Botanical history of begonia flower

As early as the pre-Qin period, the history of begonia flower cultivation was recorded in ancient China. By the Han Dynasty, Begonia flowers had formed an indissoluble bond with garden art, and by the Tang Dynasty, both cultivation techniques and planting area had been significantly improved. In the Song Dynasty, the Begonia flower got greater development on the basis of the Tang Dynasty, and finally reached its peak. At that time, it was regarded as "the statue of a hundred flowers". In the Yuan Dynasty, the war and smoke continued, and many flowers were implicated, which stopped the prosperity of the Tang and Song Dynasties. But Haitang is different, it still maintains a long-term momentum. China people love Haitang so much because of its rich cultural connotation. People regard it as "the king of flowers", "the lady of flowers" and even "the fairy of flowers", and regard it as a symbol of beautiful spring, beautiful woman and good luck.

Begonia flower first appeared in the long history of China. What was recorded was not its ornamental value, but the edible value of Begonia flower was first valued by people: A poem in The Book of Songs Feng Wei Papaya said, "Vote for me with papaya, and repay me with Joan; Not to thank you, always cherish your feelings. Cast me with Mu Tao and repay me with Qiong Yao; Not to thank you, always cherish your feelings. Vote for me with Kiichigo and pay me back with Qiong Jiu; It is always good to report! "Papaya", "Mutao" and "Li Mu" in the poem are all begonia plants, which were often used as gifts for relatives and friends in ancient times.

By the Han Dynasty, Chinese flowering crabapple had entered the inner court of the palace, and it was recorded in Miscellanies of Xijing that Chinese flowering crabapple had entered Lin Yuan Palace. It turned out that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty built Alinyuan, so ministers presented precious flowers to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Among the many precious flowers presented by ministers, there are four kinds of begonia plants. These four begonias were deeply loved by Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, so they were planted in Lin Yuan, Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty. Sima Xiangru, a famous Chinese writer, once wrote Fu Lin, including Fu, Fu and Magnolia officinalis. According to later generations' careful textual research, it is found that "Fu" refers to China soft apple and small fruit apple, namely Haitang.

In the Jin Dynasty, the beautiful and enchanting begonia flowers were deeply loved by people. At that time, there was a garden in Luoyang called Jingu Garden, which was built by Shi Chong, the secretariat of Jingzhou at that time, and a lot of begonia were planted in the garden. According to historical records, Shi Chong loved Haitang very much, but it's a pity that most Haitang flowers and bears no fruit. He even sighed at the blooming begonia: "If you can smell it, you should keep it in a golden house", which shows that the ornamental value of begonia flowers has begun to be loved and valued by the people of Han and Jin Dynasties.

By the Tang Dynasty, the cultural development, planting range and even ornamental value of begonia had greatly improved and leaped. It is recorded in The Biography of Yang Taizhen that Li Longji, Emperor Taizong, once compared Haitang to Yang Guifei, indicating that there are many Haitang plants in the palace. The origin of the allusion of "Haitang Sleeping in Spring" is related to Tang Huang Ming and Yang Guifei. Song Shi Hui-Hong's "Cold Zhai Night Talk" records: Emperor Tang Ming boarded the Champs Elysé es and summoned Taizhen's concubine. He was getting drunk and ordered Gao Lishi to help him. The concubines are drunk and have residual makeup, and their temples are messy, so they can't worship anymore. The Ming emperor laughed and said, "Are all the concubines drunk? Straight begonia is not enough to sleep! " In this way, the story of "spring scenery of begonia" has been handed down, and begonia has also had the meaning of beauty since then. During Zhenyuan period in Tang Dezong, Jia Dan was the prime minister, and compiled a book "Hundred Flowers", praising Haitang as a "fairy among flowers". This book is the first work using the title of Haitang. It is also mentioned in the book that "Haitang has no fragrance, Sichuan historians have fragrance, and their trees embrace each other", and "People who live alone in southern Beijing have fragrance, so Changzhou Haitang has fragrance". Since then, the status and reputation of Begonia as an ornamental plant have become increasingly prominent. Jia Dao, a great poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem entitled "Begonia", which is a quatrain of "I once heard tourists say that there are ten million flowers in Jinjiang", praising the begonia flowers on both sides of Jinjiang in Chengdu.

After the Five Dynasties, Meng Fang of Shu sealed the prince of Yan in Shu and planted begonia in the palace of Yan. When Lu You, a poet in the Southern Song Dynasty, was appointed as an Anfu envoy of Chengdu Prefecture, he wrote a poem "Looking at the screen painting of Haitang in the posthouse", including "Haitang opened in Chengdu in February, and the city is a beautiful street; The phrase "the most prosperous sea of flowers in Yan Palace" is a praise for the lush begonia in Chengdu, with Yan Palace being the most prosperous and having the reputation of "the sea of flowers". There was a man in the Tang Dynasty who served as the Qiantang Order. His name is Luo Yin, and Xianchun, a poet in the Southern Song Dynasty, called him Luojiangdong. Luo Yin personally planted begonia flowers in the county, and Wang Yucheng, a poet in the Northern Song Dynasty, wrote a poem entitled "Begonia planted by hand in Luojiang East, Qiantang County". There are such words in the poem: "The ruins of Jiangdong are in Qiantang, and the flowers planted by hand are full of county fragrance; If we put that year in a prominent position, today's Haitang is Gan Tang's praise. With the passage of time, the Begonia plants planted in the Tang Dynasty have long since disappeared in the long river of history, but the varieties, planting techniques and love for Begonia will continue to be passed down.

In the Song Dynasty, although the status, literary achievements and cultivation techniques of Begonia as an ornamental plant became increasingly prominent in the Tang Dynasty, Begonia flowers only reached their peak in the Song Dynasty, and books about Begonia emerged one after another in the Song Dynasty, among which the most representative and influential were Begonia Record and Begonia Spectrum. During the Song Dynasty in China, Haitang was not only loved by people, but also by the Emperor of the Song Dynasty. No matter Song Taizong, Song Zhenzong or Song Guangzong, there are many poems praising Haitang, and the reputation of Haitang has increased, and more people like it. Shen Li was a writer in the Northern Song Dynasty. He recorded in the Story of Begonia: "After tasting the flowers in the backyard of Zhenzong Sect, taking Begonia as the first chapter and singing for the modern ministers, we will know that Begonia is enough to compete with peony and stand alone in Xizhou." From the above records, it is not difficult to see that in the Song Dynasty, it has already shown the style of "the respect of flowers". The book Haitang also records the cultivation of Haitang. "Today, there are plants in Shi Jing and Jianghuai, each of which is more than tens of gold, and the famous landscape garden is the best." This tells us that at that time, the cultivation area of Begonia was very extensive and was deeply loved and valued by people. It can be seen that the price of a begonia at that time was not less than ten gold. At the end of the Song Dynasty in Song Huizong, officials from all over the country presented rare treasures to the imperial court, including many kinds of precious flowers. Therefore, Song Huizong ordered the construction of a royal garden in Kaifeng and named it "Genyue". All the plants in the garden were begonia, so the scenic spot at that time was called "Begonia River". Have a comprehensive understanding of the characteristics and habits of begonia in Song Dynasty. Shen Li's Begonia Collection also records the morphological characteristics and planting techniques of Begonia. "There are many kinds of pears, and the nucleus grows late. It takes more than ten years to have flowers, and flower pickers attach pears with twigs, which is easy to grow. Suitable for planting in soil and paste-rich land. Its roots are yellow and vigorous, solid and knotty, with white and red outside and soft and smooth branches; Its leaves are thick, the big one is light green, and the small one is lavender; Its red flowers are five. At first, they are as red as rouge. When they bloom, they gradually fade, and when they fall, they turn pale. Its pedicel is more than an inch long and purplish, and it is a cluster between leaves or between three calyx and five calyx; Its kernel is like a golden millet, with three whiskers like purple silk; Its Qing Xiang is cool, not blue or musk; In fact, it looks like a pear, as big as a cherry. It is sweet and slightly sour when eaten in autumn. This is probably the same. " From this, we can easily see that people had a deep understanding of the characteristics and habits of Begonia at that time.

At the end of the Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, the war continued, and the whole country was more or less hit by the war. However, Haitang seems to be out of touch and has not been affected at all. Haitang is still prosperous, Haitang is still deeply loved by people in the Yuan Dynasty, and its planting enthusiasm is not diminished. The cultivation of begonia in Sichuan is famous all over the country. Kong Er, a writer in Ming Dynasty, wrote "On Jiao Yunting", in which there was a passage describing that "Ming was in Sichuan at the end of Yuan Dynasty, and his son Ming Sheng baked begonia flower tea in front of Feixiang Pavilion in Dazu County, and the tea was very mellow." This shows that begonia cultivation in Dazu, Sichuan Province still flourished in the Yuan Dynasty. Not only Sichuan, but also Xinzhou, Jiangxi, is famous for planting begonia. There was a famous painter named Gao in Yuan Dynasty. He was not only good at painting, but also good at writing poems. In his poem "Crossing Xinzhou", there is a beautiful sentence of "beautiful mountains and rivers are 2000 miles, and there are countless official roads of begonia". The poem wrote that countless begonia were planted on both sides of NSW official road. In the poem "He Liu Shuo Zhai Haitang" written by Mou Miao, a poet in the Yuan Dynasty, there is a poem "Li Jing declares her old dreams and Hangzhou will feel new worries", which praises the Haitang in Hangzhou. Chen Pu, a writer in Yuan Dynasty, wrote a poem entitled "Haitang all the way between Taining Road in Shaowu", describing the scene of planting Haitang along Shaowu Road in Fujian.

Begonia in the Ming Dynasty spread all over the country in the Ming Dynasty, which can be described as ubiquitous. Gardens, roads, courtyards and temples all have the footprints of begonia. During the Wanli period of Ming Dynasty, Wang Shizhen, a literary leader, built a "Garden in the Mountain" in Taicang, Jiangsu Province, and named it the residence of immortals. There are many kinds of begonia in the garden, which are described as the scenery in the Story of the Mountain Garden: north of the mountain hall, there are two begonia and two pears, but there are more than two arches, and the flowers are enchanting and flattering. ..... Every spring, I sit under two kinds of pond trees and get drunk without drinking. The leisure beach is "weeping willows, plum blossoms and shutang under the shade". In the Ming Dynasty, the cultivation of begonia flourished. The most famous places in Beijing are Guobao Temple and Gong Wei Temple in the city. There is a poem to prove it: "the national security temple in the southwest of Fengcheng, with two beautiful begonia trees", "Yanjing is the most expensive flower, and Weici is the second". In Ji Zhi, Bird in the early Qing Dynasty recorded: "There were many begonia in the capital, starting with two plants in Guifu, Zhong Zhang, east of the Bell and Drum Tower, and the Gong Wei Temple outside You 'anmen in the Qianlong (Qing) period of Jia (Jing), which was planted in the government for thousands of years. The poem of Zhongyun Daxiang in Gaoming District, "Solving the edge of Haitang Imperial Garden, making noise when opening" is also true.

In the Qing Dynasty, the cultivation of begonia still maintained a long-term momentum, but the cultivation of begonia was still very prosperous. Zhang Weichi, a scholar of Shunzhi in Qing Dynasty and a native of Haiyan, Zhejiang Province, went to the official residence to build a private garden "involved in the garden". Ye Xie's "involved in the garden" recorded that there were six or seven begonia plants in the garden, which swayed for more than a hundred years. During the reign of Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty, Yuan Mei, the leader of literary circles in the south of the Yangtze River, built a private garden "Suiyuan" in Xiaocang Mountain, Jinling, where many Chinese flowering crabapples were planted. Sun's "Garden Map" describes: "There are two begonia plants outside the Xifu corridor, which bloom like the sky and hang down in front of the window." At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Hu Enxie built a private garden "Yu Garden" in Nanjing, commonly known as "Garden". In the Qing Dynasty, Deng Jia praised the begonia in the Yuyuan Garden as "weaving bamboo as a hedge, eight or nine begonia, and when it blooms, it is' spring sleep'." Begonia is widely planted in private gardens in Suzhou, Yangzhou and other places. Suzhou Huanxiu Villa Garden has a "Haitang Pavilion" scenic spot.

After the demise of the Ming Dynasty, begonia cultivation in Beijing in the Qing Dynasty still flourished. According to Shuntian Mansion Records of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty, the begonia in Ciren Temple has declined, while Fayuan Temple outside Xizhimen is thriving, with an endless stream of tourists. The pavilion is called "Guoxiangtang". From the last years of Qianlong to Jiaqing, the Haitang in Fayuan Temple was still famous, and Hong, edited by the Hanlin Academy, praised the poem "The Haitang in Fayuan Temple is famous, and there are countless cloves in the temple". In the Qing Dynasty, Gokurakuji's Haitang was also very famous, and many scholars praised it. Representative works include Zhong Mu, Tong Runchen, who went to Gokurakuji to meet Haitang because of his visit to Wanjushi, Shen Jia went directly out of Xizhimen to Gokurakuji on a Buddhist bath day, and the first reception of Gokurakuji Haitang. In addition, begonia is also planted in the royal gardens of the Summer Palace and the Imperial Palace, as well as in the West Flower Hall of Zhongnanhai.

After entering modern times, begonia, as a traditional flower and tree, has been widely planted. Parks, institutions, schools, factories and scenic spots can see its beauty. Begonia can be seen everywhere in China, and it is often planted by lakes, streams and watersides. It's really poetic and refreshing to "catch a hundred paces with colorful English". In residential areas, the figure of begonia flowers often appears in front of the building or behind the building, along the fence and in the corner of the courtyard. Some are planted in pairs, while others are planted in clusters. There are thousands of Xifu begonia and 100 drooping begonia in Tong Yuan Park in Kunming, the spring city, which is known as the "flower tide". When spring comes every year, there are thousands of Xifu begonia on both sides of the road, and the sun is almost covered with flowers. More than 0/00 plants of Malus pendula/KLOC-have been planted for more than 200 meters, which is like building a long arched corridor. Flourishing foliage, fighting for the exotic, blooming flowers, singing and dancing, dazzling, like a cloud.

Begonia flowers have always been loved by people in China, and they are widely used in plant landscaping, whether in classical gardens or public green spaces. Begonia flowers not only bring people visual and spiritual enjoyment, but also bring economic benefits. The extensive cultivation and research of begonia flowers in many parts of China have created huge economic wealth for many flower farmers.