Chapter 19 Chapter 18: Who is the crape myrtle? Flowers are not red for a hundred days, but crape myrtle blooms for half a year.

I haven't been in Chengdu for more than a month, and I have missed the opening and withering of many kinds of flowers. Before the trip, the rosette magnolia had just opened, and the plump buds of the privet were hanging down, ready to spread the fragrance of the flowers.Watching the World Cup in South Africa, I called back to ask, and said that the gardenias had already bloomed.After returning to China, I stopped in Shenzhen for a while, and there were emails from foreign countries asking me if I should write about gardenias.This friend who went to a foreign country said that when he thought of Chengdu, he could smell the fragrance of gardenias.When the World Cup was over and I came back in the middle of the night, when I dragged my suitcase across the yard, I subconsciously searched for the white light of gardenias, and sniffed the curling aroma with my nose.But all of this has come to nothing. I have missed the flowering period of the masts during the more than a month of not being in Chengdu.

When I woke up in the morning, I thought, I missed the mast, where are those crape myrtle?It should have been opened, and it hasn't faded yet.In my impression, the flowering period of crape myrtle is very long, and there is a poem to prove it: "Who knows that flowers are not red for a hundred days, but crape myrtle blooms for half a year." This poem was written by Yang Wanli, a poet in the Song Dynasty.Moreover, not only did he leave such a straightforward observation record in his poems, but a person named Xue Hui in the Ming Dynasty also had a record with little difference: "The crape myrtle flower is the longest, the rotten period is ten days, the summer is more than the autumn sequence, and the new flower Continue to put branches." It is also because of the long flowering period of crape myrtle that in some places, crape myrtle is also known as hundred day red.

Traveling in South Africa, I often marvel at the completeness and beauty of its natural environment. What I am amazed by is the two kinds of trees with gorgeous crowns on the vast savannah. Albizia julienne; a species whose pinnately compound leaves are beautifully shone with sunlight when they topple in the wind.In the resort hotel outside the Kruger National Park, I went out for a walk in the morning and saw two gorgeous male peacocks perched on tall and thick branches.In order to find out the name of this tree, I bought a book introducing local plants at Cape Town Airport.I found the English and Latin names of the tree, and then used the translation thesaurus on the computer, but there was no botany-related content under the Chinese entry.Perhaps, the thesaurus people think that such things are unimportant.Later, when the Chinese driver and tour guide was driving on a road surrounded by such trees, he said, wow!These bignonias are very, very beautiful when they are in bloom.He said that next time the teacher chooses to come in spring, he can see it.

what did I say?Lagerstroemia? Yes, Bigwig. I said, how could it be Ziwei? The tour guide said, really, everyone is called Bigwig. I said, isn't it another name given by us Chinese ourselves?That's why I asked this question, because he called such a beautiful camel thorn tree "toothpick tree".Because the thorns on the branches are really as long as toothpicks, based on our pragmatism and figurativeness in dealing with things, we don’t ask for a name that already exists, but give it a name that directly refers to practicality, and at the same time, it is less aesthetic. In the evening, I searched the Internet at the hotel, and sure enough, the official name of this tree is Ziwei, which is the same as the Ziwei I know, but the characters are different, and it belongs to two different families, whose characteristics are far apart.Bignonia itself belongs to the Bignoniaceae family, while the crape myrtle native to China belongs to the family Chrysanthemum.The biggonia tree is tall, with a gorgeous crown, and its emerald green feathery compound leaves are blowing in the wind. It stands in the high and open African wilderness, and its beauty is really breathtaking.I have seen a kind of tree in this family called jacaranda. When the blue lip-shaped flowers of the tree are in full bloom, it is really like a dream.

Compared with that Ziwei, this Ziwei is slightly inferior in aesthetics.However, regardless of whether our urban climate is suitable for its growth, it is difficult to make enough space for those luxurious and wanton trees even in this cramped space.Therefore, we still love those crape myrtles that have been chanted by the ancients. Lagerstroemia indica is a small tree, often in the shape of a shrub, theoretically 3 to 7 meters high, but in the hands of a gardener, they are always difficult to grow naturally, but are constantly pruned, in order to germinate more new branches, and the trunk will also grow. To grow into a curvy and twisted appearance.Bignonia leaves alternate or opposite, oval, obovate, and Bignonia's feathery compound leaves are quite different.I have seen a big flower Bignonia in Shenzhen.The huge flowers spread out one by one, the yellow flower cores are extremely dazzling, and the palm-sized leaves are also clearly textured, which are brightly illuminated by the sunshine by the sea.

The shape and direction of veins of Lagerstroemia indica leaves are very similar to those of Bigflower, but they are smaller by more than one size, and the trunk is also smaller and smoother, and it is more sensitive to human touch.That kind of grass called mimosa just curls up its leaves when people touch it, while crape myrtle is a tree, and when you stretch out your hand to caress its smooth trunk, the whole tree will tremble slightly.If it was a person, we wouldn't believe he was such a sensitive person from the looks of him, but this guy is.Its branches seem hard, and in our experience, hardness and sensitivity are incompatible.Its leaves are also thick, and there seems to be a waxy film on them, and as long as they are thick and have a protective film, we don't think it will be sensitive.If people are more modest, botany can also teach us some lessons.Ziwei gave a silent reminder to those who judge by appearances.It's just that people nowadays can't remember the experience of history and the lessons of reality, not to mention the overly implicit hints of plants.The flowers of crape myrtle are also very special. From the looks of it, clusters of tiny pieces are densely adorned on the branches. After careful identification, I can see that they are actually very large flowers. The calyx is split into six petals, and the corolla is also split into six petals. The petals are wrinkled, and it is these cracks and folds that create a visually fragmented effect, making people mistakenly think that the branches of crape myrtle are covered with countless finely fragmented flowers.In fact, there are only five or six flowers on the panicles that are more than ten or twenty centimeters long.If you don't believe it, you only need to go to the clusters of stamens with many yellow anthers in the breakdown to see clearly.

Yes, in July in Chengdu, the crape myrtle has just opened, and there is still some time before the full bloom. This year, it is rainy, there is no sunshine for several days, and the temperature is low, so the crape myrtle blooms come more slowly.That also means that crape myrtle will be with us for a longer time. But I couldn’t wait any longer. This afternoon, the sky cleared up briefly, and I didn’t bring a better camera with me. The flowers were blooming on high branches again. I took a few photos, but the results were not good, but I had to leave it at that. up.