Chapter 15 Chapter 14 Hanxiao Only this flower can't be stolen, it smells natural when no one knows it.

Looking through the photos, in 2010, Michelle Blooming was taken on April 4th.But that wasn't the opening time.Michelia has a long flowering period, so the ivory-colored flowers in the tents of green leaves start to bloom sporadically for at least a week.In other words, last year, Michelle bloomed sporadically by the end of March.And this year, the time to take pictures of Hanxiao is already on April 20th. One of the reasons is that the Gregorian calendar is a foreign calendar, which is not as accurate as the native lunar calendar that reflects China's phenology.The second reason is that last winter was extremely cold, and many plants that overwintered in the open field were frozen for a while.Downstairs in the yard, there are several non-indigenous Bauhinia plants. Although the flowering is not good in previous years, the hoof-shaped leaves of the Xina artiodactyl are beautiful in shape, and are often illuminated by the sun, which is quite eye-catching.This year it will not work. Until today, not only have no new leaves germinated, but the leaves that have been frozen and wilted in the winter have been falling in pieces.The same is true for a row of tall Erythrina trees outside the courtyard wall. At this time in previous years, clusters of red flowers have bloomed, and new leaves have only grown this year.But Michelia is a native temperate plant, just replace new leaves, germinate flower buds, and bloom flowers according to its own rhythm.Many spring flowers, especially those that bloom first, such as plums, plums, peaches and apricots, can create momentum.Before opening, the densely packed buds are becoming more and more colorful day by day, which is equivalent to loudly announcing the forecast of brilliant bloom day by day.

Red magnolia and white magnolia, which belong to the same family of magnolias as Michelle, are equally impressive. Michelle is different, clumps stand by the side of the road.When the sun is bright, their waxy evergreen leaves glisten in excitement.When the weather is dark, they are also dumb and sad.But one evening or morning, when you walk through those evergreen bushes, you will suddenly smell a fragrance.A strong sweet aroma.I knew that it was the smile that opened at the right time.This sweet taste is most similar to the fragrance of bananas.Therefore, in some places, this flower has another common name, banana flower.But that's some places further south than Chengdu.People in Chengdu still call it by its correct name: smiling.

Smelling this sweet fragrance, and then looking closely at the round crown, you can see that among the dense branches, under the alternate oval leaves, on the small angle between the petiole and the branches - botanically called leaf axils In that place, one or two smiling, bloomed its 6 small fleshy petals.The petals are pale yellow with a purple halo around the edges.Recognizable by the emerald-green spikes that protrude from the center of the petals, it is a relative of magnolia magnolia and euphyllum, botanically belonging to the same family of plants: the magnoliaceae.Yesterday, I went to Xiling Snow Mountain to see Rhododendron and Davidia involucrata. There was heavy fog on the mountain, and the cableway was overhauled, so I couldn’t see anything. I fell down near the village near Huashuiwan Town and saw Magnolia officinalis blooming.Blossoming huge flowers are held high on the top of the branches.Compared with other magnolias, Michelia has a low plant and small flowers, and it does not open at the same time like other magnolias, but one after another, with a long flowering period.According to the book, the flowering period of Michelia can last as long as 3 to 4 months. According to my observation, the flowering period of Michelia in Chengdu is more than one month. Therefore, from the end of March to the beginning of May, you can smell the sweet fragrance inadvertently. .

What's more lovely is that this flower often emits the strongest dark fragrance at dusk.Therefore, Deng Runfu, a poet of the Song Dynasty, chanted this flower, weeping in the morning dew, full of spring in the night. That is to say, in the morning, it condenses the green dew that is ready to drip, and at night, it uses fragrance to render the spring. Yang Wanli, a more famous person from the Song Dynasty, even said that this flower is "a natural fragrance that no one knows about".So today some people say that the flower language of this flower is: reserved and reserved. The term flower language does not seem to be native Chinese culture.But I guess, the so-called flower language of Michelia, a native Chinese plant, is not the definition of Westerners, but the meaning attached to it by Chinese people based on its characteristics.

Li Gang, a native of the Southern Song Dynasty, wrote an "Ode on Flowers with Smiles": "The beauty of southern flowers and trees is like a smile. The green leaves are plain and fragrant. It is a flower. It is a flower. It is lucky to be lucky. The price is very high. There are six petals in the leaf axils of peanuts. There are red or purple halos on the fleshy edges. There are bananas. Smell. The flowers are often like the ones that have not bloomed, that is, they are not fully bloomed and drooping. They are condensed by the railings, and they are fragrant when they are in Zhizhi Pavilion;

Therefore, I am interested in this text because: 1. Our ancients seldom described the shape of flowers and trees so directly; 2. It shows that the cultivation of Michelia had begun at that time, and it was transplanted from the south farther south than Hangzhou ( "Benefit into luck" means being favored by the emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty).But when did Chengdu have a smile, it is still unknown. I searched for words about Hanxiao on the Internet, and got a few sentences, which were written by my close friend Su Manshu in the novel "The Story of Jiangsha": "When I woke up at noon in the pavilion, I saw the fifth aunt who was in strict obedience, and gave the flower of Michelle to the rest." And According to my many years of experience, Chinese people do not have the habit of giving gifts with a smile on their faces.Presumably, he wrote this into the article because of the deep love of this versatile and Buddhist man.There happened to be "Su Manshu's Anthology of Poetry and Prose" on the shelf. After checking it, I found out that this article was written in 1915.Three years later, Su Manshu died at the age of thirty-five and was buried in Hangzhou.

Today, a friend was calling for a drink in Kuan Alley. When I arrived early, I went to see the Scattered Flower Bookstore.Because you can often get some books about Chengdu there, but after looking through it for a while, I didn’t find any books about the cultivation of flowers and trees in Chengdu, and I didn’t see any words about plants written by Chengdu literati.Then, drink, lightly smoked, and come back to write this Chengdu Wuhou Ji. April 22, 2011