Plum blossom, also known as Chun Mei and Hongmei. Prunus of Rosaceae is a deciduous tree with few shrubs. The height can reach 5 ~ 6 meters. Crown spread, bark light gray or light green. Branchlets are slender, pointed, green and glabrous. Leaves broadly ovate or ovoid, with serrated edges, tapering at the top or tail tip, broadly cuneate at the base, pubescent when young or along veins, short petiole and glandular. Pedicel is short, 1 ~ 2 peanuts are on 1 and 2-year-old branches. Calyx tube is bell-shaped, red, dark red and green. Single or double flowers, white, red or reddish, fragrant, usually bloom first and then leave in early spring (1~ February). Drupe is nearly spherical, yellow or green, and matures from May to June.
Plum blossoms are native to China and mainly cultivated in the Yangtze River valley and southwest China. I like a warm and humid climate, and I want to grow in a sunny, ventilated and cool place, which is resistant to waterlogging and drought.
Plum strain
According to the species type, Prunus mume can be divided into three species lines, namely true Prunus mume, dark Prunus mume and dark Prunus mume. Under it, it is mainly divided into five categories according to the branch posture. The first kind is called straight plum. Branches are straight or inclined. This is the oldest and most gorgeous member of the Mei family, with 9 seeds such as plums and palace powder. The second class name is weeping plum. Branches droop naturally or obliquely, and there are five kinds of drooping branches such as pink flowers. The third class name is Long Youmei. Branches naturally twist like dragons, only 1 (dragon and plum) and 1 (jade butterfly and dragon pattern). The name of the fourth class is Xingmei. In Song Dynasty, Fan Chengda recorded the interspecific hybridization between Nami and apricot for the first time in Li Shu. Flowers, leaves and branches live among apricots.' Apricot' is not fragrant or slightly fragrant (non-apricot), and its receptacle is enlarged. There are single apricot and plum types and late spring types. The fifth category is cherry plum, which is an artificial hybrid of purple leaf plum and Gongfen plum. It's a purple leaf safflower with double petals and big flowers, which is cold-resistant.
The origin and development of plum
According to written records, Mei has at least 3000 years of application history. According to archaeological findings, plum trees have been cultivated or applied in China for more than 7,000 years. "Food is the most important thing for the people". In the initial introduction and cultivation of plum trees, the purpose was to eat plum fruits. With the development of society, after long-term natural selection and artificial cultivation, it has gradually developed into an introduction cultivation with equal emphasis on ornamental and edible ornamental.
According to the research of Chen Junyu and Bao Manzhu, the cultivation history of plum blossom in China can be roughly divided into two stages. Before the Western Han Dynasty, plum blossoms were mainly introduced and cultivated. Then there is the plum cultivation stage, which is subdivided into five periods: initial prosperity, gradual prosperity, prosperity and development.
The Book of Classics says, "Making harmonious soup will only add salt to plums." Salt and plum in Shang Dynasty are equivalent to soy sauce and vinegar used in cooking today. It can be seen that Mei played a very important role in people's lives at that time. Since then, with the development of society, there are more and more records about Mei. For example, "Zhou Li Tianguan" said: "Feeding is actually dry." According to textual research, Liao is an ancient name for eating plums. Around the 6th century BC, there was a poem called Plum in the earliest collection of famous folk songs in China, "Plum is actually seven! Beg me to take time to go to Ji Xi! ..... ",that is," Pick the plum fruit from the tree and throw it to the right person, and 70% of the fruit will be left. Don't miss the chance of my Mr Right ... "This is a meaningful song. It can be inferred from the poem "You Mei" that plum trees were quite common in Zhao Lan, Shaanxi (Western Zhou Dynasty, Liang Yong) at that time. It is possible that this period has entered the introduction stage of wild plum. The introduction and cultivation of plum trees here can be considered as the purpose of eating fruits as medicine, not appreciating flowers.
In ancient times, people planted plum trees for food or sacrifice. In the long-term domestication and cultivation process, compound petals, double petals, terraces, exotic petals or sepals, novel branches in plum blossoms and colorful flowers have appeared. So people with a heart will breed and cultivate them separately, thus cultivating many new plum varieties with high ornamental value. Therefore, "gorgeous" comes from "Guo Mei". It is speculated that this period is about the early years of the Western Han Dynasty. The written record of plum blossom varieties is Xijing Miscellanies of the same period. For example, "the forest garden was built in the early Han Dynasty, and different trees appeared in the distance." There are Zhu Mei and Rouge Plum. Later, Yang Xiong wrote "Shu Du Fu" with the description of "cherry blossoms, plums and trees with magnolia". It can be seen that plum has been used as a greening tree species in Chengdu towns or gardens more than 2,000 years ago. In the Jin Dynasty, plum blossom cultivation became more common, and there were also poems praising plum blossom. For example, Lu Kai, a former undertaker, picked plum blossoms from Jingzhou, Hubei Province in early spring and gave them to Fan Wei, who was far away in Chang 'an, with a short poem: "Fold plum blossoms and send them to the leader; Jiangnan has nothing, talk about a spring. " It can be said that since Lu Kai, plum blossom, like plum fruit, can be used as a gift and is closely related to people's lives. In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the more plum blossoms were used, the more poetry and romance about plum blossoms flourished. As Yang Wanli said in Preface to Poems with Mei, "Mei is named after flowers".
In its heyday, plum blossoms were cultivated in Sui (58 1 ~ 6 18), Tang (6 18 ~ 907) and Five Dynasties (907 ~ 960), and the varieties increased. This has attracted more attention from scholars, and a large number of poems have emerged, which plays a considerable role in carrying forward the spirit of plum blossom, improving its popularity and expanding its cultivation scale. Since then, more and more people have praised Mei. According to Huayang County Records, at the beginning of the Five Dynasties, Wang Jian became king according to Shu and established Meiyuan in Chengdu. When Meng Tianxiang became king in Chengdu, there was an old plum tree named "Meilong" lying in another garden. It can be seen that plum was widely planted in Tang and Five Dynasties, East China, Central China and South China. According to the investigation, plum varieties in Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties were mainly Jiang Mei and Gongfen, and cinnabar varieties appeared in Sichuan. It can be seen that the varieties of plum blossoms in this period are also richer than before.
From the prosperous times to the Song and Yuan Dynasties (960 ~ 1368), the development of China art plum entered a prosperous time. A large number of new varieties have emerged and cultivation techniques have been continuously improved. Shi Mei, Mei Wen, Meihua and Shu Mei stand out. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the prosperity of Yimei was also manifested in the emergence of new varieties of plums. For example, in addition to Jiang Mei, Gongfen and Cinnabar, new varieties such as Yudie, Sajin, Huang Xiang and Xingmei were added. Today, a plum tree in Caoxi Temple in Kunming, Yunnan Province, despite its advanced age, has blossomed and borne fruit every year.
In the prosperous period, in the Ming Dynasty (1368 ~ 1644) and the Qing Dynasty (1644 ~1911), the plum blossom cultivation scale was expanded, the cultivation technology level was improved, and a large number of new varieties emerged. This feature is reflected in the books, essays, poems and paintings of Meihua. For example, in the Ming Dynasty, Wang recorded 19 plum varieties in Qunfangpu, which were divided into three categories: Bai Mei, Hongmei and Yipin, and each variety was briefly recorded, and the propagation and cultivation techniques were introduced. At about the same time, Zhou Wenhua's History of Runan Garden and Xu Guangqi's Annals of Agriculture recorded a number of plum blossom varieties. By the Qing Dynasty, plum blossom planting was more prosperous, with more varieties, more people writing about plum blossoms and innovative forms. "Flower Mirror" records 2 plum varieties1plum, among which "Taige" plum and "Zhaoshui" plum are unprecedented. Among the "Eight Eccentrics in Yangzhou", many people are famous for Yongmei and painting plums. Jin Nong, Li Yunying, etc. It is also famous for painting plums. A lot of Gu Mei remained in Ming and Qing Dynasties, which is the historical witness of plum blossom cultivation at that time. In Suzhou, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Chengdu and other places at that time, planting plum trees was a famous place to enjoy plum. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the cultivation of plum blossom and the writing of plum blossom by literati reached a high level, which played an important role in the development of artistic plum blossom.
Development period After the Revolution of 1911, plum blossom cultivation entered a modern development period. Plum blossom varieties are scattered all over the country and concentrated in nurseries. The cultivation and research of plum blossom are quite prosperous, and both interspecific hybridization and distant hybridization have achieved results. Plum blossom works are published repeatedly, plum blossom academic seminars are held irregularly, and plum blossom writers emerge one after another and abound. With the development of modern botany in China, China horticulturists made a systematic study on plum blossom varieties. After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), the cultivation and research of plum blossom have developed rapidly. Nanjing, Wuxi, Wuhan, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing and other plum gardens have collected a large number of varieties, the scale of traditional plum gardens has expanded rapidly, and a number of new plum gardens are under construction or have been completed. In recent twenty years, with the continuous improvement of breeding technology, distant hybridization has achieved fruitful results, and resistance breeding has also been fruitful, constantly enriching plum varieties. In recent years, with the increase of foreign exchange, more than 100 varieties have been introduced from Japan and the United States, and dozens of new varieties have been bred through hybridization, including many excellent varieties. In addition, the rapid propagation technology of plum blossom in vitro was established, which provided a good foundation for large-scale cultivation of plum blossom.
The origin of plums
China is the origin of plums, which is universally acknowledged and confirmed by sufficient facts. Whether Japan and other countries have the origin of plum has always been controversial in academic circles, forming two schools with completely different views. Chinese horticulturists generally believe that plum blossom originated in China, and Japanese scholars basically hold this view. However, Japanese scholars represented by Takeshi Miyazawa believe that Japan has the origin of plum blossom. They listed the morphological characteristics of the so-called "wild plum" in Japan to distinguish the existing plum varieties. From this point of view, Japan and other countries have no real origin of plums, which needs further research. Bao Manzhu believes that with the development of modern biotechnology, the question about the origin of plums will be satisfactorily answered. If there is independent origin and natural distribution, the possibility of cross-pollination in China and Japan, which are separated by a sea, is extremely small, and its population should have specific DNA composition. On the other hand, if there is no obvious difference in DNA composition, then Japanese plum is probably formed by fleeing from Shan Ye after spreading from China.
Natural distribution of plum blossoms
China's literature about Mei has a long history. But the record of plum production is much later than that of cultivated varieties. In the 6th century, Tao Hongjing recorded in Records of Famous Doctors that Shimei was born in Hanzhong Valley. There is a record about the origin of wild plum in "Flower Mirror", saying that plum originated from Luo Piao, Han Ji and Siming. In the List of Plants on the Island of Taiwan Province Province, the specimens of wild plum trees in Ergui, Hehuanshan and Hsinchu in Taiwan Province Province were collected, and Uehara Keiji recorded in the Tree Map that there were wild plum trees in the upper reaches of Dajiaxi and Xuehuakeng in the upper reaches of Da 'anxi in Taiwan Province.
/kloc-At the beginning of the 9th century, British Clack collected samples of plum trees in Guangdong Province, China, and at the beginning of the 20th century, British E H Wilson collected samples of wild plum trees in western Hubei. From 1930s to 1960s, Chinese botanists successively obtained wild plum specimens in Guizhou, Fujian, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hubei, Guangdong and other provinces. A large number of wild plum specimens have also been collected in many places in Yunnan and Sichuan Province.
In recent years, Chinese horticulturists have conducted a lot of investigations and found that wild plums are also concentrated in Eryuan, Songming, Deqin, Lushui, Jianchuan, Xiangyun, Yunlong, Ninglang, Binchuan and other counties and cities in Yunnan. In addition, the natural distribution of ebony includes Luotian in Hubei, Xianning in Jiangxi, Jingdezhen in Jiangxi, Huangshan in Anhui, Jianping and Xing 'an in Yunnan, and Napo Mountain in Yugu in Shaanxi, Wenxian and Kangxian in Gansu.
It can be seen that plum is widely distributed in China, with the southern slope of Qinling Mountains in the north, Tongmai in Tibet in the west and Yunnan and Guangdong in the south. * * * There are 16 provinces or regions. In this range, the Hengduan mountain area at the border of Sichuan, Yunnan and Tibet is the natural distribution center and diversity center of plum blossom, and the wild merlin in this area has a large area and many variation types.
Cultivation and distribution of plum blossom
The cultivated distribution area of plum is much larger than the natural distribution area. In addition to cultivating naturally distributed plums, they are cultivated in Beijing, Shandong, Henan and Lhasa, the capital of Xizang Autonomous Region. In addition, plums are also cultivated in Hainan Province. In the northern cultivation areas, plum blossoms are mainly cultivated and ornamental. However, the most concentrated area of plum appreciation in China is the Yangtze River valley. In this area, many plum gardens have been built, one of which has a long history and has formed a certain influence at home and abroad, such as Wuhan Donghu Meiyuan, Wuxi Meiyuan, Nanjing Meihuashan and Chengdu Du Fu Caotang. In recent years, with the continuous spread and popularization of plum culture, there are more scenic spots to enjoy plum in the north, and many plum gardens have been built or are under construction. According to Yang Naiqin's statistics on plum gardens in China, there are nearly 30 large and small plum gardens (including those under construction) in China. Among them, the number of plum gardens built in Jiangsu Province ranks first in the country, followed by Zhejiang and Sichuan.