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This article comes from the official account of Wechat: back to Park (ID:fanpu2019), author: Huang Yan

Recently, it is the peak period for viewing red leaves in the suburbs of Beijing. Xiangshan, Pofengling and other places at the weekend are full of tourists and heavy traffic. The author lives in Beijing and experienced the "autumn peak" of Xiangshan last weekend. Some people refer to all the leaves that turn red in autumn as "maple leaves", which is actually not accurate. To be exact, the word "Maple" is a confused account, and the red leaves all over the fragrant mountains are not surnamed "Hong".

In ancient times, the earliest plant known as "maple" was Liquidambar formosana Hance, which belongs to the genus Liquidambar formosana of Hamamelidaceae. It has this name because its branches and leaves are thin and weak, as if swaying in the wind all the time. In Shuo Wen Jie Zi written by Xu Shen in the Eastern Han Dynasty, it is mentioned that "Maple, wood is also." thick leaves and weak branches are good at shaking. a man, from the sound of the wood wind. Therefore, the "maple" in ancient poems should refer to maple incense trees in many cases, such as the famous sentences such as "I went to the head of the Xunyang River to see off a visitor in autumn, and the cold wind blew maple leaves and Reed flowers in autumn."Yulu withered maple forest. Wushan Wu Gorge Xiao Sen"parking only because of the love of the evening maple forest, the frosted maple leaves are more red than the flowers of February." the moon has fallen crows crying autumn frost all over the sky, and maple trees along the river refer to maple trees.

Figure 1. Wikipedia Liquidambar formosana is also a very excellent tree species. It likes light, fast growth, strong sex, and does not have strict requirements on soil and water environment, so it is often used as a "pioneer" tree species for afforestation. In practice, maple incense is often mixed with coniferous plants such as pine and fir to artificially form a coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forest belt that simulates nature, which can greatly improve forest species diversity, conserve water sources and maintain ecological stability and balance. In addition, Liquidambar formosana also has a certain economic value, the fat, fruit, root, leaf and bark of Liquidambar formosana can be used as medicine. Its wood is light and soft, less used in building materials, but it is mostly used in packing boxes, furniture and so on. Its resin can also be used as a dyestuff. Up to now, some ethnic minority areas in southwest China still retain the traditional process of "maple incense dyeing".

Figure 2. Https://www.ihchina.cn/ project_details / 10462 Liquidambar formosana dyed works are difficult to survive the winter in the open air in the north, so they are mostly distributed in the south of China. When the southern literati came to the north, they saw the maple tree in the north and mistakenly thought it was also a maple tree, so they also called it "maple". The leaves of Acer and Liquidambar formosana are similar, and both turn red in autumn, so this misunderstanding is inevitable. For example, the Qunfang Spectrum of Wang Xiangjin in the Ming Dynasty recorded: "Maple, a maple, a maple, a The word "Shi è" here has different meanings in the ancient prose, one refers to the maple incense tree mentioned above, and the other refers to wisteria. Therefore, Zhengzitong explained that "the words are the same but different from those of the tiger." one tree grows, the other trails. " Also in Qunfang Spectrum, the author also mentioned that "(maple) wood is the strongest, there are two kinds of red and white, and the white wood is delicate." But the Eastern Han Dynasty Wang Chong's "on Hengzhouliu" said: "the tree of Maple Tong is born and grows fast, so its skin muscles can not be firm." It is also a "maple". Why does one person say that "wood is the strongest" and the other says that "skin muscles cannot be firm"? Perhaps the most reasonable explanation is that the "maple" mentioned by these two are not the same species at all. In the Ming Dynasty, Wang Xiangjin said that the "wood is the strongest" should be the maple tree, while the "skin muscle cannot be firm" described by Wang Chong in the Eastern Han Dynasty should be the maple incense tree. So how did the ancients distinguish between maple incense and maple? In a word, they are indistinguishable.

Due to the limitations of the times, science and technology, and cognitive level, such misunderstandings of the ancients are not uncommon. For example, tangerine and trifoliate orange are originally two kinds of plants, but they are regarded as the same kind of plants living separately in the north and south. The author strongly suspects that the skill of cloze, which is commonly mastered by English teachers in China, comes from the same line of cultural blood.

Figure 3. The leaves of Liquidambar formosana (left) and Acer (a species of Acer, right) that turn red in autumn (Picture Source: network) Acer (Aceraceae Juss.) belongs to Acer of Acer family, and there are only Acer and Acer under Acer family, the latter only has two species: Acer and Acer yunnanensis, which are distributed in China. There are more than 200 species of Acer, most of which are distributed in the temperate and subtropical zones of the Northern Hemisphere, of which about 80% are distributed in China, Japan and South Korea. Eastern North America also has its own native maple trees, such as Canadian sugar maple. Acer is a famous ornamental tree species in China, among which the most famous species include Acer palmatum Thunb., Acer truncatum Bunge and so on. Although the maples we often see have red leaves, the ornamental maples actually have red and yellow colors, while the yellow ones are equally elegant and beautiful.

Figure 4. Yellow gold leaf compound maple (left) and red Yuanbao maple (right). According to the previous article on the network, the word "maple" gets its name from the thin branches and leaves of the maple tree, which swayed in the wind, and the maple wood is indeed light and soft. In comparison, maple trees are more able to stand up. Acer wood is slightly harder than maple wood, similar to beech wood, can be subdivided into soft maple and hard maple, the former includes red maple, silver maple, the latter mainly white maple, black maple and so on. Acer wood color is mostly milky white or wood white, but also red-brown or gray-brown varieties, because of its beautiful texture, it is often used as veneer on the furniture surface that needs to do mountain grain. Some varieties of Acer have good wood quality and can also be used as building materials.

Figure 5. White Acer (left) and Red Acer (right) plank (figure source: network Acer and Liquidambar formosana) are also a kind of plants with a long history of cultivation in China. It should be noted that when many marketing accounts introduce the history of maples, they often include the phrase "the maple is sprinkled, the wind is violent and blows the curtain" in the Qiu Xing Fu of Pan Yue in the Western Jin Dynasty. This is also inaccurate. The word "maple" has two sounds, the first reading "Qothers" and the second reading "s è". The former is a plant variety, while the latter refers to the appearance of withered leaves and bare branches. The branches in the courtyard are empty, the leaves are falling, and the strong wind is blowing the curtain. From this we can see that Pan Yue obviously refers to the latter, which should be solved by "scattered branches". Pan Yue's yard may not be full of maples, but nothing can be inferred from this sentence alone.

In short, this is the case, because of the resemblance, the name of "maple" has changed from the maple tree to the maple tree. Later, the word "maple" spread from China to Japan, so the "maple" in Japanese culture has always been a maple tree but not a maple tree. Later, Japan passed it back, which further strengthened this understanding of the Chinese people. A simple folk way to distinguish between maple trees and maples is called "three maples and five maples", that is, the leaves of maple trees are three-lobed (with three pointed leaves) and the leaves of maple trees are five-lobed. However, this method is not always accurate. With the development of modern agriculture and forestry, three-split, seven-split or even nine-split maples have been cultivated, such as the famous chicken-claw maple. At present, the best way to divide is to look at the fruit, the furry is the maple tree, and the one with a pair of small wings is the maple (the scientific name is Samara).

Figure 6. The fruit of maple incense (left) and maple (right): Internet modern "maple" is actually the same as "salmon", is a broad folk concept, and there is no strict scientific definition. To put it simply, most ornamental maples that look like the "maple leaves" on the Canadian flag can be called maples, and even the words "maple" and "maple" are often mixed. For example, the "Yuanbao maple" in Xiangshan is also called "Yuanbao maple", and the "sugar maple" in North America is also called "sugar maple". The most famous ornamental species of maple should be Acer, which turns red only in autumn.

Figure 7. Spring and summer (left) and autumn (right) chicken claw maple leaves: the network later had an abnormal creature called human, thought that their red time was too short to bear to see, so specially cultivated a variety of chicken claw Acer. Each leaf is red from germination to withering, which is called "red maple". Later, the Japanese improved the red maple to make its plant type short, like the semi-shady environment, suitable for indoor planting, this new variety is also called "Japanese red maple". At the same time, the word "maple" is only accurate to the genus in biological taxonomy, that is, there are several species under the genus Acer, so its morphology is also very rich. Not all maple leaves are like maple leaves in the traditional impression. For example, long-winged maple, camphor leaf maple and so on, the leaves are not like "maple leaves" at all.

Figure 8. Is it difficult to see the relationship between the leaves of long-winged maple (left) and camphor leaf maple (right)? Source: Chinese Flora Volume 46, some readers of the Chinese plant image database may ask, does the red leaf contain chlorophyll? Can red leaves still carry out photosynthesis? Such issues should be discussed separately. Leaves contain a variety of pigments, such as turquoise or yellowish green chlorophyll, yellow carotenoids, red or purple anthocyanins and so on. Among them, there is and only chlorophyll has the function of photosynthesis, so whether leaves can carry out photosynthesis or not basically depends on whether it contains chlorophyll or not. For ordinary green leaves, chlorophyll in the pigment is overwhelmingly dominant, which can naturally carry out normal photosynthesis. For autumn leaves, the synthesis of chlorophyll has been stopped, and the existing ones have been gradually destroyed, and the dominant ones are lutein and anthocyanins, so they become yellow and red, so such leaves naturally can no longer carry out photosynthesis. However, for improved varieties such as red maple, the leaves are red at birth, but it does not mean that there is no chlorophyll, but the anthocyanin content is too high, covering the color of chlorophyll. Such "red leaves" can also carry out photosynthesis. Sometimes there are white or yellow stripes and patches caused by abnormal pigment synthesis in plant leaves, which is called "Jinhua" in horticulture, and the parts that appear Jinhua usually have no ability of photosynthesis.

Figure 9. The emergence of the white brocade of the https://www.shuiqisenlin.com/ baike / Monstera-Albo-Borsigiana#x, represented by the tortoise back bamboo, green velvet and green pineapple, can be said to be a "Jinhua family". Succulent plants also have the phenomenon of brocade, quite ornamental, so some vendors use drugs to treat succulent plants to "brocade", known as "medicine brocade", but medicine brocade is neither beautiful nor healthy, so we are advised not to buy it. Let's get back to the point. By now, "Maple" and "Maple" are already a bad debt. If there is a hard definition of the two, the plants of the Aceraceae can be called "maples in a broad sense", while those of the genus Acer in the Aceraceae can be called "maples in a narrow sense". The ornamental species of traditional "maple leaves" such as three-split, five-split and seven-split in the middle of the genus Acer can be called "maple". As for the maple incense tree, it can be called "the tears of the times".

After talking for a long time, are the red leaves in Xiangshan and other places in Beijing mainly maple or maple?

The answer is no (the author is laughing wildly).

The red leaves in Xiangshan mainly come from a kind of tree called Huang Kui-that's why the title says that the red leaves are surnamed "Huang". When you see this, readers may want to ask, since none of them are, why do you introduce maple and maple trees for half a day? The reason is also very simple, because the author's fee is calculated according to the number of words, the previous introduction a little more to make money. In order to make money, not shabby.

Figure 10. In spring and summer (left) and autumn (right), wikipedia (Cotinus coggygria Scop.) belongs to the genus Euphorbiaceae. Lacqueraceae and Aceraceae belong to the same disease-free order, so Phellodendron chinense and Aceraceae are distantly related. Unlike Liquidambar formosana and Acer, the first two can often be up to tens of meters high, so they can be used as wood, while Huang Li is a small tree about five meters high, so its wood is difficult to use (perhaps …... Making chopsticks? ), so Huang Jing is basically only used for ornamental purposes in the garden. It got its name because its wood was yellow, and it was a rare natural yellow dye in ancient times when chemical dyes had not yet been invented. Some people think that ancient dragon robes were dyed yellow with yellow robes, but this claim has not been confirmed.

Huang Kui likes light and shade, and is resistant to drought, cold and pollution, so she can grow up in places that are not suitable for living, such as Beijing (the author's real name complains). Huang Jing is also nicknamed "smoke tree" because of its fluffy flowers and pink-purple pedicels that look like smoke from afar. Every autumn, when the temperature difference between day and night widens, the leaves of Codonopsis lanceolata all over the mountains gradually turn red, forming the main part of the beauty of Xiangshan, so Huang Kui also said, "look at red leaves in autumn and enjoy purple smoke in summer." There are also gardening varieties with purple leaves, which are often planted in Beijing's Baiwang Mountain and other places, so they are called purple leaves. Well, it's not called Ziqi.

Figure 11. Wikipedia the author lives in Beijing and doesn't know much about the beauty outside Beijing. Just take Xiangshan in Beijing as an example, the forest in Xiangshan is mainly composed of yellow maple, supplemented by maple trees such as Acer truncatum and Acer truncatum. At the same time, the altitude distribution of Xiangshan is about 100-500 meters, and the microclimate varies with the elevation in this range. In general, the higher the altitude, the earlier the leaves turn red, but the faster they fall, so Xiangshan is red from the top of the mountain to the foot of the mountain. At the same time, light can promote the synthesis of anthocyanins and other red pigments, so the red leaves on the hilltops with good lighting are usually brighter than those in the shade. In addition, although Huang is a species, its horticulture has a variety of colors such as yellow, orange, red and purple, coupled with the assistance of maples, making the beauty of Xiangshan richer and more layered.

Having said so much, where are the most beautiful red leaves in late autumn? Is it Xiangshan in Beijing, Tianping Mountain in Suzhou, Qixia Mountain in Nanjing, or Yuelu Mountain in Changsha? The editor specifically consulted the author for this, and the answer he got was as concise as ever and deeply rooted in the hearts of the people:

In moments.

references

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[2] Wen Lizai, Wen Jinqiang. Ecological characteristics and seedling raising techniques of Liquidambar formosana [J]. Modern Agricultural Science and Technology, 2013, (issue 1): 173184

[3] Lin Jun. Study on Ecological characteristics and Seedling raising techniques of Liquidambar formosana [J]. Seed Technology, 2019, (issue 10): 67-68

[4] Peng Juan, Yu Guo. Research progress of Acer truncatum in China [J]. Botanical Studies, 2021, 10 (2): 97-103

Lu Yunzhou, Huang Libin, he Xudong, Dou Quanqin. A review on the classification and cultivation of horticultural varieties of chicken claws [J]. Jiangsu Forestry Science and Technology, 2014, 41 (5): 41-45.

[6] Chinese Flora editorial Board. Flora of China [M]. Volume 46. Beijing: science Press, 2008.

Jia Zhiguo, Zhang Li. Biological distinction of several species of Acer [J]. China Horticultural Abstracts, 2012, 28 (3): 131132.

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Wang Yong GE, Bu Yanhua, Shu Jianhua, Wang Maoliang, Cong Richen. Effect of light intensity on leaf color change of Acer truncatum in autumn [J]. Journal of Northwest Forestry University, 2015, 30 (2): 70-76.

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