curculigo can be found from Japan to Kamchatka, from the Caucasus Mountains to Scandinavia, from Alaska in western North America to the Great Smoky Mountains in the southeast.

Erythronium montanum. Image: Shushu Zhong

Erythronium americanum. Image: Shushu Zhong

Erythronium grandiflorum. Image: Zhong Shushu

Erythronium albidum. Image: Zhong Shushu

There are two species of Erythronium in my country. One is Erythronium sibiricum distributed in Xinjiang, and the other is Erythronium japonicum distributed in Jilin and Liaoning. I encountered it in late April. They bloom into a sea of ​​pink flowers in the Tianshan Mountains in northwest my country, Changbai Mountain and Lesser Khingan Mountains in the east after the ice and snow melt.

Of course, the dogtooth flower occasionally has white flowers, standing tall in the sea of ​​roses. Image: Uncle Zhong

In addition, dogtooth lily has also left its mark in the lives of indigenous peoples. Some indigenous peoples in North America, Siberia and Europe have the custom of eating starch from the bulbs of dogtooth lily plants. In Japan, it is called katakuriko, which was originally used to cook tempura.

Spring is beautiful

In places where the four seasons are like spring, spring is actually not easy to perceive.

I grew up in the subtropical area south of the Yangtze River. Every year in the city, from the almost snowless winter to the midsummer, it seems that only the temperature changes, and the physical sensation changes from being a little timid to changing to a cool mat. At that time, when I looked out the window from home and the classroom, I was used to seeing banyan trees, camphor trees, cedars and sycamores. Except for the sycamores, which shed their leaves in autumn and sprout new buds in spring, most of the others are evergreen trees, which are green all year round, and even the stamens emerge from the treetops silently. It was not until I went to college in the Yangtze River Basin that I saw the cherry blossoms blooming like clouds in spring for the first time. From then on, for me, every spring has a definite mark - those blooming flowers.

The beauty of spring may be due to the contrast between the cold winter and the hot summer. Image: Uncle Zhong

But the spring in the Yangtze River Basin is still not warm, perhaps because the winter here is not as harsh as the poems say. In the following years, I lived and studied in the central United States. After experiencing blizzards that could bury half a car and long years of withering, I understood more clearly the significance of spring to most people living in temperate zones. When I saw large areas of dogtooth flowers blooming in the wild in Washington, Missouri, Jilin and Xinjiang again and again, spring was no longer a gentle and shy aria, but a magnificent symphony that exploded in my ears.

Spring won't stay forever, but it will come back. Photo: Kropsoq / wikimedia commons

May spring return to everyone's heart again, and we will once again chase that world full of seasons, chase the rolling mountains, chase the blooming spring flowers, chase the falling autumn leaves, chase the migratory birds, chase the solidified frost and snow, chase the dancing glow, chase the changes and eternity in all cycles and turmoil.

This article is the 117th article in the 6th year of the Species Calendar, and comes from the Species Calendar author @钟蜀黍.