Zigui cut azaleas in late spring to find flowers.

In late spring, it is a great pleasure for donkey friends to climb the Qinling Mountains to enjoy the cuckoo. Imagine what it's like to be in the sea of azaleas.

The native wild rhododendrons on the mountain live in the cold area of 2000-3000 meters, and the harsh natural conditions have created unique qualities. When it opens, it is unrestrained and unrestrained, which is incomparable to the azaleas in the garden.

Walking in the tall azalea forest, that kind of free and easy and calm is not enjoyed in the city.

The cuckoo against the blue sky in the sun is not only affectionate, but also clear and charming.

Rhododendrons are all in clusters, and the word "in full bloom" is the best portrayal.

Rhododendron has many kinds and different shapes. There are as many as 850 native species and thousands of artificial hybrid species. From low shrubs, small trees of more than ten meters to big trees of twenty or thirty meters high.

These are different varieties of rhododendron leaves, ranging from a few centimeters to 70 centimeters.

This is the largest rhododendron leaf, which can be called the largest rhododendron leaf.

This is the fruit of azalea.

Rhododendron has many names, including Rhododendron and Shan Shiliu, and there is also a kind called "mountain salamander", formerly known as "sheep salamander". Its flowers are golden and gorgeous, but they are poisonous. The sheep got its name because it hesitated when it was seen.

Rhododendron is a small deciduous tree in Shan Ye of Qinling Mountains. It is very cold in winter. In order to survive, it will roll up the leaves and hang them on the branches like a small bucket, which is very strange.

Millennium Rhododendron and Rhododendron King

In recent years, many scenic spots in China have claimed to have discovered the Millennium cuckoo; This is a so-called "thousand-year-old cuckoo king" on Wangshun Mountain in Lantian, Shaanxi. It looks like this. In order to attract tourists, scenic spots brag and talk big, that's all; There are also some experts and scholars who join in the fun and are busy with textual research and identification.

The story of the Millennium cuckoo is unreliable.

But the cuckoo king does exist; That's a native rhododendron variety. Eucalyptus grandis, rare in the world, grows in Gaoligong Mountain area of Yunnan, China. There are more than 40 rhododendrons in this community, and there are 12 plants in DBH 1 m. The largest one, with a basal diameter of 3.07 meters, a height of 28 meters, a crown of 6 1 square meter and a tree age of more than 500 years, is the largest tree rhododendron in the world today and is well-deserved as the "king of rhododendrons in the world".

Speaking of the cuckoo king, I have to talk about the following two people; One is English, George? One is Feng from China.

This is the Englishman George, known as the "plant hunter"? George Forrest. During the 28 years from 1904 to 1932, he came to China seven times, collected and introduced 250 kinds of native rhododendrons in Yunnan, China, and sent back 30,000 kinds of plant specimens and animal and plant specimens/kloc-0.0000 kinds to Britain. He died in China and was buried in China.

R.giganteum, known as the king of rhododendrons, was discovered in the virgin forest of Gaoligong Mountain in Tengchong, Yunnan Province when forest visited China for the fourth time in 19 19. The trunk plate of R. giganteum, the great ape he intercepted, is still on display in the British Museum.

19 19 One day, Forrest Gump and his party were collecting specimens in the virgin forest of Gaoligong Mountain when suddenly a tall tree caught his attention. According to his years of botanical knowledge, he concluded that this should be a kind of rhododendron. However, he has never heard of such a tall plant species. How can there be such a big cuckoo? Forrest is very excited. He quickly measured the big tree and found that the base diameter of the tree was 0.87 meters, the bust was 2.7 meters and the height of the tree was 25 meters! Forrest Gump immediately ordered the accompanying civilian worker to cut down the big tree. A few years later, this tree is 280 years old. Greedy, he not only picked the flowers and fruits of the cuckoo king, but also sawed off a disc tree specimen from the trunk and shipped it back to England.

1926, forest and Taji named it Rhododendron. "giganteum" means huge, and translated into Chinese, it is called "Big Tree Rhododendron". It was published as a new species in the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society of Edinburgh (J.Roy.Hort.SOC).

In this way, the world's rare species in China were discovered and named by a foreigner, and the trunk specimens were sent to the British Museum for exhibition.

This is a photo of forest and the local ethnic tour guides.

The exhibition of tree specimens of Rhododendron grandiflora and the publication of new species show the pride of the British empire and record the humiliation and suffering of the Chinese nation. Even more incredible is that; In the decades after the discovery of Rhododendron grandiflora, virtually no one in China knew the existence of this rare species. No one has seen it, let alone where it grows.

Feng, who loved rhododendrons all his life, secretly vowed in his heart from an early age: In his lifetime, he must find the national treasure of this motherland-this world-famous rhododendron.

Until the spring of 1980, 60 years later, Feng Cai, then director of Kunming Botanical Garden, personally led a team to Tengchong for three times, regardless of his age of 63. After all the hardships, I still have no clue. It is not the way to grope around in this endless forest. You have to find the workers who cut trees with Forrest Gump and find out the specific location before you can hope to find it. According to the interview, of the 16 civilian workers employed in that year, 15 have died, leaving only one surnamed Zhao, but Lao Zhao died a year ago. Fortunately, his wife is still here. With the bitter memories of the old woman, I remember hearing Lao Zhao say that there was a man named He in Lijiang who had been to Tengchong with Lao Zhao. Things finally have a glimmer of hope. If you find something, there is hope.

Feng finally found the Naxi old man, but an 80-year-old man. When he heard that he was looking for the big cuckoo, he was very excited: "Good! I've thought a lot. It is time to find it! It is the national treasure of China! In the past, foreign devils bullied us, which was Forrest Gump. How many things did he take from Gaoligong Mountain and Lijiang? It's all shipped to England. " The old man's memory is not bad, and he vaguely remembers that there are more than 30 people entering the mountain. This tree is so thick that it took a lot of effort to cut it down. The foreigner named Forrest is very happy. He usually looks down on us China people, but it was different then. He spoke Chinese for half his life and babbled a lot of English for a while. He looked at the sawed disc. It was very precious. The plate was covered with ointment, tied firmly, and ordered a man named Zhang to recite it specially. I walked out of the Woods for eight or nine days before I arrived in Tengchong, the county seat, and was finally sent back to England through Myanmar.

After many hardships, Feng and his comrades finally discovered a rare rhododendron community in the world on the mountainside of Gaoligong Mountain, north of Dahetou, Datang, in April 1982. They were relieved and fulfilled this sacred mission.

I believe that any China people will not feel comfortable when they see the following two photos; 19 19 recorded a scene when Forrest Gump found the cuckoo tree, he ordered the accompanying civilian workers to cut it down and saw off a section of the trunk. The photographer is forest himself, and he also made a documentary to record the process of cutting down and dumping trees.

The other is the specimen of Wang Shugan Rhododendron preserved in the British Museum. This is a true portrayal of the history of suffering and humiliation of the Chinese nation.

Because the wild living condition of Rhododendron grandiflora is worrying, IUCN ICUN has listed Rhododendron grandiflora on the Red List of 1998 critically endangered species.

Fortunately, China established Gaoligongshan National Nature Reserve in 1986, and was approved by UNESCO as a world biosphere reserve in 2000.

We wish the cuckoo king a prosperous life in this land under his feet, and Myanmar will never stop.