Characteristics and functions of the sycamore tree (share the characteristics and spirit of the sycamore tree)

Late spring is the annual blooming season of tung trees.

In late spring, the white flowers wither and the purple flowers bloom. In the Central Plains region, tung flowers can be seen blooming everywhere. The trees are covered with tung flowers, white with purple, purple with white, fragrant and warm. So, is it the sycamore blossoms or the paulownia blossoms? Is sycamore flower equal to paulownia flower? What is the difference between paulownia and sycamore? Tung flowers have both natural properties and ornamental value. What literary and historical stories are there about them?

As spring is about to leave, we approach this tree full of tung flowers together.

Season

Tung flower is the flower of Qingming and late spring

The Qingming solar term has three periods: the first period is when the tung blossoms begin to bloom, the second period is when the field mice turn into slaves, The rainbow begins to appear in the third hour.

There are three flower messages during the Qingming Festival: the first is tung blossoms, the second is wheat flowers, and the third is willows.

Qingming is late spring. The white flowers fall, the red flowers fade, and the yellow flowers wither. However, the tung flowers bloom all over the trees, the purple flowers are like trumpets, and the trees smell sweet. In the city, either along the street or in the community, purple tung flowers bloom in mid-air. In the countryside, either by the river or in the village, the purple color of tung flowers accentuates the scenery.

Tung flower is also known as the flower of Qingming and the flower of late spring. This is especially obvious in Song poetry.

“When the tung blossoms are in full bloom, the rain will drizzle and the Qingming Festival will be washed away.” (Liu Yong’s "Magnolia Slowness") When the tung flowers bloom in full bloom, it will be the time when the rain will dredge up during the Qingming Festival.

"I live in the south of the Yangtze River, and the Qingming Cold Food Festival has passed, and every year, all the Erythrina flowers have fallen away, and the cold is powerless." (Xin Qiji's "Man Jiang Hong") The Qingming Cold Food Festival has passed, and in the Jiangnan area, the Erythrina flowers have fallen, The shallow cold of spring is no longer able to hold up, and the weather has officially warmed up.

"In the sound of cries, the spring light turns into a spring dream. Ask Dongjun, who is the poet? Send a poem to the light Luo fan, and the tung flowers are flying like a phoenix." (Jiang Jie's "Pink Butterfly") poet in the late Southern Song Dynasty Jiang Jie once wrote, "Flowing light easily throws people away. The cherries are red and the bananas are green." He also keenly observed that when the spring light turns into a dream and the spring disappears, the tung flowers are dazzling.

In fact, in the Tang Dynasty, it is an indisputable fact that tung flower was the flower of late spring. "Suddenly I saw the purple paulownia flowers and looked at me with regret. Tomorrow is the Qingming Festival." (Bai Juyi's "Hanshi Riverside") When "the grass is fragrant and the sand is warm", Bai Juyi misses Kyoto and his hometown. He looks at the purple paulownia trees full of trees and feels sad. From it, it cannot be cut off.”

Story

Tung flower is the flower of poetry and friendship

Tung flower has both natural and social attributes. During the mid-Tang Dynasty, two great poets from Henan sang to each other, giving the tung flower new connotation and improving its character.

The magic of the friendship between these two Henan poets, one is Bai Juyi and the other is Yuan Zhen, is that there seems to be telepathy.

There was a coincidence related to Tung Blossom. In 810 AD, Yuan Zhen was demoted to Jiangling Shicao and joined the army for criticizing powerful ministers and offending eunuchs. When he was demoted and on the way to his appointment, Yuan Zhen stayed at the Zengfeng Pavilion. Looking at the tung flowers inside and outside the pavilion, he thought of Bai Juyi. "The moonlight shines on the tung flowers, and the flowers in the desert are far away in the evening. I miss you. I miss you as thin as I am in the mountain pavilion, and the tung flowers fall all over the ground." The moonlight is weak, the tung flowers are silent, and it is difficult to fall asleep when I miss my friends.

At that time, Bai Juyi, who was in Chang'an, had a dream after parting with his friend Yuan Zhen. When he woke up, Yuan Zhen's letter also arrived. So, he gave a tung flower poem to his friend who was on the way to be demoted.

"Last night, the clouds dispersed, and the moonlight was the same for thousands of miles. I dreamed of you at dawn, and it must be you remembering me. I felt it was too late to tell you, and I knocked on the door and heard the sound of winter. I was the envoy of Shangzhou, and I sent you a letter. Feng Yun was writing this book at night, sitting alone in front of a solitary lamp in the Yangcheng Mountain Pavilion. The moon was slanting to the west, and under the moonlight, there was a purple paulownia tree. , Recovering and loving each other"

This is the magic of the friendship between the two.

Looking at all Tang poetry, many poets have written about tung flowers, but the tung flowers written by Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen are both numerous and good in terms of quantity and quality.

It is said that poets' wonderful pens give birth to flowers, and the pen tips of Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen gave birth to purple flowers of friendship.

Records

It is said that Phoenix only chooses Paulownia to live in the Wutong and not to see it as a Wutong

Regarding tung flowers, the poet Li Shangyin of the late Tang Dynasty wrote a poem, "Tonghua Wanlidan" On the mountain road, the sound of young phoenixes is clearer than that of old phoenixes." Du Fu also had a poem that said, "The fragrant rice pecks at the remaining parrot grains, and the green parasol perches on the old phoenix branches."

One of the allusions is taken from "The Book of Songs, Daya, Volume A", "The phoenix tree is growing, rising to the sun there. The phoenix is ??singing, rising to the high hill." It is said that the phoenix does not live in the phoenix tree, but rises to the sun. The phoenix trees are more luxuriant, and the phoenix especially likes to rest there, which is the meaning of this poem.

Jia Sixie of the Northern Wei Dynasty recorded the method of planting tung trees in "The Essentials of Qi Min, Volume 5". "Those with flowery but not real tung leaves are called Baitong. Those with real but green skin are called Wutong. According to modern people, they call it 'Qingtong' because of their green skin." He divided the tung tree into two types: Baitong and Qingtong. Among them, "the seeds of Qingtong are delicious when fried raw on the leaves. The taste is like water chestnuts, so it's okay to eat more." This shows that the seeds of Qingtong are actually edible.

And "Bai Tong has no seeds", the things that appear to be seeds on the tree in winter are actually the flower houses in the second spring. The paulownia tree "can be used as a musical instrument after it matures into a tree." The wood can be used for musical instruments, which is equivalent to today's paulownia tree.

In ancient my country, there were special writings about the tung tree. During the Qingli period of the Northern Song Dynasty, Chen Zhu, who was repeatedly frustrated in the examination room, nicknamed himself "Tongzhujun" because of his love for sycamore trees. He devoted himself to studying famous agricultural books such as "Essentials for Qi Min" and planted hundreds of tung trees and bamboos around the house to study their habits in order to realize his personal ambition to make a name for himself in the world.

After several years of creation, he wrote the book "Tongpu". This is the earliest monograph on Paulownia in my country. However, the fatal mistake of this book is that it mistakenly uses the literature materials about Wutong in the past dynasties as Paulownia materials. The paulownia tree he planted in Xishan, where he lived in seclusion, is the sycamore tree mentioned in the quoted information.

In fact, such mistakes still exist today. I believe that when you see the tung flowers blooming, everyone will blurt out, "The sycamore trees are blooming again." In fact, the purple-flowered paulownia trees seen in Zhengzhou are basically Paulownia trees.

Distinguishing

Paulownia and sycamore are from different families and genera

The difference between Paulownia and Qingtong is not only the literal "one-word difference" . Wutong, also known as Qingtong, is a deciduous tree of the genus Wutong in the family Sterculiaceae, with straight green branches. According to the "Flora of China", it is "produced in all provinces in the north and south of my country, from Hainan Island in Guangdong to North China. Most of them are artificially planted." Ornamental trees planted in gardens."

Paulownia is a deciduous tree of the Paulownia genus in the Scrophulariaceae family. Its flower colors are mainly lavender and white. Varieties of Paulownia include Paulownia Lankao, Paulownia tomentosa, Paulownia alba, Paulownia purpurea, Paulownia paulownia, and so on.

The difference between the two is more obvious in the leaf shape. Among them, the leaves of Wutong are heart-shaped, palm-shaped with 3 to 5 lobes, triangular lobes, apex acuminate, and heart-shaped base. The leaves of Paulownia are long ovate heart-shaped, sometimes ovoid heart-shaped, with a long acuminate or sharp tip at the top.

Paulownia trees are of high value

Although Chen Zhu, mentioned earlier, regarded the paulownia trees he planted as sycamore trees, the book "Tongpu" still has great value. . First, the tung trees are divided into purple tung trees and white tung trees, and the sycamore trees are distinguished from the paulownia trees. At the same time, the "Tung Pu" records different varieties of tung trees such as tung trees, tung trees, tung trees, tung trees, sycamore trees, and sycamore trees.

"Tongpu" points out the use value of the tung tree. "Tongpu: Utensil Use No. 7" records, "The wood of Tung trees is cut from time to time, but it does not suffer from borers; it is stained with moisture, but it does not rot; it is exposed to wind and sun, but it does not crack; rain splashes mud and silt, but it does not wither moss. "Both dryness and moisture, but its quality remains unchanged." Compared with other woods, tung wood is corrosion-resistant and not easily eaten by insects. In addition, the tung tree also has the characteristics of fast growth and soft material.

The common paulownia trees we see in late spring are quite ornamental. Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica·Mubu·Tong" records, "The tung flowers form a tube, so it is called tung. Its material is light and hollow, white in color and has stripes, so it is commonly called white tung or paulownia, and in ancient times it was called chair tung." .

The lovely person is the flower of paulownia.